Worth Dying For

pass the time of day in pleasant conversation. Or we could do it another way. We could have Seth break your nose, for instance. I’m pretty certain he would like to. Or we could have your wife join us, and we could subject her to petty humiliations. My guess is she wouldn’t put up much of a fight, having known us all these years. No marks, no overt damage. But the shared experience might have an effect on your marriage, in the years to come, you having shown yourself unable to defend her. Because she’ll see it as unwilling, not unable. You should think about it.’
    ‘Reacher’s gone,’ the doctor said.
    ‘Gone?’
    ‘He left this afternoon.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘He got a ride.’
    ‘Impossible,’ Jacob said. ‘We blocked the road, north and south.’
    ‘Not in time.’
    ‘Did you see him go?’
    ‘He was at the motel. I think he changed the plates because he was going to use your truck. But someone else came along and he hitched a ride, which was better.’
    ‘Who came along?’
    ‘Not one of us. Just someone driving through.’
    ‘What kind of car?’
    ‘I’m not good with cars. I think it was white.’
    ‘Did he say where he was going?’
    The doctor drank most of his second glass. Gulp, swallow, gulp, swallow. He said, ‘He’s going to Virginia.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ the doctor said. He filled his glass again. ‘Butthat’s all he’s ever talked about, right from the first moment he got here. He’s on his way to Virginia, and always was.’
    ‘What’s in Virginia?’
    ‘He didn’t say. A woman, perhaps. That’s the impression I got.’
    ‘From what?’
    ‘Just a feeling.’
    Jacob Duncan said, ‘You’re nervous.’
    The doctor said, ‘Of course I am.’
    ‘Why? You’re just sharing a drink with your neighbours.’
    The doctor said nothing.
    Jacob Duncan said, ‘You think he’s coming back.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    ‘Is he coming back?’
    The doctor said nothing.
    ‘Tell us.’
    The doctor said, ‘He was a military cop. He knows how to do things.’
    ‘What things?’
    ‘He said he’s going to visit with the county police. Tomorrow morning, I suppose. He said he’s going to look at the file from twenty-five years ago. If it’s OK, he’s going to Virginia. If it’s not, he’s coming back here.’
    ‘Why would he?’
    ‘To get you, that’s why.’
    Up in Canada, the white van had made the right turn just shy of the town called Medicine Hat, and was heading south on the lonely road that led down towards Pakowki Lake. It was already full dark up there. No lights at all, and no moon or stars either, because of the cloud. The road was bad. It was pitted with potholes. It twisted and it wandered, and it rose and it fell. It was hard going, and not entirely safe. It was dangerous, even, because at that stage a broken axle or a busted half-shaft would ruin everything. So the driver turned left, on a rough grassy track he had used before, and bumped and bounced two hundred yards to a picnic spot provided for summer visitors. In winterit was always deserted. The driver had seen bears there, and coyotes, and red foxes, and moose, and twice he thought he had seen elk, although they might have been shadows, and once he thought he had seen a wolf, but it might have been just another coyote. But he had never seen people. Not in winter. Not even once.
    He parked under a towering pine and shut down for the night.
    Roberto Cassano and Angelo Mancini pulled their rented Impala around the back of the Marriott and slotted it next to a black Cadillac that was standing alone in the rear of the lot. They got out and stretched and checked their watches. They figured they had time for a quick dinner before their reinforcements arrived. The diner or the rib shack? They liked neither one. Why would they? They had taste, and the retard local yokels sure as hell didn’t. But they were hungry, and they had to eat somewhere.
    They pondered for a second and decided on the diner. They turned away from the hotel lobby and headed for the main drag.
    The Duncans let the doctor finish a third glass of Wild Turkey, and then they sent him on his way. They pushed him out the door and told him to walk home. They watched him down the driveway, and then they turned and strolled back and regrouped in Jacob’s kitchen. Jacob put the bottle back in the cupboard, and put the glass in the sink, and returned the chair to the corner of the room. His brother Jasper asked, ‘So what do you