Page 17 of Exit Strategy
Gilmour fiddled with the phone, then slipped it back into his pocket. ‘Done. Sorry.’
‘The guy knew you had debts?’
Gilmour nodded.
‘He knew who you owed the money to? How much you owed?’
Gilmour nodded again.
‘How did he know?’
‘I have no idea. I didn’t ask. You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Not when the alternative is getting your legs broken by some psycho enforcer or throwing yourself in the ocean.’
‘Okay. How did you communicate with him?’
‘Text. He gave me a number. I used a different phone, of course.’
‘He told you to get a job at the port. Any random job? How could he be sure you’d get hired?’
‘A specific job. One with access to the information he needs. He texted me a link to an application form. Said if I applied, I’d be accepted. I did, and I was.’
‘Okay. And the shipment. When’s it due?’
‘Day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, technically, as it’s after midnight.’
‘You said the owner of the shipment already killed someone. Who?’
Gilmour looked away. ‘A coworker of mine.’
‘He was providing information, too? Something you couldn’t get? Or was he a dupe to keep you both straight?’
Gilmour’s voice dropped to almost a whisper. ‘Neither of those things. He had nothing to do with it. I got him killed. I didn’t mean to, but I did.’
‘What did you do?’
Gilmour sighed. ‘I got the text telling me which shipment to track but I didn’t want the search record to be tied to my log-in. Old habits, I guess. So I used his. And right after that, he got killed. Officially it went down as an accident, but come on.’
‘What happened?’
‘They dropped a shipping container on him.’
‘They dropped a container? That doesn’t sound like a surefire method of killing someone.’
‘It wasn’t some random thing. There was a little more to it. An hour after I did the search, a woman showed up at our office asking for him. I told her he was at a meeting. She asked where, and what time he’d be back.’ Gilmour paused again. He closed his eyes and took a breath. ‘AndI told her. I didn’t realize in the moment but I gave her all the details she needed to plan the hit. Where to drop the container, and when. And believe me, it worked. They could have buried the poor bastard in an envelope.’
‘Who was this woman?’
‘I don’t know. I’d never seen her before. She had an ID around her neck, so after theaccidentI called security. Gave them her name. They said she didn’t exist. There was no record of her in the system.’
Reacher looked Gilmour right in the eye. Gilmour held his glare for five long seconds, then looked down at his hands, which were clasped on his lap. Reacher had questioned hundreds of people during his years in the army. Maybe thousands. He had dealt with murderers. Con artists. Thieves. Sex offenders. Scumbags of every kind. He could sense when he was being lied to. He wasn’t getting that vibe from Gilmour. So he said, ‘I guess I don’t need to leave town this minute.’
‘What?’
‘I’ll stay. Two days. No more.’
‘That’s all I need. Thank you. Thank you.’ Gilmour sank back in his seat, closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. When he sat forward again his whole face was brighter. ‘I’ll have to interrogate the system again, which will alert the smugglers, I guess, but I’ll lie low after that. Keep out of their way.’
‘You’re looking at this all wrong. The smugglers aren’t the danger. They’re a temporary threat. It sounds like they don’t even know who you are. The guy who paid your debts, he’s the real problem.’
