Killing Floor

Reacher returns to the stationhouse where Mayor Teale has just announced he will take over the chief of police position himself. Reacher takes this as a sign that Teale is also corrupt. Teale already directed the officers to leave the double-homicide of Joe and Sherman Stoller alone and focus all efforts on Morrison’s case. Teale has everyone looking at Morrison’s old case files for grudge-bearing parolees, but Reacher, Roscoe, and Finlay agree that avenue leads nowhere. Reacher asks Finlay to call his FBI friend, Picard, to set up protective custody for Charlene and her children. Reacher kisses Roscoe goodbye, and as he leaves, Teale tries but fails to convince him to leave Margrave. Reacher goes to warn Charlene, and she tells him Stevenson showed her Reacher’s military service record. She asks to hire Reacher to find Hubble, but Reacher refuses, since his brother’s death would be too big a conflict of interest. Reacher tells Charlene he thinks Hubble is dead, but she does not believe him. Reacher agrees to at least look for Hubble while solving Joe’s murder. Charlene pays Reacher with an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. While Charlene helps the children pack, Reacher sees a car driving slowly past the house before speeding away. Moments later, Picard arrives. Reacher is surprised to see the “gigantic black guy” is taller and heavier than him. Picard plans to put Charlene and the kids in a safe house in Atlanta and assures Reacher he will keep it off the record in order to protect them.

Reacher drives to Warburton and lies to gain entry, saying Morrison sent him up from Margrave to see Spivey. Reacher threatens Spivey with Morrison’s switchblade, and Spivey admits that Morrison directed him to set up the prison attacks on Reacher and Hubble. Reacher tries to make Spivey admit who gave Morrison the order, but Spivey becomes terrified and runs back inside the prison. Reacher decides to go out of town with Roscoe to help him clear his mind, so they drive to a bar in Alabama. They listen to live music, drink lots of beer, and Reacher feels happy for the first time since arriving in Margrave. When they leave, they are too drunk to drive, and it is raining heavily. They agree to stay the night in a motel a mile down the road. As they fall asleep, Reacher talks about growing up with Joe, and Roscoe tells him about her family: generations of farmers in Margrave who lost their land when Teale’s family built the railroad. In the morning, they drive back to Margrave and find Roscoe’s house broken into. Nothing is missing, but Reacher sees four sets of wet shoeprints from rubber overshoes.

The team that killed the Morrisons had come for Reacher and Roscoe during the storm the night before. Reacher’s temper flares: “to attack me is a second attack on Joe” (226). He sees Roscoe go from shock to denial to fear and does his best to bolster her. Reacher says he wishes he was there last night so he could kill three of the men and get information from the fourth. Roscoe is convinced by his speech and regains her strength. Roscoe packs a bag and they leave the door ajar, as if they never saw the break-in. On their way into town, Reacher sees another Kliner Foundation van. Roscoe explains that Kliner got a good land deal for his warehouse, so he invests money into Margrave through the Foundation. Reacher and Roscoe go to Eno’s for breakfast. Mr. Kliner himself comes into the diner to talk to Eno, and before he leaves, Kliner smiles menacingly at Reacher. Roscoe tells Reacher that before coming to Margrave, Kliner developed chemicals that polluted a river and the EPA shut him down. Kliner relocated his plant to Venezuela before coming to Georgia and opening a warehouse for commercial goods.

At the stationhouse, Finlay tells them about a long phone call he had with the Treasury Department, where Joe worked. Joe started a new project a year ago, and after several rounds of “that’s top secret,” Finlay connected with Molly Beth Gordon, an agent who worked closely with Joe. Molly Beth agrees to talk to Reacher and offhandedly mentions that Joe’s debriefing for the project would have been Monday—the day after the “window of vulnerability” that Hubble mentioned closes. At the morgue, the medical examiner tells them Sherman Stoller was a former truck driver, based on occupational markers found during the autopsy. At lunch, Reacher calls Molly Beth. She says Joe ran the Treasury’s anti-counterfeiting operations. Molly Beth promises to look into Joe’s work in Margrave and call the next day. Reacher goes for a walk past the barbershop. One of the owners says two Hispanic men asked them about Reacher that morning. Reacher is surprised to learn there have been no new customers since his last visit. The owners say they do not need customers, since the Kliner Foundation pays all businesses a grant of $1,000 per week.