‘You’re a good commander.’
‘Thank you.’
‘What was the second thing you asked her for?’
‘You’ll see,’ Turner said. ‘I hope.’
Romeo dialled, but Juliet was slow to answer. Romeo rubbed his palm on the leather arm of the chair he was sitting in. His palm was dry, and the leather was smooth and lustrous, made that way by fifty years of suited elbows.
Then in his ear Juliet said, ‘Yes?’
Romeo said, ‘The names Sullivan and Temple just came up in an airport hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fortunately for us its register is linked to Homeland Security. Being at an airport.’
‘Is it them, do you think?’
‘We’ll have descriptions soon. The hotel is sending a man up to take a look. But I think it has to be them. Because what are the odds? Those two names in combination? As far as we know, those are the only IDs they have.’
‘But why the airport in Pittsburgh?’
‘Doesn’t matter why. Where are our boys?’
‘On their way to Los Angeles.’
‘See how fast you can turn them around.’
The room was warm, so Reacher took off his miracle coat, and Turner took off her new jacket. She said, ‘You want to get room service?’
‘Sure.’
‘Before or after?’
‘Before or after what?’
‘Before or after we have sex again.’
Reacher smiled. In his experience the second time was always better. Still new, but a little less so. Still unfamiliar, but a little less so. Always better than the first time, and in Turner’s case the first time had been spectacular.
‘After,’ he said.
‘Then take your clothes off,’ she said.
‘No, you first this time.’
‘Why?’
‘Because variety is the spice of life.’
She smiled. She took her new sweater off. She was wearing nothing under it. No bra. She didn’t really need one, and she wasn’t about to pretend. He liked her for that. He liked her for everything, basically. Not that he had a big problem with any kind of a topless woman in his room. But she was special. Mentally, and physically. Physically she was flawless. She was lean and strong, but she looked soft and tiny. One curve flowed into another, endlessly, seamlessly, like a single contour, like a Mobius strip, from the cleft of her back, to her shoulder, to her waist, to her hips, to her back, where it started all over again. Her skin was the colour of honey. Her smile was wicked, and her laugh was infectious.
Romeo dialled, and this time Juliet picked up immediately. Romeo said, ‘It’s them. A tall, heavy, fair-haired man, and a younger dark-haired woman, much smaller. That’s what the hotel manager saw.’
‘Any indication how long they intend to stay?’
‘They paid cash for one night.’
‘Did they book a wake-up call?’
‘No. They can’t fly. Not with cash, and not with those IDs. Reacher looks nothing like Temple. Even the TSA would notice. I think they’re just holed up. Not a bad choice. Airport hotels are always anonymous, and Pittsburgh isn’t the centre of the known universe. I’d like to know how they got so much money, though.’
‘Our boys will get there as soon as they can.’
‘The hotel manager said Turner was on the phone.’
‘Who to?’
‘I’m having it traced now.’
Afterwards they lay spent and sweaty in tangled sheets, breathing hard, then breathing low. Turner got up on an elbow and stared at Reacher’s face, and ran her fingertips over his brow, slow and searching. She said, ‘It’s not even bruised.’
‘All bone,’ he said. ‘All the way through.’
Her touch moved down to his nose.
‘This wasn’t, though,’ she said. ‘Not all the way through. And recent, right?’
‘Nebraska,’ Reacher said. ‘Some guy, all worked up about something.’
Her fingertip traced the cuts, all healed up but not long ago, and the thickened bumps of bone, which now gave his nose a slight right turn. Still a surprise to him, but automatically normal to her. She traced around his ear,
