Read 17 A Wanted Man for Free Online

morning Sorenson had taken eyewitness testimony with a pinch of salt.
    She asked, ‘Did you see the man in the green coat arrive?’
    The guy said, ‘No. I saw him on the sidewalk, that’s all, heading for the old pumping station, right there.’
    ‘Did you see the red car arrive?’
    ‘No. It was already there when I looked.’
    ‘Were the two men in the black suits in it?’
    ‘No, they were on the sidewalk too.’
    ‘Following the other man?’
    The guy nodded. ‘About ten feet back. Maybe twenty.’
    ‘Can you describe them?’
    ‘They were just two guys. In suits.’
    ‘Old? Young?’
    ‘Neither. They were just guys.’
    ‘Short? Tall?’
    ‘Average.’
    ‘Black or white?’
    ‘White.’
    ‘Fat or thin?’
    ‘Average.’
    Sorenson asked, ‘Any distinguishing marks?’
    The guy said, ‘I don’t know what that is.’
    ‘Anything special about their faces? Beards, scars, piercings? Tattoos? Like that.’
    ‘They were just guys.’
    ‘What about the colour of their hair? Was it light or dark?’
    ‘Their hair?’ the guy said. ‘I don’t know. It was hair-coloured, I guess.’
    Sorenson asked, ‘Did you see a knife when they went in?’
    ‘No,’ the guy said.
    ‘Did you see a knife when they came out?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Did they have blood on them?’
    ‘I guess one of their suit jackets looked wet in a couple of spots. But it was black, not red. Like it could have been water. On a black suit, I mean.’
    Sorenson said, ‘The street lights are yellow.’
    The guy glanced out his window, as if to confirm it, and said, ‘Yes.’
    ‘So blood might have looked black, in the yellow light.’
    ‘I guess.’
    Sorenson asked, ‘Did the red car belong to the two men?’
    The guy said, ‘They got in it, lady.’
    ‘But how did they look when they got in it? Like they were totally familiar with it? Or did they fumble around?’
    Goodman looked a question from the front seat. Sorenson said, ‘The dead guy had nothing in his pockets. Including no car keys. So how did he get here? Maybe the red car was his.’
    Goodman said, ‘Then how did the two men get here? They didn’t walk. It’s cold, and they weren’t wearing coats.’
    ‘Maybe they all came together.’
    The eyewitness said, ‘I don’t know, lady. They got in the car and drove away. That’s all I saw.’
    So Goodman let the eyewitness make his way home to bed, and then he drove Sorenson north, to let her take a look at the abandoned red car.

NINE
    REACHER’S EYES WERE closed and his nose wasn’t working, so taste and touch and hearing were taking up the sensory slack. He could taste copper and iron in his mouth, where blood was leaking down the back of his throat. He could feel the rear bench’s mouse-fur upholstery under his right hand fingertips, synthetic and dense and microscopically harsh. His left hand was in his lap, and he could feel the rough cotton of his pants, thick and fibrous and still slick with the manufacturer’s pre-wash treatments. He could hear the loud zing of concrete sections under the tyres, and the hum of the motor, and the whine of its drive belts, and the rush of air against the windshield pillars and the door mirrors. He could hear the give and take of seat springs as he and the others floated small quarter-inches with the ride. He could hear Don McQueen breathing slow and controlled as he concentrated, and Karen Delfuenso a little anxious, and Alan King changing to a shorter, sharper rhythm. The guy was thinking about something. He was coming up to a decision. Reacher heard the scrape of cloth against a wrist. The guy was checking his watch.
    Then King turned around, and Reacher opened his eyes.
    King said, ‘I really want to get to Chicago before dawn.’
    Suits me
, Reacher thought.
Plenty of morning departures from Chicago. South through Illinois, east through Kentucky, and then Virginia is right there
. He said, ‘That should be possible. We’re going fast. It’s wintertime. Dawn will be