Never Go Back

instead of left, and he found an identical elbow, like a mirror image. The same kind of zoning, and the same kinds of issues. And then the main drag again, still Vineland, but a further quarter mile south. Which made the neighbourhood not quite a rectangle. It was taller on the right than the left. Like a pennant. Some way above its top right corner was the freeway, and then the law office, and some way below its bottom right corner was an old coach diner, all lit up and shiny.
    Reacher knew which way he would walk.
    He went back to the blue door, which stayed closed.
    It stayed closed until a minute before eight o’clock. And then it opened, and she came out again, just the same as before. Same long-limbed stride, almost graceful, same hair, same shirt, same jacket, same shoes. Presumably no socks or laces, and possibly the same wry expression, but it was dark, and the optics had limits.
    Just the same as before.
    But she turned the other way.
    She went east, not west. Away from the freeway interchange. Towards the main drag. No one went with her. No shadow, and no protection. Reacher pointed, and Turner nodded.
    He said, ‘Do you think it’s possible they didn’t tell either one of them?’
    She said, ‘Obviously they didn’t tell the kid. They can’t say, we found your daddy but decided to arrest him instead.’
    ‘Can they say that to the mother? She’s not going to get much child support if they throw away the key.’
    ‘What’s on your mind?’
    ‘They didn’t send anyone with her. Which they should have. If I can’t get to her in the house, then I’ll try to get to her when she leaves. That’s obvious, surely. But no one is with her. The only logical reason is that they haven’t told them, and they can’t explain away four guys following them everywhere, so they don’t follow them everywhere.’
    ‘Plus they’re cheapskates. If they told them, they’d have to put a woman support officer in the house. Which would cost money.’
    ‘OK, so if mother and child are bait but don’t know it, and they leave the house, then all Espin or anyone else can do is a long-distance tail, and an occasional pass in a vehicle.’
    ‘Agreed.’
    ‘But no one is moving and neither vehicle has started its engine.’
    ‘Maybe they wait until she’s out of sight.’
    ‘Let’s see if they do.’
    They didn’t. The girl turned right at the far end of the street, and disappeared, but back at her house no one moved, and neither car started.
    Turner said, ‘Maybe there’s another team.’
    ‘Would you approve that budget?’
    ‘Of course I would.’
    ‘Would they? If they won’t even put a woman officer in the house?’
    ‘OK, there’s only one team and it’s not moving. Laziness and complacency. Plus it must be hard to get a parking spot.’
    ‘They’re not moving because they think I’m dumb enough to walk up the driveway and knock on the door.’
    Then a car drove in, all the way from the far end of the neighbourhood, coming off Vineland, and coming through the elbow they had used before. Its lights swung right and left, and then it came down the street, head-on and blinding, past the Hummer, past the blue door, almost level with the small white compact, and then it stopped, and backed up fast, past the house again, past the Hummer, and all the way back to the last parking spot on the street, which was evidently much farther away than its driver desired. The car parallel-parked neatly and its headlights shut off, and two guys got out, far off and indistinct, just moving shadows really, one maybe larger than the other.
    The lizard brain stirred, and a billion years later Reacher leaned forward an inch.

FIFTY-TWO
    THE BINOCULARS WERE marginal at the distance, and the light was very low, so Reacher kept an open mind. On any given day there were nearly forty million people in California, and for two specific individuals to show up while observed by a third was an unlikely event.
    But unlikely events happened from time to time, so Reacher kept his field of view tight on the two figures, and he goosed the focus as they walked, for the sharpest image. They walked in the street, not on the sidewalk, straight down the traffic lane, fast, side by side, getting closer all the time, Reacher getting surer all the time. They passed the Hummer again, and they stepped into a pool of light, and then Reacher was certain.
    He was looking at the driver from the first night, and next to him was the big guy with