Worth Dying For

seat, not in the trunk.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘Because that’s where the sixth guy is. In the trunk. I put him there.’
    ‘Does he have air?’
    ‘He doesn’t need air. Not any more.’
    ‘Sweet Jesus. What happened?’
    Reacher said, ‘I think whatever else they’re doing, they’re coming here to get me first. Like a side issue of some kind. Like mission creep. I don’t know why, but that’s the only way I can explain it. The way I see it, they all assembled tonight in the Marriott and the Italians announced the mission and gave the others a description, probably vague and definitely secondhand, because they haven’t actually laid eyes on me yet, and then I bumped into one of the others after that, in the lobby, and he was looking at me, like he was asking himself, is that the guy? Can it be? Can it? I could see him thinking. We got out to the lot and he put his hand in his pocket and I hit him. You ever heard of
commotio cordis
?’
    ‘Chest wall trauma,’ the doctor said. ‘Causes fatal cardiac dysrhythmia.’
    ‘Ever seen it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Neither had I. But I’m here to tell you, it works real good.’
    ‘What was in his pocket?’
    ‘A knife and a gun and an ID from Vegas.’
    ‘Vegas?’ the doctor said. ‘Do the Duncans have gambling debts? Is that the dispute?’
    ‘Possible,’ Reacher said. ‘No question the Duncans have been living beyond their means for a long time. They’ve been getting some extra income from somewhere.’
    ‘Why say that? They’ve been extorting forty farms for thirty years. And a motel. That’s a lot of money.’
    ‘No, it isn’t,’ Reacher said. ‘Not really. This isn’t the wealthiest area in the world. They could be taking half of what everyone earns, and that wouldn’t buy them a pot to piss in. But Sethlives like a king and they pay ten football players just to be here. They couldn’t do all that on the back of a seasonal enterprise.’
    The doctor’s wife said, ‘We should worry about that later. Right now the Cornhuskers are on the loose, and we don’t know where or why. That’s what’s important tonight. Dorothy Coe might be coming over.’
    ‘Here?’ Reacher asked. ‘Now?’
    The doctor said, ‘That’s what happens sometimes. With the women, mostly. It’s a support thing. Like a sisterhood. Whoever feels the most vulnerable clusters together.’
    His wife said, ‘Which is always Dorothy and me, and sometimes others too, depending on exactly what the panic is.’
    ‘Not a good idea,’ Reacher said. ‘From a tactical point of view, I mean. It gives them one target instead of multiple targets.’
    ‘It’s strength in numbers. It works. Sometimes those boys can act a little inhibited. They don’t necessarily like witnesses around, when they’re sent after women.’
    They took cups of coffee and waited in the dining room, which had a view of the road. The road was dark. There was nothing moving on it. It was indistinguishable from the rest of the nighttime terrain. They sat quiet for a spell, on hard upright chairs, with the lights off to preserve their view out the window, and then the doctor said, ‘Tell us about the files.’
    ‘I saw a photograph,’ Reacher said. ‘Dorothy’s kid was Asian.’
    ‘Vietnamese,’ the doctor’s wife said. ‘Artie Coe did a tour over there. Something about it affected him, I guess. When the boat people thing started, they stepped up and adopted.’
    ‘Did many people from here go to Vietnam?’
    ‘A fair number.’
    ‘Did the Duncans go?’
    ‘I don’t think so. They were in an essential occupation.’
    ‘So was Arthur Coe.’
    ‘Different strokes for different folks.’
    ‘Who was chairman of the local draft board?’
    ‘Their father. Old man Duncan.’
    ‘So the boys didn’t keep on farming to please him. They kept on to keep their asses out of the war.’
    ‘I suppose.’
    ‘Good to know,’ Reacher said. ‘They’re cowards, too, apart from anything else.’
    The doctor said, ‘Tell us about the investigation.’
    ‘Long story,’ Reacher said. ‘There were eleven boxes of paper.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘The investigation had problems,’ Reacher said.
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘One was a conceptual problem, and the others were details. The lead detective was a guy called Carson, and the ground kind of shifted under his feet over a twelve-hour period. It started out as a straightforward missing persons issue, and then it slowly changed to a potential homicide. And