Without Fail

better than Treasury’s. It was paneled in wood and had windows. There was a long table with clusters of glasses and bottles of mineral water. Bannon was conspicuously democratic and avoided the head of the table. He just dumped himself down in one of the side chairs. Neagley put herself on the same side, two places away. Reacher sat down opposite her. Stuyvesant chose a place three away from Reacher and poured himself a glass of water.
    “Quite a day,” Bannon said in the silence. “My agency extends its deepest sympathies to your agency.”
    “You haven’t found them,” Stuyvesant said.
    “We got a heads up from the medical examiner,” Bannon said. “Crosetti was shot through the head with a NATO 7.62 round. Died instantly. Froelich was shot through the throat from behind, same gun, probably. The bullet clipped her carotid artery. But I guess you already know that.”
    “You haven’t found them,” Stuyvesant said again.
    Bannon shook his head.
    “Thanksgiving Day,” he said. “Pluses and minuses. Main minus was that we were short of personnel because of the holiday, and so were you, and so were the Metro cops, and so was everybody else. Main plus was that the city itself was very quiet. On balance it was quieter than we were shorthanded. The way it turned out we were the majority population all over town five minutes after it happened.”
    “But you didn’t find them.”
    Bannon shook his head again.
    “No,” he said. “We didn’t find them. We’re still looking, of course, but being realistic we would have to say they’re out of the District by now.”
    “Outstanding,” Stuyvesant said.
    Bannon made a face. “We’re not turning cartwheels. But there’s nothing to be gained by yelling at us. Because we could yell right back. Somebody got through the screen you deployed. Somebody decoyed your guy off the roof.”
    He looked directly at Stuyvesant as he said it.
    “We paid for it,” Stuyvesant said. “Big time.”
    “How did it happen?” Neagley asked. “How did they get up there at all?”
    “Not through the front,” Bannon said. “There was a shit-load of cops watching the front. They saw nothing, and they can’t all have fallen asleep at the critical time. Not down the back alley either. There was a cop on foot and a cop in a car watching, both ends. Those four all say they saw nobody either, and we believe all four of them. So we think the bad guys got into a building a block over. Walked through the building and out a rear door into the alley halfway down. Then they skipped ten feet across the alley and got in the back of the warehouse and walked up the stairs. No doubt they exited the same way. But they were probably running, on the way out.”
    “How did they decoy Crosetti?” Stuyvesant said. “He was a good agent.”
    “Yes, he was,” Reacher said. “I liked him.”
    Bannon shrugged again. “There’s always a way, isn’t there?”
    Then he looked around the room, the way he did when he wanted people to understand more than he was saying. Nobody responded.
    “Did you check the trains?” Reacher asked.
    Bannon nodded. “Very carefully. It was fairly busy. People heading out for family dinners. But we were thorough.”
    “Did you find the rifle?”
    Bannon just shook his head. Reacher stared at him.
    “They got away carrying a rifle ?” he said.
    Nobody spoke. Bannon looked back at Reacher.
    “You saw the shooter,” he said.
    Reacher nodded. “Just a glimpse, for a quarter-second, maybe. In silhouette, as he moved away.”
    “And you figure you’ve seen him before.”
    “But I don’t know where.”
    “Outstanding,” Bannon said.
    “There was something about the way he moved, that’s all. The shape of his body. His clothing, maybe. It’s just out of reach. Like the next line of an old song.”
    “Was he the guy from the garage video?”
    “No,” Reacher said.
    Bannon nodded. “Whatever, it doesn’t mean much. Stands to reason you’ve seen him before. You’ve been in the same place at the same time, in Bismarck for sure, and maybe elsewhere. We already know they’ve seen you . Because of the phone call. But it would be nice to have a name and face, I guess.”
    “I’ll let you know,” Reacher said.
    “Your theory still standing?” Stuyvesant asked.
    “Yes,” Bannon said. “We’re still looking at your ex-employees. Now more than ever. Because we think that’s why Crosetti left his post. We think he saw somebody he knew and