One Shot

They ended up having a late dinner together and then going out to the club. South Beach salsa wouldn’t have been Reacher’s first choice, but her company made it worthwhile. She was fun to be with. And she was a great dancer, obviously. Full of energy. She wore him out. At four in the morning she took him back to her hotel, eager to wear him out some more. Her hotel was a small Art Deco place near the ocean. Clearly the cruise line treated its people well. Certainly it was a much more romantic destination than Reacher’s own motel. And much closer.

And it had cable television, which Reacher’s place didn’t. He woke at eight on Saturday morning when he heard the dancer in the shower. He turned on the TV and went looking for ESPN. He wanted Friday night’s American League highlights. He never found them. He clicked his way through successive channels and then stopped dead on CNN because he heard the chief of an Indiana police department say a name he knew: James Barr. The picture was of a press conference. Small room, harsh light. Top of the screen was a caption that said: Courtesy NBC. There was a banner across the bottom that said: Friday Night Massacre. The police chief said the name again, James Barr, and then he introduced a homicide detective called Emerson. Emerson looked tired. Emerson said the name for a third time: James Barr. Then, like he anticipated the exact question in Reacher’s mind, he ran through a brief biography: Forty-one years old, local Indiana resident, U.S. Army infantry specialist from 1985 to 1991, Gulf War veteran, never married, currently unemployed.

Reacher watched the screen. Emerson seemed like a concise type of a guy. He was brief. No bullshit. He finished his statement and in response to a reporter’s question declined to specify what if anything James Barr had said during interrogation. Then he introduced a District Attorney. This guy’s name was Rodin, and he wasn’t concise. Wasn’t brief. He used plenty of bullshit. He spent ten minutes claiming Emerson’s credit for himself. Reacher knew how that worked. He had been a cop of sorts for thirteen years. Cops bust their tails, and prosecutors bask in the glory. Rodin said James Barr a few more times and then said the state was maybe looking to fry him.

For what?

Reacher waited.

A local anchor called Ann Yanni came on. She recapped the events of the night before. Sniper slaying. Senseless slaughter. An automatic weapon. A parking garage. A public plaza. Commuters on their way home after a long workweek. Five dead. A suspect in custody, but a city still grieving.

Reacher thought it was Yanni who was grieving. Emerson’s success had cut her story short. She signed off and CNN went to political news. Reacher turned the TV off. The dancer came out of the bathroom. She was pink and fragrant. And naked. She had left her towels inside.

"What shall we do today?" she said, with a wide Norwegian smile.

"I’m going to Indiana," Reacher said.

He walked north in the heat to the Miami bus depot. Then he leafed through a greasy timetable and planned a route. It wasn’t going to be an easy trip. Miami to Jacksonville would be the first leg. Then Jacksonville to New Orleans. Then New Orleans to St. Louis. Then St. Louis to Indianapolis. Then a local bus, presumably, south into the heartland. Five separate destinations. Arrival and departure times were not well integrated. Beginning to end, it was going to take more than forty-eight hours. He was tempted to fly or rent a car, but he was short of money and he liked buses better and he figured nothing much was going to happen on the weekend anyway.

What happened on the weekend was that Rosemary Barr called her firm’s investigator back. She figured Franklin would have a semi-independent point of view. She got him at home, ten o’clock in the morning on the Sunday.

"I think I should hire different lawyers," she said.

Franklin said nothing.

"David Chapman thinks he’s guilty," Rosemary said. "Doesn’t he? So he’s already given up."

"I can’t comment," Franklin said. "He’s one of my employers."

Now Rosemary Barr said nothing.

"How was the hospital?" Franklin asked.

"Awful. He’s in intensive care with a bunch of prison deadbeats. They’ve got him handcuffed to the bed. He’s in a coma, for God’s sake. How do they think he’s going to escape?"

"What’s the legal position?"

"He was arrested but not arraigned. He’s in a kind of limbo. They’re assuming he wouldn’t have gotten bail."

"They’re probably right."

"So they claim under the circumstances it’s like he actually didn’t get bail. So he’s theirs. He’s in the system. Like a twilight zone."

"What would you like to happen?"

"He shouldn’t be in handcuffs. And he should be in a VA hospital at least. But that won’t happen until I find a lawyer who’s prepared to help him."

Franklin paused. "How do you explain all the evidence?"

"I know my brother."

"You moved out, right?"

"For other reasons. Not because he’s a homicidal maniac."

"He blocked off a parking space," Franklin said. "He premeditated this thing."

"You think he’s guilty, too."

"I work with what I’ve got. And what I’ve got doesn’t look good."

Rosemary Barr said nothing.

"I’m sorry," Franklin said.

"Can you recommend another lawyer?"

"Can you make that decision? Do you have a power of attorney?"

"I think it’s implied. He’s in a coma. I’m his next of kin."

"How much money have you got?"

"Not much."

"How much has he got?"

"There’s some equity in his house."

"It won’t look good. It’ll be like a kick in the teeth for the firm you work for."

"I can’t worry about that."

"You could lose everything, including your job."

"I’ll lose it anyway, unless I help James. If he’s convicted, they’ll let me go. I’ll be notorious. By association. An embarrassment."

"He had your sleeping pills," Franklin said.

"I gave them to him. He doesn’t have insurance."

"Why did he need them?"

"He has trouble sleeping."

Franklin said nothing.

"You think he’s guilty," Rosemary said.

"The evidence is overwhelming," Franklin said.

"David Chapman isn’t really trying, is he?"

"You have to consider the possibility that David Chapman is right."

"Who should I call?"

Franklin paused.

"Try Helen Rodin," he said.

"Rodin?"

"She’s the DA’s daughter."

"I don’t know her."

"She’s downtown. She just hung out her shingle. She’s new and she’s keen."

"Is it ethical?"

"No law against it."

"It would be father against daughter."

"It was going to be Chapman, and Chapman knows Rodin a lot better than his daughter does, probably. She’s been away for a long time."

"Where?"

"College, law school, clerking for a judge in D.C."

"Is she any good?"

"I think she’s going to be."

Rosemary Barr called Helen Rodin on her office number. It was like a test. Someone new and keen should be at the office on a Sunday.

Helen Rodin was at the office on a Sunday. She answered the call sitting at her desk. Her desk was secondhand and it sat proudly in a mostly empty two-room suite in the same black glass tower that had NBC as the second-floor tenant. The suite was rented cheap through one of the business subsidies that the city was throwing around like confetti. The idea was to kick-start the rejuvenated downtown area and clean up later with healthy tax revenues.