Free The Midnight Line by Lee Child

developments.”
    â€œHas Bigfoot arrived?”
    â€œYes, boss, I believe he has. But first there was a private eye from Chicago.”
    â€œWhat did he want?”
    â€œHe wouldn’t say. But I checked him out. He’s a missing persons specialist. Very expensive.”
    â€œWho’s missing?”
    â€œAbout a million people nationwide.”
    â€œAny reason to believe one of them is washing his shorts in Scorpio’s place?”
    â€œThere’s nothing on the wires.”
    â€œTell me about Bigfoot.”
    â€œHe’s a military veteran named Reacher. He found a West Point class ring in a pawn shop and he’s tracing its provenance.”
    â€œLike a hobby?”
    â€œNo, like a matter of military honor. Like a moral obligation. Verging on the sentimental, in my opinion.”
    â€œHow is Scorpio involved?”
    â€œThe likelihood is the ring was stolen property fenced by Scorpio to a Wisconsin biker named Jimmy Rat, who then sold it onward to the pawn shop, where Bigfoot found it. Bigfoot says the pawn shop owner told him Jimmy Rat’s name, who told him Arthur Scorpio’s name. Now he wants Scorpio to name the next name. Whoever he got the ring from. And so on, all the way down the line. Bigfoot wants to return the ring to its rightful owner. That’s my assessment.”
    â€œScorpio won’t tell him shit.”
    â€œI think he might. I’m not sure Bigfoot was telling the whole truth about what happened in Wisconsin. I don’t think a biker with a lucrative trade in stolen property would tell anyone anything. Least of all the name of a supplier. Not voluntarily. You should listen to the audio. Jimmy Rat sounds scared.”
    â€œOf Bigfoot?”
    â€œI saw him, boss. You could put him in a zoo.”
    â€œYou think Scorpio will be scared too?”
    â€œEither way I think a serious crime is about to be committed. Either Bigfoot will squeeze too hard, or Scorpio will push back too hard.”
    Then she waited.
    The lieutenant said, “I think we should get the surveillance going again.”
    She said, “Yes, boss,” and breathed out.
    â€œJust you. Eyes on at all times. Nothing subtle. Get right up in his grill.”
    â€œI might need back up. I might need to intervene.”
    â€œNo,” the guy said. “Don’t intervene. Let nature take its course. It’s a win-win. If Scorpio hurts the guy, that’s great, because then we’ve got something on him at last. We’ve got you as an actual eyewitness to a felony assault. On the other hand, if the guy hurts Scorpio, that’s good news anyway. The worse the better. Plus you could always arrest the guy afterward. If you wanted to. For a felony assault of his own. If you need to boost your quarterly numbers, I mean.”
    Reacher left the breakfast place through the kitchen door and slipped away through the alley. He didn’t want the front sentry to see him. Not yet. The Bigfoot description would leave the guy in no doubt. Word would pass instantly to Scorpio inside. Better not to get them too excited too soon.
    So he skirted around at a safe radius, and then headed downtown, and started looking for better hotels than his own. The kind of place a retired-FBI gumshoe might choose. No fleapits, but nothing fancy, either. Probably a mid-market national chain. The guy probably had a loyalty card.
    Reacher found four possibilities. At the first he went in and asked the clerk for a guest named Terrence Bramall, small guy, neat, in a suit and tie. If he was in a car, it might have Illinois plates. The woman pattered at her keyboard and stared at her screen, and then she said she was sorry, but currently the hotel had no guests with that name.
    At the second possibility Reacher was told Terrence Bramall had checked out just thirty minutes before.
    Or maybe even less, the clerk said. Maybe only twenty. She called up the closed account, to calibrate her