Echo Burning

stranger was.
    “What’s going on?” Rusty asked.
    “This guy says Josh and Billy quit on us,” Bobby said.
    “They wouldn’t do that,” Rusty said. “Why would they do that?”
    The guy in the suit was looming forward, like he expected to be introduced.
    “Did they give a reason?” Rusty asked.
    The sheriff was looking straight at Reacher, nothing in his face. Reacher made no reply. Just stood there, waiting.
    “Well, I’m Hack Walker,” the guy in the suit said, in a big honest voice, holding out his hand. “I’m the DA up in Pecos, and I’m a friend of the family.”
    “Sloop’s oldest friend,” Rusty said, absently.
    Reacher nodded and took the guy’s hand.
    “Jack Reacher,” he said. “I work here.”
    The guy held on to his hand in both of his own and beamed a subtle little smile that was partly genuine, partly you-know-how-it-is ironic. A perfect politician’s smile.
    “You registered to vote here yet?” he asked. “Because if so, I just want to point out I’m running for judge in November, and I’d surely like to count on your support.”
    Then he started up with a self-deprecating chuckle, a man secure among friends, amused about how the demands of democracy can intrude on good manners. You know how it is . Reacher took his hand back and nodded without speaking.
    “Hack’s worked so hard for us,” Rusty said. “And now he’s brought us the most delightful news.”
    “Al Eugene showed up?” Reacher asked.
    “No, not yet,” Rusty said. “Something else entirely.”
    “And nothing to do with the election,” Hack said. “You folks all understand that, don’t you? I agree, November time makes us want to do something for everybody, but you know I’d have done this for you anyhow.”
    “And you know we’d all vote for you anyhow, Hack,” Rusty said.
    Then everybody started beaming at everybody else. Reacher glanced beyond them at Carmen standing alone in the foyer. She wasn’t beaming.
    “You’re getting Sloop out early,” he said. “Tomorrow, I guess.”
    Hack Walker ducked his head, like Reacher had offered him a compliment.
    “That’s for sure,” he said. “All along they claimed they couldn’t do administration on the weekend, but I managed to change their minds. They said it would be the first Sunday release in the history of the system, but I just said hey, there’s a first time for everything.”
    “Hack’s going to drive us up there,” Rusty said. “We’re leaving soon. We’re going to drive all night.”
    “We’re going to be waiting on the sidewalk,” Hack said. “Right outside the prison gate, seven o’clock in the morning. Old Sloop’s going to get a big welcome.”
    “You all going?” Reacher asked.
    “I’m not,” Carmen said.
    She had come out onto the porch, quietly, like a wraith. She was standing with her feet together, both hands on the railing, leaning forward from the waist, elbows locked, staring north at the black horizon.
    “I have to stay and see to Ellie,” she said.
    “Plenty of room in the car,” Hack said. “Ellie can come too.”
    Carmen shook her head. “I don’t want her to see her father walking out of a prison door.”
    “Well, please yourself,” Rusty said. “He’s only your husband, after all.”
    Carmen made no reply. Just shivered slightly, like the night air was thirty degrees instead of ninety.
    “Then I guess I’ll stay too,” Bobby said. “Keep an eye on things. Sloop will understand.”
    Reacher glanced at him. Carmen turned abruptly and walked back into the house. Rusty and Hack Walker drifted after her. The sheriff and Bobby stayed on the porch, each taking a half-step toward the other, to put a subliminal human barrier between Reacher and the door.
    “So why did they quit?” Bobby asked.
    Reacher glanced at them both and shrugged.
    “Well, they didn’t exactly quit,” he said. “I was trying to sugar the pill, for the family, was all. Truth is we were in a bar, and they picked a fight with some guy. You saw us in the bar, right, Sheriff?”
    The sheriff nodded, cautiously.
    “It was after you left,” Reacher said. “They picked a fight and lost.”
    “Who with?” Bobby asked. “What guy?”
    “The wrong guy.”
    “But who was he?”
    “Some big guy,” Reacher said. “He smacked them around for a minute or two. I think somebody called the ambulance for them. They’re probably in the hospital now. Maybe they’re dead, for all I know. They lost, and they lost real