The Hard Way

dollars a sheet, depending on the quality of the paper and the choice between black and white and color. A lot of money, potentially. Opposite the print shop corral was a display of inkjet cartridges. They were expensive, too. Reacher had no idea what they were for. Or what they did. Or why they cost so much. He pushed past a line of people at a checkout desk and headed for the street.

----

    Another twenty minutes and twenty blocks later he was at Bryant Park, eating a hot dog from a street vendor. Twenty minutes and twenty blocks after that he was in Central Park, drinking a bottle of still water from another street vendor. Twelve more blocks north he was still in Central Park, directly opposite the Dakota, under a tree, stopped dead, face-to-face with Anne Lane, Edward Lane’s first wife.

CHAPTER 17
    THE FIRST THING Anne Lane did was tell Reacher he was wrong.
    “You saw Lane’s photograph of her,” she said.
    He nodded.
    “We were very alike,” she said.
    He nodded again.
    “Anne was my sister,” she said.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for staring. And I’m sorry for your loss.”
    “Thank you,” the woman said.
    “Were you twins?”
    “I’m six years younger,” the woman said. “Which means right now I’m the same age as Anne was in that photograph. Like a virtual twin, maybe.”
    “You look exactly like her.”
    “I try to,” the woman said.
    “It’s uncanny.”
    “I try very hard.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it feels like I’m keeping her alive. Because I couldn’t, back when it mattered.”
    “How could you have kept her alive?”
    “We should talk,” the woman said. “My name is Patti Joseph.”
    “Jack Reacher.”
    “Come with me,” the woman said. “We have to double back. We can’t go too near the Dakota.”
    She led him south through the park, to the exit at 66th Street. Across to the far sidewalk. Then north again, and into the lobby of a building at 115 Central Park West.
    “Welcome to the Majestic,” Patti Joseph said. “Best place I ever lived. And just wait until you see where my apartment is.”
    Reacher saw where it was five minutes later, after a walk down a corridor, and an elevator ride, and another walk down another corridor. Patti Joseph’s apartment was on the Majestic’s seventh floor, north side. Its living room window looked out over 72nd Street, directly at the Dakota’s entrance. There was a dining chair placed in front of the sill, as if the sill was a desk. On the sill was a notebook. And a pen. And a Nikon camera with a long lens, and a pair of Leica 10x42 binoculars.
    “What do you do here?” Reacher asked.
    “First tell me what you do there,” Patti said.
    “I’m not sure I can.”
    “Do you work for Lane?”
    “No, I don’t.”
    Patti Joseph smiled.
    “I didn’t think you did,” she said. “I told Brewer, you’re not one of them. You’re not like them. You weren’t Special Forces, were you?”
    “How did you know?”
    “You’re too big. You wouldn’t have made it through the endurance hazing. Big men never do.”
    “I was an MP.”
    “Did you know Lane in the service?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    Patti Joseph smiled again.
    “I thought not,” she said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be there.”
    “Who is Brewer?”
    “NYPD.” She pointed at the notebook and the pen and the camera and the binoculars. A big, sweeping gesture. “I do all this for him.”
    “You’re watching Lane and his guys? For the cops?”
    “For myself, mostly. But I check in.”
    “Why?”
    “Because hope springs eternal.”
    “Hope of what?”
    “That he’ll slip up, and I’ll get something on him.”
    Reacher stepped closer to the window and glanced at the notebook. The handwriting was neat. The last entry read:
2014 hrs. Burke returns alone, no bag, in black BMW OSC-23, enters TDA.
    “TDA?” Reacher asked.
    “The Dakota Apartments,” Patti said. “It’s the building’s official name.”
    “You ever see Yoko?”
    “All the time.”
    “You know Burke by name?”
    “Burke was around when Anne was there.”
    The last-but-one entry read:
1859 hrs. Burke and Venti leave TDA in black BMW OSC-23, with bag, Venti concealed in rear.
    “Venti?” Reacher asked.
    “That’s what I’ve been calling you. Like a code name.”
    “Why?”
    “Venti is the largest cup that Starbucks sells. Bigger than the others.”
    “I like coffee,” Reacher said.
    “I could make some.”
    Reacher turned away from the window. The