Echo Burning

was. I expect they all were. They got plenty of practice. They did it twenty-five times in a year.”
    “That was the border patrol,” Bobby said.
    “No, it wasn’t. The report wasn’t a whitewash. It didn’t read like one, and the inside word is it was kosher. Sergeant Rodríguez told me that. And people like Sergeant Rodríguez know things like that, believe me. The investigation got nowhere because it was looking in the wrong place. It wasn’t a bunch of rogue officers. It was three local boys called Sloop Greer and Al Eugene and Hack Walker. Having fun in that old pick-up truck that’s still parked in your barn. Boys will be boys, right?”
    Silence in the room.
    “The attacks were mostly in Echo County,” Reacher said. “That struck me as odd. Why would the border patrol come so far north? Truth is, they didn’t. Three Echo boys went a little ways south instead.”
    Silence.
    “The attacks stopped in late August,” Reacher said. “Whywas that? Not because the investigation scared them off. They didn’t know about the investigation. It was because college opens early September. They went off to be freshmen. The next summer it was too dangerous or they’d grown out of it, and they didn’t ever do it again. The whole thing faded into history, until twelve years later Sloop was sitting in a cell somewhere and dragged it all up because he was so desperate to get out.”
    Everybody was staring straight at Walker. His eyes were closed tight and he was deathly pale.
    “It seemed so unfair, right?” Reacher said to him. “All that was way in the past. Maybe you weren’t even a willing participant in the first place. Maybe the others dragged you into it. And now it was all coming back at you. It was a nightmare. It was going to ruin your life. It was going to take away the big prize. So you made some calls. Made some decisions. Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
    Another candle died. The wick hissed and smoke plumed.
    “No,” Walker said. “It wasn’t like that.”
    The lantern flickered behind him. Shadows danced on the ceiling.
    “So what was it like?” Reacher asked.
    “I was just going to take Ellie. Just temporarily. I hired some local people to do it. I had plenty of campaign money. They watched her for a week. I went up to the jail and told Sloop, don’t mess with me. But he didn’t care. He said, go ahead and take Ellie. He didn’t want her. He was all conflicted. He married Carmen to punish himself for what we did, I think. That’s why he hit her all the time. She was a permanent reminder. He thought she could read it in him. See it in his eyes. Like voodoo. Ellie, too. He thought she could see it in him. So taking her wasn’t a threat to Sloop.”
    “So then you hired some more people.”
    Walker nodded. “They took over and got rid of the watchers for me.”
    “And then they got rid of Al and Sloop.”
    “It was a long time ago, Reacher. He shouldn’t have brought it up. We were kids at the time. We all agreed we would never even mention it again. We promised each other.Never, ever . It was the unmentionable thing. Like it had never happened. Like it was just a bad dream, a year long.”
    There was silence.
    “You were driving the truck tonight,” Reacher said.
    Walker nodded again, slowly. “You two, then it would have been over. I knew you knew, you see. I mean, why else would you steal the files and lead us out into the desert? So I drove the truck. Why not? I’d driven out there at night before, many times.”
    Then he went quiet. Swallowed hard, twice. Closed his eyes.
    “But I got scared,” he said. “I got sick. I couldn’t go through with it. Not again. I’m not that person anymore. I changed.”
    Silence in the room.
    “Where’s Ellie?” Reacher asked.
    Walker shrugged and shook his head. Reacher fished in his pocket and came out with the chromium star.
    “Is this thing legal?” he asked.
    Walker opened his eyes. Nodded.
    “Technically, I guess,” he said.
    “So I’m going to arrest you.”
    Walker shook his head, vaguely.
    “No,” he said. “Please.”
    “Are you armed?” Reacher asked him.
    Walker nodded. “Pistol, in my pocket.”
    “Get it for me, Mrs. Greer,” Reacher said.
    Rusty turned in her chair and went for Walker’s pocket. He offered no resistance. Even leaned sideways to make it easier for her. She came out with a small blued-steel revolver. A Colt Detective Special, .38 caliber, six shots, two-inch