Running Blind (The Visitor)

of distant observer, turned avenger.”
    “If Julia’s profile is correct,” Reacher said again.
    There was a short silence.
    “Big if ,” Alison said.
    “You got doubts?”
    “You know I have,” she said. “And I know you have, too. Because we both know the same things.”
    Harper sat forward. “What are you saying?”
    Alison made a face. “I just can’t see a soldier going to all this trouble , not over this issue. It just doesn’t work like that. The Army changes the rules all the time . Go back fifty years, it’s OK to harass blacks, then it’s not. It’s OK to shoot gook babies, then it’s not. A million things like that. Hundreds of men were canned one after the other, for some new invented offense. Truman integrated the Army, nobody started killing the blacks who filed complaints. This is some kind of new reaction. I can’t understand it.”
    “Maybe men versus women is more fundamental,” Harper said.
    Alison nodded. “Maybe it is. I really don’t know. But at the end of the day, like Julia says, the target group is so specific, it has to be a soldier. Who else could even identify us? But it’s a very weird soldier, that’s for damn sure. Not like any I ever met.”
    “Really?” Harper said. “Nobody at all? No threats, no comments, while it was all happening?”
    “Nothing significant. Nothing more than casual bullshit. Nothing that I recall. I even flew out to Quantico and let Julia hypnotize me, in case there was something buried there, but she said I came up with nothing.”
    Silence again. Harper swept imaginary crumbs from the table and nodded. “OK. Wasted trip, right?”
    “Sorry, guys,” Alison said.
    “Nothing’s ever wasted,” Reacher said. “Negatives can be useful too. And the coffee was great.”
    “You want more?”
    “No, he doesn’t,” Harper said. “We’ve got to get back.”
    “OK.” She stood up and followed them out of her kitchen. Crossed the hall and opened her front door.
    “Don’t let anybody in,” Reacher said.
    Alison smiled. “I don’t plan to.”
    “I mean it,” Reacher said. “It looks like there’s no force involved. This guy is just walking in. So you might know him. Or he’s some kind of a con artist, with some kind of a plausible excuse. Don’t fall for it.”
    “I don’t plan to,” she said again. “Don’t worry about me. And call me if you need anything. I’ll be at the hospital afternoons, as long as it takes, but any other time is good. And best of luck.”
    Reacher followed Harper through the front door, out onto the shale path. They heard the door close behind them, and then the loud sound of the lock turning.
    THE LOCAL BUREAU guy saved them two hours’ flying time by pointing out that they could hop from Spokane to Chicago and then change there for D.C. Harper did the business with the tickets and found out it was more expensive, which was presumably why the Quantico travel desk hadn’t booked it that way in the first place. But she authorized the extra money herself and decided to have the argument later. Reacher admired her for it. He liked impatience and wasn’t keen on another two hours in the Cessna. So they sent the Seattle guy back west alone and boarded a Boeing for Chicago. This time there was no upgrade, because the whole plane was coach. It put them close together, elbows and thighs touching all the way.
    “So what do you think?” Harper asked.
    “I’m not paid to think,” Reacher said. “In fact, so far I’m not getting paid at all. I’m a consultant. So you ask me questions and I’ll answer them.”
    “I did ask you a question. I asked you what you think.”
    He shrugged. “I think it’s a big target group and three of them are dead. You can’t guard them, but if the other eighty-eight do what Alison Lamarr is doing, they should be OK.”
    “You think locked doors are enough to stop this guy?”
    “He chooses his own MO. Apparently he doesn’t touch anything. If they don’t open the door for him, what’s he going to do?”
    “Maybe change his MO.”
    “In which case you’ll get him, because he’ll have to start leaving some hard evidence behind.”
    He turned to look out of the window.
    “That’s it?” Harper said. “We should just tell the women to lock their doors?”
    He nodded. “I think you should be warning them, yes.”
    “That doesn’t catch the guy.”
    “You can’t catch him.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because of this profiling bullshit. You’re not