Echo Burning

she made some kind of a mental connection and launched herself into Sloop’s embrace. He whirled her up into the air and hugged her. Kissed her cheek. Danced her around and around in a circle. Carmen made a small sound in her throat and looked away.
    Sloop set Ellie down on the ground and looked up into the porch and smiled triumphantly. Behind him Bobby was talking to his mother and Hack Walker. They were huddled together behind the car. Sloop was holding out his hand, beckoning to his wife. She backed away from the porch rail, deep into the shadow.
    “Maybe you should talk to him after all,” she whispered.
    “Make your mind up,” Reacher whispered back.
    “Let me see how it goes,” she said.
    She took a deep breath and forced a smile and skipped down the steps. Took Sloop’s hands and folded herself into his arms. They kissed, long enough that nobody would think they were brother and sister, but not long enough that anybody would think there was real passion there. Behind the car Bobby and his mother had detached themselves from Hack and were walking around the hood and heading for the porch. Bobby had a worried look on his face and Rusty was fanning herself with her hand and looking hard in Reacher’s direction, all the way up the steps.
    “I hear Bobby invited you to lunch,” she said quietly, at the top.
    “Very gracious of him,” Reacher said.
    “Yes, it was. Very gracious. But it’s going to be a purely family thing today.”
    “Is it?” Reacher said.
    “Not even Hack is staying,” she added, like it was final proof of something.
    Reacher said nothing.
    “So I’m sorry,” she said. “But the maid will bring yourmeals down to the bunkhouse, in the usual way. You boys can get together again tomorrow.”
    Reacher was silent for a long moment. Then he nodded.
    “O.K.,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
    Rusty smiled and Bobby avoided his eye. They walked into the house and Reacher went down the steps into the yard, out into the midday heat. It was like a furnace. Hack Walker was on his own next to the Lincoln, getting ready to leave.
    “Hot enough for you?” he asked, with his politician’s smile.
    “I’ll survive,” Reacher said.
    “Going to be a storm.”
    “So people say.”
    Walker nodded. “Reacher, right?”
    Reacher nodded. “So everything went O.K. in Abilene, I guess.”
    “Like clockwork,” Hack said. “But I’m tired, believe me. Texas is a big, big place. You can forget that, sometimes. You can drive forever. So I’m leaving these folks to their celebrations and hitting the rack. Gratefully, let me tell you.”
    Reacher nodded again. “So I’ll see you around, maybe.”
    “Don’t forget to vote in November,” Hack replied. “For me, preferably.”
    He used the same bashful expression he had used the night before. Then he paused at the car door and waved across the roof to Sloop. Sloop made a gun with his fingers and leveled it at Hack and pursed his lips like he was supplying the sound of the shot. Hack slid into the car and fired it up and backed into a turn and headed for the gate. He paused a second and made a right and accelerated away and a moment later Reacher was watching a new cone of dust drifting north along the road.
    Then he turned back and saw Sloop strolling up across the yard, holding Ellie’s hand in his right and Carmen’s in his left. His eyes were screwed tight against the sun. Carmen was saying nothing and Ellie was saying a lot. They all walked straight past him and up the steps, three abreast. They paused at the door and Sloop turned his right shoulder to allow Elliein ahead of him. He followed her across the threshold and then turned his shoulder the other way to pull Carmen in after him. The door closed on them hard enough to raise a puff of hot dust off the porch floorboards.

    Reacher saw nobody except the maid for nearly three hours. He stayed inside the bunkhouse and she brought him lunch and then came back to collect the plate an hour later. Time to time he would watch the house from the high bathroom window, but it was closed up tight and he saw nothing at all. Then late in the afternoon he heard voices behind the horse barn and walked up there and found Sloop and Carmen and Ellie out and about, taking the air. It was still very hot. Maybe hotter than ever. Sloop looked restless. He was sweating. He was scuffing his shoes through the dirt. Carmen looked very nervous. Her face was slightly red. Maybe tension,