Killing Floor

Roscoe picks up Reacher’s personal effects from the police station, and they agree to meet around lunchtime. Reacher spends the morning walking through town, and he is surprised to see how new or newly-refurbished everything is, especially since Margrave is so small. He sees a statue dedicated to a Caspar Teale that “looked like somebody licked it clean every morning” (122). Reacher stops at a convenience store for a cup of coffee, and he reads a newspaper article that says the Coast Guard’s blockade will end on Saturday. A pale, nervous woman enters to order coffee; a man in a black pick-up truck waits outside for her. When she leaves, the store employee tells Reacher that the woman is Mrs. Kliner, and her husband runs the Kliner Foundation that has supported the town for the last five years. The man driving the truck is Kliner’s son from his first marriage. Reacher asks for directions to a barbershop, and he notices the truck is still outside, and Kliner’s son is watching him.

At the barbershop, Reacher asks the owners about Blind Blake. The sister of one of the men used to sing with Blind Blake and many other musicians who came to town.