Echo Burning

“Getting hit?”
    “Feel like?” she repeated.
    “Physically,” he said.
    She looked away. Thought about it.
    “Depends where,” she said.
    He nodded. She knew it felt different in different places.
    “The stomach,” he said.
    “I threw up a lot,” she said. “I was worried, because there was blood.”
    He nodded again. She knew what it felt like to be hit in the stomach.
    “I swear it’s true,” she said. “Five whole years. Why would I make it up?”
    “So what happened?” he said. “Why did he stop?”
    She paused, like she was aware people might be looking at her. Reacher glanced up, and saw heads turn away. The cook, the waitress, the two guys at the distant tables. The cook and the waitress were faster about it than the two guys chose to be. There was hostility in their faces.
    “Can we go now?” she asked. “We need to get back. It’s a long drive.”
    “I’m coming with you?”
    “That’s the whole point,” she said.
    He glanced away again, out of the window.
    “Please, Reacher,” she said. “At least hear the rest of the story, and then decide. I can let you out in Pecos, if you won’t come all the way to Echo. You can see the museum. You can see Clay Allison’s grave.”
    He watched the bar of shadow touch the Cadillac’s windshield. The interior would be like a furnace by now.
    “You should see it anyway,” she said. “If you’re exploring Texas.”
    “O.K.,” he said.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    He made no reply.
    “Wait for me,” she said. “I need to go to the bathroom. It’s a long drive.”
    She slid out of the booth with uninjured grace and walked the length of the room, head down, looking neither left nor right. The two guys at the tables watched her until she was almost past them and then switched their blank gazes straight back to Reacher. He ignored them and turned the check over and dumped small change from his pocket on top of it, exact amount, no tip. He figured a waitress who didn’t talk didn’t want one. He slid out of the booth and walked to the door. The two guys watched him all the way. He stood in front of the glass and looked out beyond the parking lot. Watched the flat land bake under the sun for a minute or two until he heard her footsteps behind him. Her hair was combed and she had done something with her lipstick.
    “I guess I’ll use the bathroom too,” he said.
    She glanced right, halfway between the two guys.
    “Wait until I’m in the car,” she said. “I don’t want to be left alone in here. I shouldn’t have come in here in the first place.”
    She pushed out through the doors and he watched her to the car. She got in and he saw it shudder as she started the engine to run the air. He turned and walked back to the men’s room. It was a fair-sized space, two porcelain urinals and one toilet cubicle. A chipped sink with a cold water faucet. A fat roll of paper towels sitting on top of the machine it should have been installed in. Not the cleanest facility he had ever seen.
    He unzipped and used the left-hand urinal. Heard footsteps outside the door and glanced up at the chromium valve that fed the flush pipes. It was dirty, but it was rounded and it reflected what was behind him like a tiny security mirror. He saw the door open and a man step inside. He saw the door close again and the man settle back against it. He was one of the customers. Presumably one of the pick-up drivers. The chromium valve distorted the view, but the guy’s head was nearly to the top of the door. Not a small person. And he was fiddling blindly behind his back. Reacher heard the click of the door lock. Then the guy shifted again and hung his hands loose by his sides. He was wearing a black T-shirt. There was writing on it, but Reacher couldn’t read it backward. Some kind of an insignia. Maybe an oil company.
    “You new around here?” the guy asked.
    Reacher made no reply. Just watched the reflection.
    “I asked you a question,” the guy said.
    Reacher ignored him.
    “I’m talking to you,” the guy said.
    “Well, that’s a big mistake,” Reacher said. “All you know, I might be a polite type of person. I might feel obligated to turn around and listen, whereupon I’d be pissing all over your shoes.”
    The guy shuffled slightly, caught out. Clearly he had some kind of set speech prepared, which was what Reacher had been counting on. A little improvised interruption might slow him down some. Maybe enough to get zipped up and decent. The