Running Blind (The Visitor)

911 on the speed dial.”
    “So you should be OK,” Reacher said. “This guy isn’t into breaking doors down, apparently. Don’t open up to anybody, nothing can go wrong.”
    She nodded. “That’s how I figure it. You need to ask me some questions now?”
    “That’s why they sent me, I guess.”
    He sat down opposite her. Focused on the gleaming machines on the other side of the room, desperately trying to think of something intelligent to say.
    “How’s your father doing?” he asked.
    “That’s what you want to know?”
    He shrugged. “Julia mentioned he was sick.”
    She nodded, surprised. “He’s been sick two years. Cancer. Now he’s dying. Almost gone, just hanging on day by day. He’s in the hospital in Spokane. I go there every afternoon.”
    “I’m very sorry.”
    “Julia should come out. But she’s awkward with him.”
    “She doesn’t fly.”
    Alison made a face. “She could get over that, just once in two years. But she’s all hung up on this step-family thing, as if it really matters. Far as I’m concerned, she’s my sister, pure and simple. And sisters take care of each other, right? She should know that. She’s going to be the only relative I’ve got. She’ll be my next of kin, for God’s sake.”
    “Well, I’m sorry about all that, too.”
    She made another face. “Right now, that’s not too important. What can I help you with?”
    “You got any feeling for who this guy could be?”
    She smiled. “That’s rather a basic question.”
    “It’s rather a basic issue. You got any instinct?”
    “It’s some guy who thinks it’s OK to harass women. Or maybe not OK , exactly. Could be some guy who just thinks the fallout should be kept behind closed doors.”
    “Is that an option?” Harper asked. She sat down, next to Reacher.
    Alison glanced at her. “I don’t really know. I’m not sure there is any middle ground. Either you swallow it, or it goes public in a big way.”
    “Did you look for the middle ground?”
    She shook her head. “I’m the living proof. I just went ballistic. There was no middle ground there . At least, I couldn’t see any.”
    “Who was your guy?” Reacher asked.
    “A colonel called Gascoigne,” she said. “He was always full of shit about coming to him if anything was bothering you. I went to him about getting reassigned. I saw him five times. I wasn’t pleading the feminist case or anything. It wasn’t a political thing. I just wanted something more interesting to do. And frankly I thought the Army was wasting a good soldier. Because I was good.”
    Reacher nodded. “So what happened with Gascoigne? ”
    Alison made a face.
    “I didn’t see it coming,” she said. “At first I thought he was just kidding around.”
    She paused. Looked away.
    “He said I should try next time without my uniform on,” she said. “I thought he was asking for a date, you know, meet him in town, some bar, off duty, plain clothes. But then he made it clear, no, he meant right there in his office, stripped off.”
    Reacher nodded. “Not a very nice suggestion.”
    She made another face. “Well, he led up to it pretty slow, and he was pretty jokey about it, at first. It was like he was flirting. I almost didn’t notice , you know? Like he’s a man, I’m a woman, it’s not a huge surprise, right? But clearly he figured I wasn’t getting the message, so then all of a sudden he got obscene . He described what I’d have to do, you know? One foot on this corner of his desk, the other foot on the other corner, hands behind my head, motionless for thirty minutes. Then bending over, you know? Like a porno movie. Then it did hit me, the rage, all in a split second, and I just went nuclear.”
    Reacher nodded. “And you busted him?”
    “Sure I did.”
    “How did he react?”
    She smiled. “He was puzzled, more than anything. I’m sure he’d done it lots of times before, and gotten away with it. I think he was kind of surprised the rules had changed on him.”
    “Could he be the guy?”
    She shook her head. “No. This guy is deadly , right? Gascoigne wasn’t like that. He was an old, sad man. Tired, and ineffectual. Julia says this guy is a piece of work. I don’t see Gascoigne having that kind of initiative , you know?”
    Reacher nodded again. “If your sister’s profile is correct, this is probably a guy from the background somewhere. ”
    “Right,” Alison said. “Maybe not connected with any specific incident. Maybe some kind