Running Blind (The Visitor)

from the traffic cops and they were outside Mostro’s within forty minutes of the plane touching down.
    The street was dark, and the restaurant glowed like a promise. Four tables were occupied and Puccini was playing. The owner saw Reacher on the sidewalk and hurried to the door, beaming. Showed them to a table and brought the menus himself.
    “This is the place Petrosian was leaning on?” Harper asked.
    Reacher nodded toward the owner. “Look at the little guy. Did he deserve that?”
    “You should have left it to the cops.”
    “That’s what Jodie said.”
    “She’s clearly a smart woman.”
    It was warm inside the huge room, and Harper slipped her jacket off and twisted to hang it over the back of her chair. Her shirt twisted with her, tightening and loosening. First time since he’d met her, she was wearing a bra. She followed his gaze and blushed.
    “I wasn’t sure who we’d be meeting,” she said.
    He nodded.
    “We’ll be meeting somebody,” he said. “That’s for damn sure. Sooner or later.”
    The way he said it made her glance up at him.
    “Now you really want this guy, right?” she said.
    “Yes, now I do.”
    “For Amy Callan? You liked her, didn’t you?”
    “She was OK. I liked Alison Lamarr better, what I saw of her. But I want this guy for Rita Scimeca.”
    “She likes you too,” she said. “I could tell.”
    He nodded again.
    “Did you have a relationship with her?”
    He shrugged. “That’s a very vague word.”
    “An affair?”
    He shook his head. “I only met her after she was raped. Because she was raped. She wasn’t in any kind of a state to be having affairs. Still isn’t, by the look of it. I was a little older than she was, maybe five or six years. We got very friendly, but it was like a paternalistic thing, you know, which I guess she needed, but she hated it at the same time. I had to work hard to make it feel at least brotherly, as I recall. We went out a few times, but like big brother and little sister, always completely platonic. She was like a wounded soldier, recuperating.”
    “That’s how she saw it?”
    “Exactly like that,” he said. “Like a guy who has his leg shot off. It can’t be denied, but it can be dealt with. And she was dealing with it.”
    “And now this guy is setting her back.”
    Reacher nodded. “That’s the problem. Hiding behind this harassment thing, he’s pounding on an open wound. If he was up-front about it, it would be OK. Rita could accept that as a separate problem, I think. Like a one-legged guy could deal with getting the flu. But it’s coming across like a taunt, about her past.”
    “And that makes you mad.”
    “I feel responsible for Rita, he’s messing with her, so he’s messing with me.”
    “And people shouldn’t mess with you.”
    “No, they shouldn’t.”
    “Or?”
    “Or they’re deep in the shit.”
    She nodded, slowly.
    “You’ve convinced me,” she said.
    He said nothing.
    “You convinced Petrosian too, I guess,” she said.
    “I never went near Petrosian,” he said. “Never laid eyes on him.”
    “But you are kind of arrogant, you know?” she said. “Prosecutor, judge, jury, executioner, all in one? What about the rules?”
    He smiled.
    “Those are the rules,” he said. “People mess with me, they find that out pretty damn quick.”
    Harper shook her head. “We arrest this guy, remember? We find him and we arrest him. We’re going to do this properly. According to my rules, OK?”
    He nodded. “I already agreed to that.”
    Then the waiter came over and stood near, pen poised. They ordered two courses each and sat in silence until the food came. Then they ate in silence. There wasn’t much of it. But it was as good as always. Maybe even better. And it was on the house.
    AFTER COFFEE THE FBI driver took Harper to her hotel uptown and Reacher walked down to Jodie’s place, alone and enjoying it. He let himself into her lobby and rode up in the elevator. Let himself into her apartment. The air was still and silent. The rooms were dark. Nobody home. He switched on lamps and closed blinds. Sat down on the living room sofa to wait.

22
    THIS TIME THERE will be guards. You know that for sure. So this time will be difficult. You smile to yourself and correct your phraseology. Actually, this time will be very difficult. Very, very difficult. But not impossible. Not for you. It will be a challenge, is all. Putting guards into the equation will elevate the whole thing up a little