Past Tense (Jack Reacher #23)(37)

“Because you don’t want trouble?”

“Would you?”

“No,” Reacher said. “Generally speaking, I think trouble is best avoided. You could almost call it a rule.”

“So we’re on the same page?”

“We’re in the same book. Maybe a difference in emphasis.”

“I’m not kidding,” Shaw said. “I don’t want trouble.”

“Relax,” Reacher said. “I’ll keep on walking. It’s what I do. Assuming I find Ryantown first.”

“Don’t give me terms and conditions. Don’t tell me what you got to do first. I’m serious. I don’t want trouble in my town.”

“Ryantown ain’t yours. If you don’t believe me, check with the kid at the census archive. He’ll set you straight.”

“It’s all Laconia to guys up from Boston. They’ll be here tomorrow, asking around. Anyone seen a big guy with a banged-up hand?”

Reacher said, “Tomorrow?”

“They won’t let this go.”

“But until tomorrow walking on county roads is still pretty much a legal activity.”

“That’s the problem with terms and conditions. You’ll still be walking tomorrow. You could be walking forever. They could have ten guys in town before you finally figure out you’ll never even know if you find Ryantown or not. Those old places are nothing more than holes in the ground now. Who the hell can tell which was which a hundred years ago? So do me a big favor, OK? Find any old hole in the ground, go right ahead and call it Ryantown, and then get the hell out, and keep on getting, preferably in a straight line, preferably east, north, or west.”

Reacher nodded, and turned, and walked on, waving once but not looking back, and behind him he heard the hiss and squeal of the squad car’s power steering, and then the sound of its tires rolling away, back to town. He kept up a steady pace, four miles an hour, easy in the cool of the morning. The road was entirely in shadow. He checked his map as he passed a left turn that led to a place with gray shading but no water. It was right where it should have been. He was on track. The map was good. He had about six more miles to go.

He walked on.

—

Patty and Shorty were still on the bed long after dawn. They had stared for hours at their luggage, as if hypnotized. The sudden and capricious reversal of its epic and hard-won voyage was hard to process. It was as if the long two-plus miles spent pushing the heavy load had never happened. But it had. Hours and hours, wasted. Maximum effort, bent at the waist. For no net result. Zero yards gained. A bitter pill.

Patty said, “Do you think the story about the undergraduates is true?”

“Are you crazy?” Shorty said. “You know we took it down there ourselves.”

“I don’t mean this time. I mean undergraduates ever doing that.”

“I don’t know,” Shorty said. “I got no experience. But I guess it could be true. In a logical kind of way. Because Peter didn’t know we took our stuff down there ourselves. All he knew was he found it in the hedge. How could he explain that? It must have reminded him of a thing from the past, which he assumed was happening again. Actually it wasn’t, but it kind of proves the original thing must have been real, or how else could he have been reminded?”

“That’s a circular argument.”

“Is it?”

“But it doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is what he said. And what he said was weird.”

“Was it?”

“He said students steal their motel signs all the time.”

“Maybe they do. Maybe that’s why they’re gone now.”

“But to say all the time means over and over again, year after year.”

“I guess.”

“Like you would say your bottom ten-acre floods all the time.”

“Well, it does. Like you said, over and over, year after year.”

“Exactly. To say all the time means you’re speaking from a certain length of experience. And then he said they thought the bag-stealing thing was finished a couple of years ago. And to know something is finished means you must have suffered it first. Let’s say at least for a year. A whole cycle through both semesters. I’m sure students do different kinds of crazy stuff at different times.”

“OK,” Shorty said. “Call it three years minimum. One year of suffering it and two years of not.”

“Except everything else they’ve said makes this feel like a brand new start-up. Like this could be their very first season. The stories don’t match at all.”

Shorty was quiet a long moment.

Then he said, “But you spoke to the mechanic.”

“Yes,” Patty said. “I did.”

“And the mechanic was real.”

“Yes,” Patty said. “He was.”

“Tell me again.”

“He sounded bright and wide awake and on the ball. He sounded friendly but courteous. He was knowledgeable but not domineering. He was an immigrant. Maybe one of those guys who takes a step down in terms of employment. Compared to the old country, I mean. He said something about the Yugoslav army. Maybe once he was a master sergeant in an armored division, and now he drives a tow truck. That kind of thing. But he’s going to make the best of it. It’s going to be the shiniest tow truck you ever saw. He’s going to work his way back. He’s going to be a classic story.”