One Shot (62 page)

Rosemary Barr borrowed Franklin's cell phone and
used it to call area hospitals, looking for a safe berth for
her brother. Helen and Alex Rodin sat close together,
talking. Gunny Cash sat in a chair and dozed. An old
soldier's habit. Sleep when you can. Yanni stepped up
close to Reacher and said, 'Rough men stand ready in
the night.' Reacher found himself very aware of the live
phone. He just smiled and said, 'I'm usually in bed by
twelve o'clock.'

'Me too,' Yanni said. 'Alone. You remember my
address?' Reacher smiled again, and nodded. Then he
went downstairs and stepped out to the front porch and
walked a little way south across the dirt until he could
see past the bulk of the house to the eastern sky. Dawn
was coming. Black shaded to purple right on the
horizon. He turned round and watched the last
ambulance loading up.

Vladimir's final ride, judging by the size of the shape
under the sheet on the gurney. He emptied his pockets
and left Emerson's torn business card, and Helen
Rodin's cocktail napkin, and the motor court's big brass
key, and the Smith 60, and Gunny Cash's Navy Seal
SRK all in a neat little pile beside the front door. Then he
asked the paramedics if he could ride with them to
town. He figured he could walk east from the hospital
and be at the bus depot before the sun was fully up. He
could be in Indianapolis before lunch. Then he could
buy a pair of shoes and be just about anywhere before
the sun went down again.

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31/08/2007

LRS to LRF parser v.0.9; Mikhail Sharonov, 2006; msh-tools.com/ebook/