Running Blind (The Visitor)

bruising, no abrasions, no nothing. No postmortem damage either. Moving a corpse usually damages the ligaments in the joints, because there’s no muscle tension there to protect them. At this point, my guess is they did whatever they did strictly under their own power.”
    “Except kill themselves,” Harper said.
    Stavely nodded. “Suicide in bathtubs is pretty much limited to drowning while drunk or drugged, or opening your veins into warm water. Obviously, this isn’t suicide.”
    “And they weren’t drowned,” Blake said.
    Stavely nodded again. “The first three weren’t. No fluid of any kind in the lungs. We’ll know about this one soon as she’s opened up, but I would bet against it.”
    “So how the hell did he do it?” Blake said.
    Stavely stared down at the body, something like compassion in his face.
    “Right now, I have no idea,” he said. “Give me a couple of hours, maybe three, I might find something.”
    “No idea at all?”
    “Well, I had a theory,” Stavely said. “Based on what I read about the other three. Problem is, now I think the theory is absurd.”
    “What theory?”
    Stavely shook his head. “Later, OK? And you need to leave now. I’m going to cut her up, and I don’t want you here for that. She needs privacy, time like this.”

19
    THEY LEFT THEIR gowns and overshoes in a tangle by the door and turned left and right through walkways and corridors to the pathology building’s front exit. They took the long way around through the parking lots to the main building, as if brisk motion through chill fall air would rid them of the stink of paint and death. They rode the elevator four floors underground in silence. Walked through the narrow corridor and spilled into the seminar room and found Julia Lamarr sitting alone at the table, looking up at the silent television screen.
    “You’re supposed to be out of here,” Blake said to her.
    “Any conclusions?” she asked quietly. “From Stavely? ”
    Blake shook his head. “Later. You should have gone home.”
    She shrugged. “I told you. I can’t go home. I need to be on top of this.”
    “But you’re exhausted.”
    “You saying I’m not effective?”
    Blake sighed. “Julia, give me a break. I’ve got to organize. You collapse with exhaustion, you’re no good to me.”
    “Not going to happen.”
    “It was an order, you realize that?”
    Lamarr waved a hand, like a gesture of refusal. Harper stared at her.
    “It was an order,” Blake said again.
    “And I ignored it,” Lamarr said. “So what are you going to do? We need to work. We’ve got three weeks to catch this guy. That’s not a lot of time.”
    Reacher shook his head. “That’s plenty of time.”
    Harper turned her stare on him.
    “If we talk about his motive, right now,” he said.
    There was silence. Lamarr stiffened in her seat.
    “I think his motive is clear,” she said.
    There was ice in her voice. Reacher turned to face her, softening his expression, trying to defer to the fact that her family had been wiped out in the space of two days.
    “It isn’t to me,” he said.
    Lamarr turned to Blake, appealing.
    “We can’t start arguing this all over again,” she said. “Not now.”
    “We have to,” Reacher said.
    “We’ve done this work already,” she snapped.
    “Relax, people,” Blake called. “Just relax. We’ve got three weeks, and we’re not going to waste any of it arguing.”
    “You’re going to waste all of it, if you keep on like this,” Reacher said.
    There was suddenly tension in the air. Lamarr stared down at the table. Blake was silent. Then he nodded.
    “You’ve got three minutes, Reacher,” he said. “Tell us what’s on your mind.”
    “You’re wrong about his motive,” Reacher said. “That’s what’s on my mind. It’s keeping you away from looking in the right places.”
    “We’ve done this work already,” Lamarr said again.
    “Well, we need to do it over,” Reacher said, gently. “Because we won’t find the guy if we’re looking in the wrong places. That stands to reason, right?”
    “Do we need this?” Lamarr said.
    “Two minutes and thirty seconds,” Blake said. “Give us what you’ve got. Reacher.”
    Reacher took a breath. “This is a very smart guy, right? Very, very smart. Smart in a very particular way. He’s committed four homicides, bizarre, elaborate scenarios, and he hasn’t left the slightest shred of evidence behind. He’s only made one mistake, by leaving one box