Chapter 19

Through the night, Jack Reacher watches from his dark second-floor room. The one-eyed man keeps his distant post while room 203’s light eventually goes out. Morning brings the same quiet routine until the drapes of 203 open to reveal a woman in a white dress.

A white Cadillac without plates arrives as before. The driver helps the woman with her luggage, loads her roll-on into the trunk, and drives her away. Reacher showers and meets Michelle Chang for breakfast, both armed and alert after surviving the prior night.

Over coffee, Reacher and Chang compare observations. Chang finds the woman’s white, garden-party look suspiciously out of place and anticipates eventual retaliation from the locals Reacher injured. They weigh the seriousness of Keever’s situation, leaning toward foul play, and agree on a three-part plan: eat, drink coffee, and find Maloney, starting with the grain receiving office.

At the receiving office, a white-haired clerk checks the pre-cleared weighbridge list and finds no Maloney—only a deceased Mahoney. He suggests trying the Western Union store that doubles as a post office. Reacher and Chang head there next.

Inside the Western Union/FedEx shop, the man behind the counter looks up. Reacher recognizes him immediately: he is the driver of the unplated white Cadillac that collected the woman from room 203.