Contents
Chapter 25
Overview
At the LA Times, Westwood hesitates under legal pressure but searches his call database. He finds three recent calls from a “Maloney” with an Arkansas number, filed under conspiracies with no notes. Chang’s call gets no answer. They narrow suspects to six previously blocked callers, setting up the next investigative step.
Summary
Reacher and Chang clear security at the LA Times and meet Westwood, who reports his legal department’s concerns about confidentiality and lack of a newsworthy basis. Westwood’s editor dismisses Keever as unreliable, provoking Reacher to argue that Mother’s Rest and the “two hundred dead” could be a major story.
Reacher pressures Westwood, predicting he would quietly search the database anyway. Conceding, Westwood logs in and searches for “Maloney,” finding three calls within a five-week window, all from the same 501 Arkansas number. He had filed them under a conspiracies folder, with no subject notes.
Chang dials the Arkansas number on speaker; it rings without answer or voicemail. They identify 501 as an Arkansas cell area code and hypothesize that “Maloney” might be the same person who was previously blocked, later switching name and number.
Westwood reviews blocked callers from nine to ten weeks prior but finds none from Arkansas. Reacher reframes the discovery: the “Maloney” calls likely came from someone he recently blocked, yielding six viable candidates. They prepare to use those original numbers to reach the caller on a different line.
Who Appears
- Jack ReacherPressures Westwood to search the database; frames the investigative logic linking Maloney to a previously blocked caller.
- Michelle ChangCalls the Arkansas number tied to Maloney; helps narrow the timeline and candidate list.
- WestwoodLA Times science editor; initially constrained by legal concerns, then finds three Maloney calls and reviews blocked callers.