Page 85 of In Too Deep

“I’m not saying they did.”

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Knight stood upand took a step away from the table. She said, “What the hell is wrong with me? I should have gone to Chicago to make sure the man who killed my father gets hauled away in handcuffs. Instead I stayed here with a crazy person. We know that Vidic isn’t an agent.”

Reacher said, “Do we?”

“We just agreed, there can’t be two. We know Gibson was an agent. Therefore, Vidic isn’t one.”

“Are you sure about Gibson?”

“Your friend Wallwork confirmed it.”

Reacher shook his head. “Wallwork confirmed there was an agent. Not who it was. And Devine told me the agent’s cover name was omitted from the file. That’s a breach of procedure, but too common to raise any eyebrows before it was too late.”

“Who cares about the cover name? Gibson’s prints proved it. They were pulled from the wreck of his car and matched with FBI personnel records. You can’t fake that.”

“Walk it back. Vidic pulled Gibson and me out of Gibson’s Lincoln. Then he was alone with it before he pushed it through the guardrail. He could have wiped Gibson’s prints and planted his own.Some DNA, too. A drop of blood, something like that. Easily accounted for by the accident. And he knew they’d be found. Devine told me that modern cars have a thing that shuts off the fuel supply in an accident to stop them from catching on fire or exploding. If Vidic is an agent, he’ll know that, too. So it was a calculated risk, not a fluke.”

Knight was silent for a moment, then she sat back down. “There’s a way the pieces could fit, I guess.”

“There is. Start at the motel. Who was there?”

“Gibson. Vidic. The agent’s handler. And the hooker.”

“Right. Vidic said he saw Gibson leaving a meeting with the handler in room 1. But that can’t be true because Gibson was with the hooker in room 2.”

“You think it was Vidic with the handler in room 1. And Gibson who saw him leave.”

Reacher nodded. “They were both going to regular meetings at the motel. Both were flying under the radar, but for different reasons. The hooker always had the same room. The handler switched hers up. It was only a matter of time before they wound up next door to each other.”

Knight said, “That’s how Vidic was able to describe the handler so well.”

“And her car. And why he lied about when he left the motel. He needed a plausible explanation for knowing those things so he claimed to have hung back and watched.”

“So Vidic was scared that Gibson was onto him. He probably followed him to the parking lot. But he couldn’t confront him because you were there, dealing with the wannabe car thieves and hitching a ride. Can you remember how Gibson seemed at that moment? Was he freaked out? Angry?”

Reacher paused. He closed his eyes, then nodded. “Yes. I canremember. He was pissed about the car thieves, but not scared or agitated or impatient.”

“Doesn’t sound like someone who just discovered a spy in his camp.”

“And it explains why he gave me a ride. The idea of an agent doing that never sat right.”

“Remember what you said about people projecting their own actions onto others? That goes for thoughts, too. And fears. Vidic would have assumed that Gibson would be suspicious when he saw him leaving a woman in a motel room. But Gibson would have thought Vidic was just there for some hanky-panky of his own. This whole thing could have been caused by a horrible misunderstanding.”

“A lot of tragedies are. Gibson’s behavior at the switchback fits that theory, too. He hit the gas when he saw Vidic closing in, sure. But in a regular macho, not-wanting-to-be-seen-as-a-slow-driver type way. Not in a serious attempt to run for his life.”

“So the crash was an unfortunate accident?”

“Unfortunate for Gibson. A godsend for Vidic.”

“How so? A civilian was dead.”

“Vidic wanted to get away and start over with Paris. Ditching Fletcher and Kane was one thing. Killing them, even, so that they couldn’t describe him to anyone if they ever got busted in the future. But the Bureau? If they knew he was MIA they’d never stop looking. He had to make them believe he was dead.”

“Hence the fire. We assumed it was to make sure the body couldn’t be identified as an agent’s. But we had it backward. It was to make sure the body couldn’t be identified as a civilian’s. So the Bureau would have to go with the circumstantial evidence and order a new star for the Wall of Honor.”

“It all fits.”

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