“What kind of accounting thing?”
“I don’t know. Something about a number that didn’t add up. Sam didn’t go into detail.” Hannah was silent for a moment. “Wait. What’s all this about? You’re starting to freak me out. What’s going on with Angela? And what’s it to you? Tell me or I’m done answering questions.”
Reacher paused. “Hannah, I have some news. About Angela. It’s not good news. Is there somewhere we could sit?”
Hannah took a step back. “Who are you, again?”
“My name’s Reacher. Do you remember Detective Harewood? You spoke with him yesterday after you found Sam. I’m sure he left you a card. Call him. He’ll vouch for me.”
* * *
—
The door closed, and two minutes later it opened again. Hannah gestured for Reacher to come inside. He followed her into the apartment’s main living space. There was a lounge area, all pale wood furniture with soft-colored fabrics plus a couple of low bookcases and a small TV in the corner. Then an oval glass dining table surrounded by white leather chairs. And a kitchen at the far end, tucked away behind a breakfast bar. There were two high stools next to it. Hannah made her way across and perched on one. Reacher followed and took the other.
Hannah rested her elbow on the countertop. “You’re going to tell me Angela’s dead, too.”
Reacher said, “How did you know?”
“Detective Harewood told me you used to be a cop. In the army. Well, a cop shows up at your door? He asks about someone, then says he has bad news? Doesn’t take a genius. What happened to her?”
“She got hit by a bus.”
“Seriously?”
Reacher nodded.
“I’m sorry. That’s awful. Was it an accident?”
“No.”
“Wait. Was it…She didn’t…”
“Jump? No.”
“She was murdered? That’s terrible. I told her not to move to Mississippi. People are crazy there, you know.”
“It happened right here. In Gerrardsville.”
“No. I don’t believe it. When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What was Angela doing in Gerrardsville yesterday?”
“The police think she came to see Sam.”
“Why? He was helping her with that accounting thing, but on the phone. And on email. There was no need for her to come all this way.”
“The police think there was something between them.”
“What, like romantically?”
Reacher nodded.
Hannah shook her head. “Not a chance.”
“Are you sure?”
“A thousand percent. See, one, if Sam was interested in someone, he’d tell me. And two, if he was looking for romance, you’d be more his cup of tea than Angela.”
“Was that common knowledge?”
“He worked in a prison. He started when he was eighteen. Thirty years ago that wasn’t the kind of thing you broadcast. Not in that environment, anyway.”
“Is that why you got divorced?”
“It’s why we got married. Things were different back then. For both of us. We worked together. Kind of. He was a corrections officer. I worked for a charity that helps ex-cons adjust to normal life. Still do, on a casual basis. So it made sense. But gradually attitudes changed. They improved. Or so we thought.”
“I hear you. But here’s the strange thing. I saw a bunch of emails between Sam and Angela. They went back weeks. And they wound up by setting a meeting for yesterday.”
Angela straightened up. “You hacked into Sam’s email?”
“No. I saw printouts. They came from Angela’s employer.”
Hannah thought for a moment. “Sam wasn’t scheduled to work yesterday. He mentioned he was planning to go out. If Angela was in town it’s conceivable they were going to meet. But not to hook up. Trust me.”
“So what about the emails I saw?”
“Could someone have impersonated Sam, online, to lure Angela here? If they wanted to kill her? Pedophiles do that kind of thing all the time. With kids, anyway. And Angela already knew Sam. She trusted him. It would be easier to use his identity to trick her than to invent a new one.”
“Good in theory, but no. Angela initiated everything. Said she wanted to rekindle an old flame.”
“But there wasn’t any old flame. There couldn’t have been.”
“Maybe the accounting thing they were dealing with was more serious than Sam let on. Maybe they set up a meeting to talk about it. Maybe Angela was going to bring some documents for him to see. Or some other kind of evidence. But someone found out. Decided to stop them. And replaced the genuine emails between them with fake ones.”