Echo Burning

didn’t, really . It was like you knew the real truth and were reluctantly exposing commonplace lies she had told before. But it was you who was lying. All along. It was very, very effective. Like a conjuring trick. And you dressed it all up behind pretending you wanted to save her. You fooled me for a long time.”
    “I did want to save her. I am saving her.”
    “Bullshit, Hack. Your only aim all along was to coerce a confession out of her for something she didn’t do. It was a straightforward plan. Your hired guns kidnapped Ellie today so you could force Carmen to confess. I was your only problem. I stuck around, I recruited Alice. We were in your face from Monday morning onward. So you misled us for twenty-seven straight hours. You let us down slowly and regretfully, point by point. It was beautifully done. Well, almost. To really make it work, you’d have to be the best con artist in the world. And like old Copernicus says, what are the odds that the best con artist in the world would happen to be up there in Pecos?”
    There was silence. Just sputtering wax, the hissing of the lantern, five people breathing. The old air conditioner wasn’t running. No power.
    “You’re crazy,” Walker said.
    “No, I’m not. You decoyed me by being all regretful about what a liar Carmen was and how desperate you were to save her. You were even smart enough to reveal a cynical reason for wanting to save her. About wanting to be a judge, so I wouldn’t think you were too good to be true. That was a great touch, Hack. But all the time you were talking to her on the phone, muffling your voice to get past the desk clerk, telling him you were her lawyer, telling her if she ever spoke to a real lawyer, you’d hurt Ellie. Which is why she refused to speak with Alice. Then you wrote out a bunch of phony financial statements on your own computer right there at your desk. One printout looks much the same as any other. And you drafted the phony trust deeds. And the phony FamilyServices papers. You knew what real ones looked like, I guess. Then as soon as you heard your people had picked up the kid you got back on the phone and coached Carmen through the phony confession, feeding back to her all the lies you’d told to me . Then you sent your assistant downstairs to listen to them.”
    “This is nonsense.”
    Reacher shrugged. “So let’s prove it. Let’s call the FBI and ask them how the hunt for Ellie is going.”
    “Phones are out,” Bobby said. “Electrical storm.”
    Reacher nodded. “O.K., no problem.”
    He kept the gun pointed at Walker’s chest and turned to face Rusty.
    “Tell me what the FBI agents asked you,” he said.
    Rusty looked blank. “What FBI agents?”
    “No FBI agents came here tonight?”
    She just shook her head. Reacher nodded.
    “You were playacting, Hack,” he said. “You told us you’d called the FBI and the state police, and there were roadblocks in place, and helicopters up, and more than a hundred fifty people on the ground. But you didn’t call anybody. Because if you had, the very first thing they would have done is come down here. They’d have talked to Rusty for hours. They’d have brought sketch artists and crime scene technicians. This is the scene of the crime, after all. And Rusty is the only witness.”
    “You’re wrong, Reacher,” Walker said.
    “There were FBI people here,” Bobby said. “I saw them in the yard.”
    Reacher shook his head.
    “There were people wearing FBI hats,” he said. “Two of them. But they aren’t wearing those hats anymore.”
    Walker said nothing.
    “Big mistake, Hack,” Reacher said. “Giving us those stupid badges and sending us down here. You’re in law enforcement. You knew Rusty was the vital witness. You also knew she wouldn’t cooperate fully with me. So it was an inexplicable decision for a DA to take, to send us down here. I couldn’t believe it. Then I saw why. You wanted us out of theway. And you wanted to know where we were, at all times. So you could send your people after us.”
    “What people?”
    “The hired guns, Hack. The people in the FBI hats. The people you sent to kill Al Eugene. The people you sent to kill Sloop. They were pretty good. Very professional. But the thing with professionals is, they need to be able to work again in the future. Al Eugene was no problem. Could have been anybody, out there in the middle of nowhere. But Sloop was harder. He was just home from prison, wasn’t going anyplace