Page 75 of In Too Deep

“Getting my shield back. The guy threw a bunch of questions about Kane at me. Superficial nonsense, mostly. He made out that the chance of me getting reinstated was hanging by a thread. He said they were grateful for my help and were prepared to pull some strings and get me my shield back. But to stand the best chance of that working I need to stay under the radar for a couple of days. And the only place they can be sure I’ll do that effectively is here.”

“Did he mention Cone Dynamics?”

“Yes. At the end. He went full Columbo on me.Just one more thing…”

“Same with me. She slipped it in when she was already halfway out of the room. Tried to make it casual, like she wanted my help with some innocuous puzzle.”

“You get the feeling that’s what this is really about?”

Reacher nodded. “If all they wanted was for me to identify the body, they could have shown me a picture from his file. They could help you get your job back wherever you are in the world, and whatever you’re doing. No, I think they’re panicking and trying not to show it. I think they want us on ice until they figure out how bad this report is. And where it is.”

“I think you’re right. The agent who drove you from the motel? He wasn’t exactly outside your door just now, but he wasn’t far away. When I came up the stairs he acted like he was waiting to talk to someone. The agent who drove me. And they let me keep my phone. No doubt to see who I contact.”

“They’re keeping tabs on us. They drew the short one. Babysitting duty.”

“The question is, what are we going to do about it?”

“What you do is your call. Me, I’m going to hang around a day ortwo. I brought Wallwork into this. He’s a decent guy. I don’t want his career to get ruined because of me. And speaking of Wallwork, can I borrow your phone? There’s no harm in talking to him. They already know we’re in touch.”

Knight passed Reacher her phone and he dialed Wallwork’s number. Wallwork picked up on the first ring and said, “How’s it going? Are you hanging in there? Behaving yourself?”

“No one’s been hospitalized yet. I need one favor, though.”

“I’ve already stuck my neck out too far. Don’t ask me for anything else, Reacher, please.”

“I need one more thing. This is important for both of us or I wouldn’t ask.”

Wallwork sighed. “OK. What is it?”

“I need to know if Gibson’s—Agent Albatross’s—handler was at the motel on the day of the crash.”

“No way. Absolutely not. I can’t share that kind of operational information.”

“What harm can it do? It’s in the past. I’m not asking for someone’s future whereabouts.”

“No. I’m hanging up now.”

“You need to find a way. I need that information. It’s vital.”

“Why is it vital?”

“Find out for me. If my suspicion is right, then I’ll tell you. If I’m wrong, you want no part of it. Trust me.”

—

Reacher handed thephone back to Knight but she didn’t put it away. Instead she called up its browser and started tapping away on the pretend keyboard. Reacher said, “What are you doing?”

She said, “Googling Cone Dynamics. I want to see if it’s even areal company.” She tapped and swiped a little more, then held the screen up for Reacher to see. “I guess they do exist.”

Reacher took a moment to read the text. It said that Cone Dynamics was an audio consultancy specializing in the design of high-end loudspeakers for home and professional use. He touched an underlined word,Gallery,and a bunch of pictures came up. They showed scenes from houses. Offices. Concert halls. Nightclubs. A diverse set of venues but all with one thing in common. Loudspeakers with a distinctive royal blue grille. Reacher thought about all the bands he’d seen in all the bars and clubs and halls around the world. He tried to remember if he had ever seen any speakers like them. He didn’t think he had. But he couldn’t swear to it. He was more about the music than the equipment.

Knight took the phone back and tapped a bunch of horizontal lines in the top right corner of the screen. The wordsAbout, Products, Services, Customer Care,andContact Usappeared. Knight hitContact Us,touched the call option, and put the phone on speaker. A machine picked up after six rings. A recording of a woman’s voice said, “Thank you for contacting Cone Dynamics. All our consultants are tied up helping clients right now but your call is important to us so please leave a message after the tone.”

Knight said, “This is Alicia Taylor of Taylor Design Partners, Manhattan. I’m rehabbing a property for a client on Central Park West and they have some pretty specific requirements for audio. I need to go bespoke because nothing off the shelf is acceptable to them, so please call me back to discuss. Budget’s no issue on this one so we could really have some fun.”

Reacher said, “Think they’ll call?”

“I do. I think they’ll ask a few pertinent questions, say they need some time to pull a proposal together, then a week or so later saythey’re too busy to give the project the time it deserves and back out. We’ll most likely have moved on by then. And if we haven’t, we’ll still be no closer to knowing if they’re legit or not.”

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