Reacher shook his head. “No. There’s something I want you to think about. I want you to consider going somewhere else. On your own. For a couple of days.”
“The hell I will. I’m going wherever you go. You can’t make me drive you all this way then dump me. Talk about a dick move.”
“I didn’t make you. I’m not dumping you. But we have new information now. We should be smart. Act accordingly.”
“What new information?”
“We’ve lost the element of surprise. Minerva knows I’m coming. They know my name. They have my description. They now have a current photograph. Their people are competent. They’re out in force, looking for me. Sticking with me now will expose you to a higher level of risk. Much higher.”
“OK. The risk is higher now. I get that. But you know what? I can take any level of risk I damn well want. You don’t get to decide that for me.”
“I’m not deciding. I’m advising. Your goal is to get the people who killed—murdered—Sam. You can’t do that if they murder you first. So why don’t I go ahead, like an advance party. Get the lay of the land. Sweep out any low-level operatives I find skulking around. Then when the risk is lower, I’ll call. You’ll join me. And we’ll get to the heart of the thing together.”
Hannah was silent for a moment. “You say the risk is higher. But here’s what I don’t understand. If we’re right, the Minerva guys killed Angela because she uncovered something fishy in their accounts. They killed Sam because Angela told him what she found. So why are they coming after you? What’s the connection? What aren’t you telling me?”
Reacher paused for a moment, then he talked Hannah through what had happened in Gerrardsville after he witnessed Angela getting pushed in front of the bus. He told her about chasing the guy in the hoodie into the alley. Taking Angela’s purse from him. Looking inside. Finding the envelope. The guy’s partner showing up in the stolen BMW. And how they got away when the fire escape collapsed.
Hannah punched Reacher in the shoulder. “Why keep all that a secret? I’ve gone way out on a limb for you. I don’t deserve to be kept in the dark.”
Reacher shrugged. “Suppose those guys show up in the hospital sometime soon. Or at the morgue.”
Hannah was silent for a moment. “Fair, I guess. I can see why you wouldn’t want to advertise a grudge against them. But that’s not the key point here. You hurt a couple of Minerva’s guys. Maybe saw some incriminating evidence. That’s reason for them to come after you. Not the other way around. So why are they expecting you? What else are you holding back?”
“Nothing.”
“You swear?”
Reacher nodded.
“OK,” Hannah said. “Maybe they know you connected them to the murders?”
Reacher shook his head. “I told the Gerrardsville police that Angela didn’t kill herself but I hadn’t factored Minerva in, back then. And the police ignored me, anyway. Angela’s file is closed. So is Sam’s.”
“Then it has to be about Angela’s purse. The Minerva guys took it, so there had to be something important inside.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. They might have thought something important was. They might have hoped. Doesn’t mean it was there.”
“Tell me again what was in her purse?”
Reacher listed everything he had seen.
“Could anything have been sewn into the lining?”
“I was a military cop. I know where people hide things.”
“So we’re back to the envelope. Tell me about that again.”
“It held a file on a guy called Anton Begovic. Wrongly convicted, due for release tomorrow. Minerva sponsored his appeal.”
“Those jackasses.”
“There’s something wrong with setting an innocent man free?”
“No. Of course not. It’s just—Minerva. With them everything’s about PR. Their head dude is a guy called Bruno Hix. He’s notorious. He doesn’t take a dump without bringing in an image consultant to exploit it. I bet they got some lawyer who owed them a favor to do the appeal work for free. Then they’ll stage a huge hullabaloo and make it look like the whole corporation is run by saints and angels and it’ll cost them nothing. Sam was always suspicious of them.”
“Why?”
“If something sounds too good to be true, then it isn’t true. That’s what he always said. Like with their wages. They pay twenty-five percent above the industry average, across the board. They made sure everyone knows about it. Then they make sure no one gets any overtime.”