The bike was right there. Next to him. It wasn’t locked. That seemed like a sign he should take it. Jed wasn’t a thief. He didn’t want to steal it. But he also didn’t want to get caught. And the messenger had behaved like a total asshole. So Jed decided it would be OK to just borrow the bike. Given the circumstances. Just for a little while. As short a time as possible. Then he could find a way to return it. Bike riding was not something Jed enjoyed. But it had to be better than anything those guys would do if they got their hands on him.
Chapter 29
Reacher was half expecting the truck to be gone when he got back from dumping the Mercury. He left it in the corner on the far side of the lot, tucked in at the side of a donation box for a clothing charity that didn’t look like it saw much action. Then he strolled back. He wanted Hannah to have plenty of time to think. To weigh her options. She had been through a lot in the last couple of days. Finding Sam Roth’s body. Learning that he had been murdered. Hearing that Angela St. Vrain had also been murdered. Almost getting murdered herself. Reacher wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d jumped into the driver’s seat the moment he was out of sight, headed for the highway, and put as many miles between them as humanly possible.
* * *
—
The truck was still there. Hannah was standing next to it. A small red suitcase was at her side. A stripey tote bag was attached to its handle and she had her purse slung over her shoulder.
She said, “We need to talk.”
Reacher said, “No need to explain. Thanks for staying to say goodbye. And thanks for all your help.”
“What are you talking about? You think those assholes scared me off? Screw them. I was already all in. That goes double now they laid hands on me. No. We need to talk about Sam’s truck. We can’t use it anymore.”
“Is it damaged?”
“Apart from the window, no. That’s not the problem. Those guys? Who jumped me? They recognized it somehow. They were walking by, in a hurry, heading for the building, and suddenly they stopped. I saw them checking the license plate. Then before I twigged what was happening the doors were open and they were inside, shoving their guns in my face. But the point is, they must have connected you to Sam. And if they knew to look out for his truck, their buddies will, too. At the next ambush. We’ll never get through. We need to get a replacement vehicle.”
“You have a point, but our options are limited here. The guys who jumped you must have come in a vehicle. We could find it. Take it. But there’s a good chance their buddies would recognize it, too. So there would be no benefit. Or we could steal a car from the parking lot but it would be reported in minutes. Then we would be worse off. We might not make it to the next ambush at all.”
“Taking people’s cars? Stealing other ones?” Hannah smiled and shook her head. “I was thinking about something less extreme. More legal. We should get a rental car. There must be a bunch of depots in Jackson. Or if we don’t want to schlep all that way we could get one dropped off here. That would be more expensive, but a lot more convenient.”
“How long would that take?”
Hannah pulled her phone out of her purse. “I’ll see who has a car available. Then we can figure out the quickest option.” The screen lit up and her phone unlocked itself. “And there’s something else. When I was waiting for you to change, before those guys showed up, I checked the map to see what the rest of the route to Winson was like. And look.” She held out the phone so that Reacher could see the screen. “See that red line? It means stationary traffic. I googled it, and it turns out that’s because of a construction zone. The road’s down to a single lane. So this is where the ambush will be. Not the hill you found on the paper map. This is a much better place. We’ll be stationary. So we’ll be a sitting duck. There’s no way they could miss us. Not in a recognizable vehicle. And there’s no other route we could take.”
Reacher thought for a moment. “Does Google say what kind of traffic management they have there? Lights? A guy with a stop/go board?”
“Google didn’t. But I also found a couple of online message boards for inmates’ families. There’s a lot of talk about the problems people have when they go visit. One woman mentioned they’re using a pilot vehicle. You know the kind of thing? Usually a pickup with a big illuminated sign in the load bed. It shuttles back and forth. Drivers have to wait until it comes and follow it to the other end. This woman said the driver was a jackass. She claimed he dawdled along extra slow and let the lines back up so much she missed half her visiting time.”