Jack Reacher 01 - Killing Floor

Roscoe’s place. Stopped on her drive. We stumbled into the house. Dragged a chest of drawers down the hallway and shoved it up against the splintered door. Sealed ourselves off from the world.

34
    IT DIDN’T WORK OUT FOR ROSCOE AND ME. IT NEVER REALLY stood a chance. There were too many problems. It lasted a hair over twenty-four hours, and then it was over. I was back on the road.
    It was five o’clock Sunday morning when we hauled that chest of drawers over and shoved it up against the broken door. We were both exhausted. But the adrenaline was still boiling through us. So we couldn’t sleep. Instead, we talked. And the more we talked, the worse it got.
    Roscoe had been a prisoner the best part of sixty-four hours. She hadn’t been mistreated. She told me they hadn’t touched her. She’d been terrified, but they’d just worked her like a slave. Thursday, Picard had driven her off in his car. I had watched them go. I’d waved them off. She’d updated him with our progress. A mile up the county road, he’d pulled his gun on her. Disarmed her, handcuffed her, driven her up to the warehouse. He’d driven right in through the roller door and she’d been put straight to work with Charlie Hubble. The two of them had been in there working the whole time I’d been sitting under the highway, watching the place. Roscoe herself had unloaded the red truck the Kliner kid had brought in. Then I’d followed it out to that truck stop near Memphis and wondered why the hell it was empty.
    Charlie Hubble had been in there working five and a half days. Since Monday evening. Kliner had already started panicking by then. The Coast Guard retreat was coming too soon for him. He knew he had to work fast to clear the stockpile. So Picard had brought the Hubbles straight to the warehouse. Kliner had made the hostages work. They’d slept just a few hours a night, lying down on the dune of dollars, handcuffed to the bottom of the office stairs.
    Saturday morning, when his son and the two gatemen hadn’t come back, Kliner had gone crazy. Now he had no staff at all. So he worked the hostages around the clock. They didn’t sleep at all Saturday night. Just plowed on with the hopeless task of trying to box up the huge pile. They were falling further and further behind. Every time an incoming truck spilled a new load out on the warehouse floor, Kliner had become more and more frantic.
    So Roscoe had been a slave the best part of three days. In fear for her life, in danger, exhausted and humiliated for three long days. And it was my fault. I told her that. The more I told her, the more she said she didn’t blame me. It was my fault, I was saying. It wasn’t your fault, she was saying. I’m sorry, I was saying. Don’t be, she was telling me.
    We listened to each other. We accepted what was being said. But I still thought it was my fault. Wasn’t a hundred percent sure she didn’t think so, too. Despite what she was saying. We didn’t fall out about it. But it was the first faint sign of a problem between us.
    We showered together in her tiny stall. Stayed in there the best part of an hour. We were soaping off the stink of the money and the sweat and the fire. And we were still talking. I was telling her about Friday night. The ambush in the storm up at Hubble’s place. I told her all about it. I told her about the bags with the knives and the hammer and the nails. I told her what I’d done to the five of them. I thought she’d be happy about it.
    And that was the second problem. Not a big deal as we stood there with the hot water beating down on us. But I heard something in her voice. Just a tiny tremor. Not shock or disapproval. Just a hint of a question. That maybe I had gone too far. I could hear it in her voice.
    I felt somehow I’d done it all for her and Joe. I hadn’t done it because I had wanted to do it. It was Joe’s business and it was her town and these were her people. I’d done it because I’d seen her trying to melt into her kitchen wall, crying like her heart was breaking. I’d done it for Joe and Molly. At the same time as feeling I needed no justification at all, I had been justifying it to myself like that.
    It didn’t feel like a problem at the time. The shower loosened us up. Steamed some glow back into us. We went to bed. Left the drapes open. It was a glorious day. The sun was up in a bright blue sky and the air looked fresh and clean. It looked like it should look. Like a new day.
    We made