Running Blind(The Visitor) - By Lee Child Page 0,155
you killed her for personal reasons of your own and invented a story to cover yourself. But it's not a very good story, is it? There's no support for it. You can't put Lamarr anywhere near any of the scenes."
"She never left any evidence," Reacher said.
Blake smiled. "Ironic, isn't it? That's exactly what you said to us, right at the outset. You said all we had was we thought a person like you did it. Well, now all you got is you think Lamarr did it."
"Where's her car?" Reacher asked. "She drove up to Scimeca's place from the airport, where's her car?"
"The perp stole it," Blake said. "He must have snuck around the back on foot, originally, not knowing the cop was asleep. She surprised him, he took off in her car."
"You going to find a rental in her real name?"
Blake nodded. "Probably. We can usually find what we need to."
"What about the flight in from D.C.? You going to find her real name in the airline computer?"
Blake nodded again. "If we need to."
"You see your problem, right?" Deerfield said again. "It's just not acceptable to have a dead agent, without somebody being responsible."
Reacher nodded. "And it's not acceptable to admit an agent was a killer."
"Don't even think about it," Blake said.
"Even though she was a killer?"
"She wasn't a killer," Deerfield said. "She was a loyal agent, doing a fine job."
Reacher nodded.
"Well, I guess this means I'm not going to get paid," he said.
Deerfield made a face, like there was a bad smell in the room.
"This is not a joke, Reacher," he said. "Let's be real clear about that. You're in big trouble. You can say whatever the hell you want. You can say you had suspicions. But you'll look like an idiot. Nobody will listen to you. And it won't matter anyway. Because if you had suspicions, you should have let Harper arrest her, right?"
"No time."
Deerfield shook his head. "Bullshit."
"Was she visibly in the act of harming Scimeca?" Blake asked.
"I needed her out of my way."
"Our counsel will say even if you had mistaken but sincere prior suspicions, you should have gone straight for Scimeca in the tub and let Harper deal with Lamarr behind you. It was two against one. It would have saved you time, right? If you were so concerned with your old buddy?"
"It might have saved me half a second."
"Half a second could have been critical," Deerfield said. "Life-or-death medical situation like that? Our counsel will make a big point out of it. He'll say spending precious time hitting somebody proves something, like personal animosity."
The room went quiet. Reacher looked down at the table.
"Law buff like you knows all about it," Blake said. "Honest mistakes occur but even so, actions in defense of a victim need to happen right at the exact time the victim is getting assaulted. Not afterward. Afterward is revenge, pure and simple."
Reacher said nothing.
"And you can't claim it was mistaken and accidental, " Blake said. "You once told me you know all about how to break someone's skull, and no way would it happen by accident. That guy in the alley, remember? Petrosian's boy? And what goes for skulls goes for necks, right? So it wasn't an accident. It was deliberate homicide."
There was silence.
"OK," Reacher said. "What's the deal?"
"You're going to jail," Deerfield said. "There's no deal."
"Bullshit, there's no deal," Reacher said. "There's always a deal."
Silence again. It lasted minutes. Then Blake shrugged.
"Well, you want to cooperate, we could compromise, " he said. "We could call Lamarr a suicide, grieving about her father, tormented she couldn't save her sister."
"And you could keep your big mouth shut," Deerfield said. "You could tell nobody nothing, except what we want them told."
Silence again.
"Why should I?" Reacher said.
"Because you're a smart guy," Deerfield said. "Don't forget, there's absolutely nothing on Lamarr. You know that. She was way too smart. Sure, you could dig around a couple of years, if you had a million dollars for lawyer bills. You could come up with a little meaningless circumstantial stuff, but what's a jury going to do with that? A big man hates a small woman? He's a bum, she's a federal agent? He breaks her neck, and then he blames her for it? Some fantastic story about hypnosis? Forget about it."