Page 41 of Exit Strategy
TWENTY-FOUR
Reacher paused in the doorway and turned back to check the room. Satisfied, he stepped through to the reception area. Gilmour glanced back, too, then stopped. He grabbed Reacher’s arm, pointed toward Dr Martin’s desk, and said, ‘Look!’
Reacher said, ‘At what?’
‘The computer. See the wire coming out the back? It goes to a little box, like a pack of cigarettes.’
‘We don’t have time for—’
‘It’s an external hard drive.’ Gilmour was talking soft and fast, like a low-rent auctioneer. ‘They’re used for backups. Computers like Dr Martin’s have a thing called Time Machine. It saves changes automatically at set times every day. But here’s the thing. When it saves a new version of something, it doesn’t delete the old one. It saves both. So imagine you’re working on a document.Something long and complicated. You keep making changes. Then one morning you decide you don’t like what you did yesterday. You prefer the version from the day before. Or the week before. With Time Machine you can switch back to it.’
Reacher felt the seconds ticking away. ‘Does it work with the address book?’
‘It should.’ Gilmour lifted the phone. ‘Sabrina, what’s happening?’
Patten said, ‘Another cop car’s arrived. It pulled in behind the first one.’
Gilmour turned to Reacher and said, ‘What do we do? This could be important.’
Reacher said, ‘I’ll get it.’ He started back into Dr Martin’s office.
‘You can’t just grab the box.’ Gilmour pushed past Reacher and ran to the desk. ‘It’s more complicated than that.’
Patten’s voice came back over speakerphone. ‘The cops from the first car have gotten out. Two of them.’
Gilmour dropped into Dr Martin’s desk chair then jumped straight back up like he’d sat on a tack. He said, ‘Damn thing! It’s gone to sleep.’
Patten’s voice: ‘The cops from the second car are out. Two more.’
Gilmour grabbed the keyboard. He dodged around the desk, ran to Dr Martin’s body, pressed her finger against the sensor, and raced back.
Patten: ‘They’re on the sidewalk. Moving your way.’
Gilmour sat again. He grabbed the mouse and started scrolling and clicking. Reacher moved back into thereception area. He eased the edge of the blind aside and looked down.
Patten’s voice was louder: ‘They’re ten yards from the door. Five. They’re coming in.’
Gilmour jumped up and ran for the door. He almost crashed into Reacher, steadied himself, and turned to the exit. He said, ‘Come on. The police are in the building. We can’t go down. It’s too late. We’ve got to go up.’
Reacher grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. ‘No. We stay.’
Reacher worked the lock on the outer door, turned out the light, and pushed Gilmour back into Dr Martin’s office. He eased the inner door into place, trying to make no noise.
They heard footsteps thumping up the stairs. Two people. Heavy, purposeful, but not in a hurry.
Gilmour hissed, ‘Are you insane? Do you want them to catch us in here with the body – dressed like this?’ He gestured to the bags on their feet, his gloves, and their shower caps. ‘Do you want to go to jail? Because I—’
Reacher pressed his finger to his lips. Gilmour stopped talking.
The footsteps clomped along the corridor.
Patten’s voice crackled through the speaker: ‘Two cops are still outside. Blocking the entrance. They just stopped a woman from going in.’
Reacher drew his finger across his throat. Gilmour hit the End button on his phone.
The footsteps drew closer. Closer. And stopped. They sounded like they were right by the outer door.
Gilmour closed his eyes and started to rock back and forth. His lips were moving but he didn’t make a sound.
