Page 43 of Exit Strategy

‘When I met her makes no difference,’ Reacher said. ‘You don’t break your word. You don’t betray a confidence.’

‘Clearly you never worked in Intelligence.’

Reacher took a step toward the door, then stopped. He said, ‘Wait. Go back. You still have gloves on. Get Arlon James’s file.’

‘Who?’

‘The security guard Patten was forced to hire. Let’s see what his story is.’

‘So it’s okay to read his file, but not Sabrina’s? What’s that about?’

‘Just do it.’

Gilmour shook his head but went back to the cabinets, anyway. He opened the drawer holding theJs, rifled through the files, but didn’t pull anything out. He said, ‘It’s not here.’

‘It’s missing? No. I would have noticed the gap when we checked. Look again.’

‘There’s no point. It’s not missing. There’s no space for it. It looks like it doesn’t exist. I’ll check the doctor’s address book, too, just in case.’ He turned to the computer,then went through the ritual with the keyboard and Dr Martin’s finger. He clicked and scrolled, then shook his head. ‘No. Nothing. Maybe Sabrina remembered the name wrong.’

‘Did you check the backup drive?’

Gilmour nodded. ‘Nothing there, either.’ He took out his phone and redialed Patten. When she picked up, he said, ‘What was the name of the security guy you had to hire after me?’

Reacher could just about hear her muffled response: ‘Arlon James.’

Gilmour said, ‘Are you sure?’

‘Certain. Why?’

‘We can’t find his file here so I wanted to check that we had the right name.’

‘You’re reading our files? Stop! You can’t—’

‘Don’t worry. I looked at my own but I haven’t gone near yours. Neither has Reacher. Right?’

Gilmour held the phone at arm’s length and Reacher called out, ‘Right. And we won’t.’

Gilmour moved the phone back to his ear, listened for a moment, then said, ‘Because we’ve met you. We know how we’re both involved, and why. But we don’t know this James guy. It would help to see how he fits into the picture, and reading it in his file would be quicker than tracking him down in person. That’s all. I swear.’

He hung up, exhaled loudly, and got to his feet.

‘Are we done with the backup drive?’ Reacher said. ‘Or do we need to take it?’

‘We’re done with it.’

‘What about the other missing person? The fifth file.The name you were trying to match when the police arrived.’

A thin smile crept across Gilmour’s face. ‘Oh yeah. I found that entry.’

‘Was it useful?’

‘Define useful. If you mean finding the killer’s name and address, then yes, I’d say it was.’

TWENTY-FIVE

‘Kathryn Kasselwood,’ Gilmour said when he and Reacher were back in Patten’s car. ‘She killed Dr Martin.’

‘Are you sure?’ Patten said. ‘How do you know?’