Nothing to Lose

quarters. The motel clerk stepped out of the office, forty feet to Reacher’s left. She was a stout woman of about fifty. She saw Reacher and saw the girl and stopped walking and watched. Then she moved again but changed direction and started heading toward them. In Reacher’s experience motel clerks were either nosy about or else completely uninterested in their guests. He figured this one was the nosy kind. He stepped back a pace and gave Lucy Anderson some air and held up his hands, palms out, friendly and reassuring.
    “Relax,” he said. “If I was here to hurt you, you’d already be hurt by now, don’t you think? You and your husband.”
    She didn’t answer. Just turned her head and saw the clerk’s approach and then ducked back to the inside shadows and slammed her door, all in one neat move. Reacher turned away but knew he wasn’t going to make it in time. The clerk was already within calling distance.
    “Excuse me,” she said.
    Reacher stopped. Turned back. Said nothing.
    The woman said, “You should leave that girl alone.”
    “Should I?”
    “If you want to stay here.”
    “Is that a threat?”
    “I try to maintain standards.”
    “I’m trying to help her.”
    “She thinks the exact opposite.”
    “You’ve talked?”
    “I hear things.”
    “I’m not a cop.”
    “You look like a cop.”
    “I can’t help that.”
    “You should investigate some real crimes.”
    Reacher said, “I’m not investigating any kind of crimes. I told you, I’m not a cop.”
    The woman didn’t answer.
    Reacher asked, “What real crimes?”
    “Violations.”
    “Where?”
    “At the metal plant in Despair.”
    “What kind of violations?”
    “All kinds.”
    “I don’t care about violations. I’m not an EPA inspector. I’m not any kind of an inspector.”
    The woman said, “Then you should ask yourself why that plane flies every night.”

26
    Reacher got halfway back to his room and saw Vaughan’s old pick-up turn in off the street. It was moving fast. It bounced up over the curb and headed through the lot straight at him. Vaughan was at the wheel in her cop uniform. Incongruous. And urgent. She hadn’t taken time to go fetch her official cruiser. She braked hard and stopped with her radiator grille an inch away from him. She leaned out the window and said, “Get in, now.”
    Reacher asked, “Why?”
    “Just do it.”
    “Do I have a choice?”
    “None at all.”
    “Really?”
    “I’m not kidding.”
    “Are you arresting me?”
    “I’m prepared to. I’ll use my gun and my cuffs if that’s what it takes. Just get in the car.”
    Reacher studied her face through the windshield glass. She was serious about something. And determined. That was for sure. The evidence was right there in the set of her jaw. So he climbed in. Vaughan waited until he closed his door behind him and asked, “You ever done a ride-along with a cop before? All night? A whole watch?”
    “Why would I? I was a cop.”
    “Well, whatever, you’re doing one tonight.”
    “Why?”
    “We got a courtesy call. From Despair. You’re a wanted man. They’re coming for you. So tonight you stay where I can see you.”
    “They can’t be coming for me. They can’t even have woken up yet.”
    “Their deputies are coming. All four of them.”
    “Really?”
    “That’s what deputies do. They deputize.”
    “So I hide in your car? All night?”
    “Damn straight.”
    “You think I need protection?”
    “My town needs protection. I don’t want trouble here.”
    “Those four won’t be any trouble. One of them is already busted up and one was throwing his guts up the last time I saw him.”
    “So you could take them?”
    “With one hand behind my back and my head in a bag.”
    “Exactly. I’m a cop. I have a responsibility. No fighting in my streets. It’s unseemly.” She pulled a tight U-turn in the motel lot and headed back the way she had come. Reacher asked, “When will they get here?”
    “The plant shuts down at six. I imagine they’ll head right over.”
    “How long will they stay?”
    “The plant opens up again at six tomorrow morning.”
    Reacher said, “You don’t want me in your car all night.”
    “I’ll do what it takes. Like I said. This is a decent place. I’m not going to let it get trashed, either literally or metaphorically.”
    Reacher paused and said, “I could leave town.”
    “Permanently?” Vaughan asked.
    “Temporarily.”
    “And go where?”
    “Despair, obviously. I