Page 34 of In Too Deep

“I take the bus. Or I hitch rides. Although that’s getting harder these days.”

“You were an army major and now you have to hitch rides? What happened? If that’s not too personal.”

“It’s fine. And I don’t have to hitch rides. I choose to.”

“You choose to? Why?”

“Because I don’t want to stay in one place and I don’t want to own a car.”

“Weird, but OK. You do know how to drive though, right?”

“I did the training, back in the day.”

“All right. It sounds like maybe you wanted a ride. But why would Gibson offer you one? I get that you did him a favor, but I can’t see an agent doing that.”

“It seems odd to me, too.”

“How long had Gibson been working this case?”

“I don’t have a date. Why?”

“Maybe he was undercover too long. He could have been getting sloppy. Or maybe he knew that Vidic had seen what happened with the assholes in the parking lot. Felt like it would look wrong if he didn’t do something for you in return for helping him.”

“Possible, I guess.”

“Or maybe he was going off the rails. Trying to deliberately screw up so he’d get pulled out. He could have just asked, of course, but a lot of people don’t like to admit defeat. Especially men.”

“We’ll never know, unless some other witness comes out of the woodwork. Or my memory comes back.” Reacher closed his eyes, but it didn’t help. He still felt like he was staring into a darkened room when he tried to remember the wreck.

—

Knight’s driving wassmooth and efficient. Fast on the straights, easy through the bends, no grumbling from the transmission or squealing from the tires. The morning sun was softening the faded blacktop with the shadows of leaves and branches and the gentle breeze was making them sway and dance. Reacher settled back in hisseat. He was enjoying the view and playing a little music in his head. Then he noticed that an arrow had appeared on the phone screen. It was below the two dots, but getting closer. Knight pointed to it and said, “That’s us. We’ll—”

The turn into the first of the switchbacks near where Gibson had crashed was tighter than Knight had expected. The back of the car twitched. Reacher closed his eyes. Knight lifted off the gas and corrected her line with a neat flick of the steering wheel. Then she said, “I’m so sorry. I should have seen that coming. I didn’t cause some kind of flashback, did I?”

Reacher opened his eyes. He felt like the first shaft of light had penetrated the darkness. He said, “Don’t apologize. That made me remember something. Just a fragment. When Gibson approached that bend he looked in his mirror. He said something like,How did he catch up so quick?Then he hit the gas. Too hard, I guess.”

“Reacher, that’s great. Anything else?”

Reacher closed his eyes for another moment. “No. Nothing more yet.”

“It will come. This is just the beginning. I have faith. Meantime, who do you think Gibson saw in his mirror? Vidic?”

“Seems likely. Vidic was at the crash scene. We know that. He says he was following Gibson and saw what happened. There’s no reason to think he’s lying.”

“OK. Then why did Gibson try to lose Vidic? What scared him so badly he wound up wrecking his car and killing himself?”

“Some of Vidic’s story is true. Maybe all of it is. Perhaps he did see Gibson meet his handler at the motel. Maybe Gibson knew that. He could have been desperate to get to Fletcher first. To lay down some kind of preemptive defense.”

“What kind of defense, though? It would be an if-you’re-explaining-you’re-losing situation, all day long. Not convincing. Not worth dying for. It had to be more urgent. Maybe he thought Vidic was going to kill him. Shoot him. Or run him off the road. He might have been trying to escape.”

“Possible. Gibson’s Lincoln was black, and I saw flakes of black paint on the bull bar on Vidic’s Jeep.”

“Could be something.”

“Could be nothing.”

“The FBI evidence guys will get samples. Their lab will figure it out.”

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