Page 37 of In Too Deep

“The car was positioned with a good view of the front of a house. A large place. Fancy. Half-timbered, like it was trying to look European. Only the driver was visible.”

“They’re running surveillance. The passenger will be watching the rear.”

“That would be my guess, too.”

“Vidic said Fletcher wanted the extra muscle because he was worried that Bowery sold him out. The missing guy. This must be the target. They’re thorough. The job’s scheduled for 4:00a.m. Could you find out who owns the place?”

“Possibly. I’d have to call in a favor or two, given that I’m persona non grata right now. It would take a while. And assuming something fishy is going on, I doubt we’d learn much. Just the name of some shell corporation out of the Cayman Islands or somewhere. That would be my bet.”

“The waitress at the diner told me a couple of these places got bought by Russians, in early twenty-one. What are the odds this is one of them?”

Knight pulled over to the side of the road. She pointed to her phone. “The other car has stopped, too.” She did something to the screen that caused the map to zoom in. The outline of a building appeared next to the stationary dot.

“Is that shape accurate?”

“Pretty much. I think.”

“It’s another house. Another surveillance job?”

“Let’s find out.”

—

Reacher tipped hisseat back again when they were near the second car and straightened up when Knight gave him the all-clear.

She said, “Carbon copy. They’re watching both places. No doubt about it. The question is, why? Are they going to hit both? Or is it an either-or situation? Maybe they’ll make a late decision depending on what the watchers report?”

Reacher said, “Or maybe it’s neither. Fletcher wanted to avoid getting hit. I assumed that meant he wanted backup at the target location. Which works if the origin of the threat is unknown. But what if the Russians, the owners of these properties, are connected? Offense is the best defense. These guys’ job could be to make sure they don’t make it to the target at all.”

“How can we confirm that?”

“There’s no point hanging around, watching the watchers. They won’t give anything away. And it’s not like Fletcher or Kane will show up and talk to them. Anything develops, they’ll call them on the phone.”

“So what do we do?”

“Go back to Fletcher’s house. He had a bad day yesterday. Maybe he didn’t square everything away properly.”

“How will we get in? If they figure out someone’s been messing with the locks, they’ll run, for sure.”

“Not a problem.” Reacher pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “We can use these. They’re Fletcher’s. He lost them.”

“Lost them?”

Reacher shrugged.

Knight said, “He must know they’re missing. What if they changed the locks?”

“Then we think of something else. But for that to happen Fletcher would have to admit to his people how badly he screwed up. Does that sound like the way a boss would behave?”

Chapter17

There were still no vehiclesparked outside the house. Knight pulled into the wide gravel driveway and turned the car around so that it was facing the exit. Reacher took a moment to study the windows. He was looking for telltale silhouettes or anything that was moving. He saw nothing that worried him so he approached the door. Fletcher’s keys still worked the lock. He stepped into the octagonal hallway. Knight followed him. She moved to the bottom of the staircase and turned around 360 degrees.

Knight said, “What a place. You don’t see it and think about settling down? Just for a second? Imagine living somewhere like this.”

Reacher said, “I’d rather sleep in a ditch.”

“Suit yourself. Start upstairs?”

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