Killing Floor

Nearly ten miles out of town, Reacher sees a dense copse of trees. He follows the road into the copse, speeds up, and jumps out of the car, taking cover in the brush before the other men’s car catches up. Reacher watches the two men inspect his empty car, and when their backs are turned, he quickly shoots them both. Reacher searches their sedan and finds Spivey’s dead body in the trunk. Reacher stuffs the two dead men in the trunk, too, and changes back into his old clothes. He uses a tree branch to swipe away their footprints and then drives back into town. Roscoe says Picard is looking into the rental car, and Reacher tells her about the two assassins he killed. He half expects her to disapprove, but she says, “Two down…Good work, Reacher” (274). Reacher calls Molly Beth again to get more background on Joe’s anti-counterfeiting work. Roscoe drives Reacher out to the assassins’ car. He drives it to the Atlanta airport and abandons it in long-term parking.

He meets Roscoe in a hotel near the airport, and they clean up to visit the address Sherman Stoller gave in his arrest report. An older woman answers the door, and says Sherman is inside. Reacher and Roscoe are confused at first, but the woman explains her husband is Sherman and their son is Sherman Junior. She gives them the right address, a large new construction house in an upscale neighborhood they can hardly believe a truck driver can afford. Sherman’s ex-wife, Judy, is not surprised to hear Sherman is dead, and she openly calls Sherman a thief. She shows them two sour-smelling empty boxes that held air conditioning units he stole. Judy shows them a photograph of Sherman by his truck with his boss, and Reacher recognizes the boss as Paul Hubble. Roscoe sees something else in the photo, and Judy lets her keep it.

In the car, Roscoe points out background details in the photograph as belonging to Kliner’s warehouse. She calls the Atlanta DMV to look up Sherman Stoller’s truck registration and learns the truck is registered to Kliner Industries. The next day, Reacher and Roscoe wait for Molly Beth and Picard to call them back. Reacher asks Roscoe about Gray. She says Gray was a good detective, a “teetotaler,” he kept meticulous files, and his suicide was a shock to everyone. Finlay calls to say that Picard traced Joe’s rental car. Reacher and Roscoe meet Picard at his office for the details. Picard says the car was prebooked and delivered to Joe’s hotel. He gives them the address. As they drive to the hotel, Reacher sees a black pick-up truck identical to Kliner’s headed in the opposite direction. At the hotel, Reacher asks for the personal items Joe left in the room, but the clerk says they were already picked up by a Latino man. Outside, Reacher and Roscoe determine that whoever took Joe’s belongings would have kept his briefcase, assuming that it held everything important and dumped the rest. They find Joe’s garment bag in a dumpster, and inside the heel of one of his shoes, they find a folded-up piece of paper.

When they return to their hotel room, Finlay calls again. Molly Beth is flying down with some of Joe’s files, and they will meet her at the airport in a few hours. Reacher compares the paper from Joe’s garment bag with the scrap found in his shoe. The pieces match. The full paper bears the title “Operation E Unum Pluribus,” meaning “out of one comes many.” The page had Paul Hubble’s number, as well as phone numbers next to sets of initials: W. B., K. K., and J. S. The last two items on the page are Stollers’ Garage and Gray’s Kliner File. Reacher starts dialing the phone numbers on Joe’s notes. W. B. is a professor of modern history at Princeton University in New Jersey. K. K. is a professor of modern history at Columbia University in New York City. The number for J. S. leads to the New Orleans Police Department; Reacher asks the sergeant to ask every J. S. in the building if they know a Joe Reacher and to have anyone who does to call him back immediately.

Reacher and Roscoe meet Finlay at the airport. A woman in the crowd sees Reacher—it is Molly Beth, and she recognizes him because he looks like Joe. She holds her briefcase up and gestures for them to meet her off to the side. Reacher loses sight of Molly Beth, and when the crowd disperses, she is gone. Reacher sees an airport employee side-step a bag on the floor. The clasp has Molly Beth’s initials on it. The luggage conveyer belt moves, and a brown leather bag emerges, its sides slashed open. Reacher climbs through the opening and enters the sorting area. First, he finds one of Molly Beth’s shoes, and then he finds a trail of blood leading into a dark corner. Molly Beth is crumpled against the far wall; someone stabbed her in the stomach and ripped the blade up through her chest. She struggles to speak: “Got to get in before Sunday” (314). Reacher holds her in his arms as she dies.