Page 29 of No Plan B

“I figured they could be connected to Angela St. Vrain.”

“Were they?”

“No.”

Harewood checked his watch. “Did you call them an ambulance at least?”

Reacher shook his head. “I tried for a garbage truck. No luck. Apparently it’s not trash day.”

Harewood took out his phone and speed-dialed a number. He toldsomeone at his office to arrange for medical assistance and a uniformed escort to remain with the guys at the hospital. Then he sat down and said, “So what kind ofno goodwere these guys up to?”

“Trying to blackmail Roth. His ex-wife said he’d been under extra stress at work recently. This explains why.”

“What did they want?”

“To get the staff rota rewritten a particular way. Probably to help them smuggle stuff into the prison they worked at. Possibly to help break someone out.”

“Damn. What did they have on Roth?”

“Nothing real. Just some trumped-up nonsense. They admitted that. But enough to cause trouble for Roth. If he’d stayed alive.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“I’ll make sense of it one way or another, but level with me. Are you telling the truth?”

“About what?”

“Did you really think these guys had something to do with Angela? Or did you just find the note and come over here looking for trouble? Because I don’t see the connection.”

“Turned out there wasn’t a connection. Their scheme was local. Completely separate. But here’s what I was thinking. The fact is, Angela wasn’t linked to Roth romantically. He was her former boss. She’d gone to him for help.”

“With what?”

“Some accounting thing at her work. They’d been communicating via email. That’s another fact. Now for the speculation. I think Angela came to Gerrardsville to show Roth something. Some evidence relating to whatever kind of wrongdoing she had uncovered. I think whoever had her killed found this out, but only after she had leftMississippi. Hence staging her accident here. Where they knew she would be. And when.”

“That would account for the timing and location.” Harewood pointed to the ground on either side. “But not why you thought these guys could be involved.”

“Stopping Angela from showing the evidence to Roth wasn’t enough. They needed to recover it. Whatever it was. Hence stealing Angela’s purse.”

“How could they be sure the evidence was in Angela’s purse?”

Reacher didn’t answer.

A frown spread across Harewood’s face. “They could have thought Angela mailed it to Roth before she left home.”

“That would have been the smart move. A package is safer in the US mail than in a purse. Especially when you have a couple of killers on your tail.”

“And you thought that wasthe proofdemanded in the note?”

“I hoped it was. Because then we could have captured a couple of foot soldiers. Worked our way up the food chain. And it would have meant that Roth’s death was an accident.”

Harewood was silent for a moment. “You only try to blackmail someone you think is still alive. Not someone you know you already killed. I guess even without the evidence Angela was bringing, Roth knew too much.”

“That’s how I see it.”

“I’ll get on to the ME. Ask her to run tests for everything known to man that can induce a heart attack.”

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