Page 36 of In Too Deep

“I did have a house, once. Briefly. But I got rid of it.”

“Why?”

“It confirmed something I had suspected for a while. You don’t own a house. A house owns you.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? Where do you live?”

“Scottsdale, Arizona. Nice little condo. It’s on the thirteenth floor, so I got it cheap.”

“Have you been there long?”

“Ten years, give or take.”

“Ever fancied a change?”

“I’ve thought about it.”

“What stopped you?”

“I see where you’re going. Getting it ready for the market. Finding an agent. Viewings. Negotiating. Finding a new place. It’s a lot. But at the end of the day a person needs a place to call home.”

“Not me. I spent thirteen years going where the army told me. Now I go wherever I want. Whenever I want.”

“I get that. I think. But what about your stuff? Where do you keep it?”

“In my pocket.”

“I’m serious. Your clothes, for example. Shoes. Your TV. Books.”

“I’m wearing my clothes. And my shoes. I don’t often watch TV.And when I finish a book, if it was any good, I leave it on a bus or in a motel room so someone else can read it.”

“Wait. Rewind. You must have more than one set of clothes.”

“Why?”

“How do you wash them? What do you wear while they’re in the laundry?”

“I don’t wash them. I wear them for a couple of days, then get new ones.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Is it? Because I’d say owning a building and buying a machine and hooking up electricity and water and paying taxes and getting insurance and being tied to one place? That’s crazy.”

Knight pointed to her phone. “Look.” One of the dots had stopped. The other was still going. “Is that its destination, I wonder? Let’s see if it moves again.”

Reacher pointed to a driveway they were about to pass. “That’s where they took me after the accident.”

Knight slowed down. The driveway was empty and there were no vehicles parked on the road. She said, “No one there, I guess. Let’s continue. Stick with Kane’s guys.”

—

Reacher kept aneye on Knight’s phone and when they were close to the stationary dot he tipped his seat back as far as it would go and hunkered down.

Knight continued, smooth and steady. A minute later she said, “We’re clear.”

Reacher raised the seat. “What did you see?”

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