Page 6 of Chain Reaction

“It was a rough bar in a bad location. They weren’t surprised, basically.”

“Did they investigate?”

“Very diligently, to give them their due. But they got nowhere. It’s going to stay unsolved out there. Just a random mugging gone wrong. Completely unconnected to who he was.”

“Shit happens,” Reacher said. “We get over it.”

“Ninety-nine times in a hundred I would,” she said. “And I have, many times in the past. But this one bothers me.”

“Which part exactly?”

“People say if something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. This is the opposite. It’s too bad to be true. A break in the case. His first night there. What were the odds?”

“The same as every other night. It’s always fifty-fifty. Either you get mugged or you don’t.”

“Everything says the story is right, but I don’t believe it. Bisley was a neat, well dressed guy, very urban, very sophisticated. Why would he go to a rough bar in a bad neighborhood?”

“Meeting someone? Following a lead?”

“There’s nothing in his log. No notes, no appointments. He had just arrived. I guess he planned to start work in the morning. Therefore he was off duty. It was private downtime.”

“Meeting someone off the clock, then. For whatever reason.”

“He was vetted very carefully. He had a security clearance. We know everything about him. There are no conceivable reasons for him to be there. Trust me.”

Reacher said nothing.

“I need to be sure,” Turner said.

“You’re opening a huge can of worms,” Reacher said. “The second night would have been better. Or the third or the fourth. The first night is a real problem, if this wasn’t a real mugging.”

She nodded, slow and miserable.

She said, “Say it out loud for me.”

“If it wasn’t a real mugging, it must have been a targeted and premeditated attack. Which by definition would require a plan made ahead of time. Obviously the plan would depend on where and when Bisley was going. Presumably the only people who knew where and when he was going were all inside your new section. Therefore, if this was something rather than nothing, you have a traitor on board, and probably zero idea who it is. Hence the call to my bank. You needed someone from the outside, guaranteed clean.”

“Someone I can trust. Someone I have seen in action. Someone who knows what to do.”

“The story could still be true, you know. Coincidences happen.”

“Go find out,” she said. “Put my mind at rest. Will you do that for me?”

“Sure,” he said. “I have nothing in my diary right now. In fact I don’t have a diary right now. I’m living the dream.”

Chapter 3

Reacher finished up his pie and his coffee, and Turner paid the check. They headed out to her staff car, which was indeed the blue Dodge Charger Reacher had seen. She opened the trunk. She opened a compartment in the floor of the trunk. She took out a file. She said, “This is everything we know about what happened to Bisley.”

“You brought that with you?” Reacher said. “Were you that confident, or am I that predictable?”

“I brought it just in case,” she said. “It was always fifty-fifty. Either you say yes, or you say no.”

“Is it classified?”

“Here and there, I suppose. But you’re cleared for it.”

“Did you tell the Chief of Staff about Bisley yet?”