Page 40 of Exit Strategy
Gilmour looked all around. ‘There’s no sign of it. The killer must have taken it. Let me check something.’ He moved to the far side of the desk and hit the space bar on the keyboard, then brought it over to Martin’s body. He crouched down and pressed her right index finger against a sensor built into a key at the top corner. Then he hurried back and checked the screen. He clicked a couple of times and said, ‘There’s nothing in her calendar. She wasn’t with a patient. At least no one who had an appointment. So, did her husband do it? A boyfriend? Was it a robbery gone wrong?’
Reacher said, ‘She’s not wearing a wedding ring. It could have been a boyfriend or a burglar, but I doubt it.’
‘Why?’
‘Have you heard of William of Ockham?’
‘No. Who is he?’
‘Was. He was a philosopher. Born in the thirteenth century, died in the fourteenth. His claim to fame is a principle he came up with. People call it Occam’s Razor. It says that if there are multiple possible explanations for something, unless you have proof to the contrary, you go with the simplest one. Medics use it to help with diagnoses. Their version goes, “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” So, what do we have? The doctor was betraying her patients. Exploiting them. Potentially ruining their lives. In other words, she was providingan ironclad motive. That’s why we came here. Ockham would say that whoever killed her came for the same reason.’
‘We didn’t come to kill her.’
‘Whoever did it didn’t plan to, either.’
‘How do you figure?’
‘Look at her chest. That’s an exit wound. She was shot from behind. Whoever did it was farther from the door than she was. If she’d been at her desk or in her chair, I could see someone walking in and executing her. But this person had moved past her. He or she was on the far side of the room. Maybe searching for something in the desk or the file cabinets. Dr Martin either walked in on him then turned and tried to get away, or he was trying to make her cooperate and she saw a chance and tried to run. Our guy panicked and pulled the trigger. Then he rolled her over. Probably to check her vitals to see if she could be saved. And when it was clear that she couldn’t be, our guy closed her eyes. That suggests remorse. Or at least that murder wasn’t the intention.’
‘I guess. Okay, so we’re looking for a patient of hers. How do we figure out which one?’ Gilmour checked his watch. ‘And how do we do it quickly?’
‘We start with the files. See if there are any obvious gaps between the files that are left in the drawers. Whoever did this was organized. He disabled the cameras, and look at the wall.’ Reacher pointed to a spot by the side of the door. A chunk of plaster was missing, the size and shape of a boiled egg. ‘He retrieved the bullet and the shell case. He made no attempt to dispose of the body, which means the police will find it and investigate. Sothe obvious move would be to remove anything else that could tie him to the victim.’
‘I’m on it.’
Gilmour started with theAdrawer and worked his way down and to the right. Reacher grabbed a wad of Kleenex from the box on the bookshelf to cover his fingertips and began withZ, moving up and to the left. They met atG.
Reacher said, ‘How many missing on your side?’
‘Four.’
‘I found three spaces.’
Reacher turned to the folders on the desk. He picked up the top one and checked the name on the cover.Yungblut. He said, ‘This is one of mine.’
The other folder was for a patient named Andersen. Gilmour pointed to it and said, ‘That one’s mine. Which leaves five. How do we narrow them down?’
‘Do computers have address books in them like phones?’
‘Some do. Why?’
‘Patten had Dr Martin’s details. Maybe Dr Martin kept her patients’ details. For correspondence. Billing. That kind of thing.’
‘Good call.’ Gilmour opened one of the file drawers. ‘The first gap is between Carragher and Charles.’ Then he turned to Dr Martin’s computer and clicked on Contacts. The app opened to Dr Martin’s personal entry, so Gilmour scrolled back to theCs. A moment later he said, ‘Found him. James Chaplin. There’s no one between Carragher, him, and Charles. There’s a note that says … Oh. Chaplin’s off the hook. He died. Okay, who’s next?’
Gilmour repeated the process four more times andaccounted for three more of the missing files. One patient had moved to Cincinnati. One had changed therapists. And one had quit therapy altogether. Dr Martin’s note made it clear she thought that was a mistake.
Gilmour let go of the mouse, straightened up, and said, ‘There’s one name I can’t trace. There’s a gap in the drawer between Jung and Kay. And there’s nothing in the computer between them. So either there isn’t a missing file at all – just a hiccup in the layout of that drawer – or whoever we’re looking for is very clever. They could have guessed there’d be an entry in the doctor’s electronic contacts and deleted it as well as stealing the physical file. And there’s no way to know which it is.’
‘You deleted my picture, then recovered it. Can’t you recover an address book entry if there was one?’
‘Not here. Not without special software. We could try the doctor’s phone – only there’s no sign of it. It must have been in her purse.’
‘What—’
Gilmour’s phone began to ring. He pulled it out and hit Speaker, and right away Patten’s voice blurted out, ‘Police! They’re outside.’
Gilmour said, ‘Stay on the line.’ He hurried after Reacher, who was already halfway to the door. ‘Tell us what they’re doing.’
