Never Go Back

democratic. Trying not to be set in my ways.’
    ‘But how did they know we’d get out of the bus in Berryville?’
    ‘They didn’t. I bet they’ve already checked everywhere from about Leesburg onward. Every visible motel. Hamilton, Purcellville, Berryville, Winchester. If they don’t find us here, that’s where they’re heading next.’
    ‘Are they going to find us here?’
    ‘I sincerely hope so,’ Reacher said.
    The motel office had small windows, for a decorative effect, like an old colonial house, and on the inside they were fitted with sheer drapes of some kind. No way of telling who was in the room. Turner walked to a window, and put her face close to the glass, and looked ahead, and left, and right, and up, and down. She whispered, ‘No one there. Just the clerk, I think. Or maybe he’s the owner. Sitting down, in back.’
    Reacher checked the car doors. They were locked. As was the trunk. He put his hand on the hood, above the radiator chrome. The metal was hot. The car hadn’t been parked there long. He moved left, into the mouth of the courtyard. No one there. No one going from room to room, no one checking doors or looking in windows.
    He stepped back and said, ‘So let’s talk to the guy.’
    Turner pulled the office door, and Reacher went in ahead of her. The room was a lot nicer than the kind of place Reacher was used to. A lot nicer than the place a mile from Rock Creek, for instance. There was quality vinyl on the floor, and wallpaper, and all kinds of framed commendations from tourist authorities. The reception desk was an actual desk, like something Thomas Jefferson might have used to write a letter. Behind it was a red leather chair with a guy in it. The guy was about sixty, tall and grey and impressive. He looked like he should have been running a big corporation, not a small motel.
    Turner said, ‘We’re looking for our friends. That’s their car outside.’
    ‘The four gentlemen?’ the guy said, with a tiny and sceptical hesitation before the word gentlemen .
    ‘Yes,’ Turner said.
    ‘I’m afraid you just missed them. They were looking for you about ten minutes ago. At least, I assume it was you they were looking for. A man and a woman, they said. They wondered if you’d checked in already.’
    ‘And what did you tell them?’ Reacher asked.
    ‘Well, naturally, I told them you hadn’t arrived yet.’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘Are you ready to check in now?’ the guy asked, in a tone that suggested it wouldn’t break his heart if they didn’t.
    ‘We need to find our friends first,’ Reacher said. ‘We need to have a discussion. Where did they go?’
    ‘They wondered if perhaps you’d gone to get a bite to eat. I directed them to the Berryville Grill. It’s the only restaurant open at this time of the evening.’
    ‘The pizza place doesn’t count?’
    ‘It’s not exactly a restaurant, is it?’
    ‘So where’s the Berryville Grill?’
    ‘Two blocks behind us. An easy walk.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Turner said.
    There were two ways to walk two blocks behind the motel. On the left-hand cross street, or the right-hand cross street. Covering both at once would involve splitting up, which would risk a potential one-on-four confrontation for one of them. Reacher was happy with those odds, but he wasn’t sure about Turner. She was half his size, literally, and she was unarmed. No gun, no knife.
    He said, ‘We should wait here. We should let them come to us.’
    But they didn’t come. Reacher and Turner stood in the shadows, for five long minutes, and nothing happened. Turner moved a little, to let the light play along the flank of the car. She whispered, ‘Those are pretty good dents.’
    Reacher said back, ‘How long does it take to check out a damn restaurant?’
    ‘Maybe they got sent on somewhere else. Maybe there’s a bar with hamburgers. Or a couple of them. Which don’t count as restaurants, with the motel guy.’
    ‘I don’t hear any bars.’
    ‘How do you hear a bar?’
    ‘Hubbub, glasses, bottles, extractor fans. It’s a distinctive sound.’
    ‘Could be too far away to hear.’
    ‘In which case they’d have come back for their car.’
    ‘They have to be somewhere.’
    ‘Maybe they’re eating at the grill,’ Reacher said. ‘Maybe they got a table. A last-minute decision. We were hungry, they could be hungry too.’
    ‘I’m still hungry.’
    ‘It might be easier to take them inside a restaurant. Crowded quarters, a little inhibition on their