Without Fail - Lee Child [41]
“Except I’m not setting it up,” Froelich said.
“Neither of you is a suspect,” Reacher said.
“Why not?” Stuyvesant asked.
“Because Froelich came to me voluntarily, and she knew something about me from my brother. You hired us directly after seeing our military records. Neither of you would have done those things if you had something to hide. Too much risk.”
“Maybe we think we’re smarter than you are. An internal investigation that missed us would be the best cover there is.”
Reacher shook his head. “Neither of you is that dumb.”
“Good,” Stuyvesant replied. He looked satisfied. “So let’s agree it’s a jealous rival elsewhere in the department. Let’s assume he conspired with the cleaners.”
“Or she,” Froelich said.
“Where are the cleaners now?” Reacher asked.
“Suspended,” Stuyvesant said. “At home, on full pay. They live together. One of the women is the man’s wife and the other woman is his sister-in-law. The other crew is working overtime to make up, and costing me a fortune.”
“What’s their story?”
“They know nothing about anything. They didn’t bring in any sheet of paper, they never saw it, it wasn’t there when they were there.”
“But you don’t believe them.”
Stuyvesant was quiet for a long moment. He fiddled with his shirt cuffs and then laid his hands flat on the table again.
“They’re trusted employees,” he said. “They’re very nervous about being under suspicion. Very upset. Frightened, even. But they’re also calm. Like we won’t be able to prove anything, because they didn’t do anything. They’re a little puzzled. They passed a lie-detector test. All three of them.”
“So you do believe them.”
Stuyvesant shook his head. “I can’t believe them. How can I? You saw the tapes. Who else put the damn thing there? A ghost?”
“So what’s your opinion?”
“I think somebody they knew inside the building asked them to do it, and explained it away as a routine test procedure, like a war game or a secret mission, said there was no harm in it, and coached them through what would happen afterward in terms of the video and the questioning and the lie detector. I think that might give a person enough composure to pass the polygraph. If they were convinced they weren’t in the wrong and there would be no adverse consequences. If they were convinced they were really helping the department somehow.”
“Have you pursued that with them yet?”
Stuyvesant shook his head.
“That’ll be your job,” he said. “I’m not good at interrogation.”
Reacher said nothing.
He left as suddenly as he had arrived. Just upped and walked out of the room. The door swung shut behind him and left Reacher and Neagley and Froelich sitting together at the table in the bright light and the silence.
“You won’t be popular,” Froelich said. “Internal investigators never are.”
“I’m not interested in being popular,” Reacher said.
“I’ve already got a job,” Neagley said.
“Take some vacation time,” Reacher said. “Stick around, be unpopular with me.”
“Will I get paid?”
“I’m sure there’ll be a fee,” Froelich said.
Neagley shrugged. “OK, I guess my partners could see this as a prestige thing. You know, government work? I could go back to the hotel, make some calls, see if they can cope without me for a spell.”
“You want to get that dinner first?” Froelich asked.
Neagley shook her head. “No, I’ll eat in my room. You two get dinner.”
They wound their way back through the corridors to Froelich’s office and she called a driver for Neagley. Then she escorted her down to the garage and came back upstairs to find Reacher sitting quiet at her desk.
“Are you two having a relationship?” she asked.
“Who?”
“You and Neagley.”
“What kind of a question is that?”
“She was weird about dinner.”
He shook his head.