

While buying supplies, Roscoe is approached by Kliner's son KJ, who warns her that Reacher is a murderer. Reacher convinces Roscoe and Finlay to move out of their homes temporarily. Kliner claims he knows nothing and makes threats to drop the investigation. Reacher intimidates one of Kliner's lawyers for information on Jobling while Finlay checks Spivey's house for clues - and gets beaten by police after they mistake him for a burglar. The group contacts Joe's colleague, Molly Beth, at the Secret Service, learning that Joe was in Margrave on a confidential assignment to investigate reports of large-scale counterfeiting. Roscoe returns home to find evidence of a break-in at Reacher's urging, she gives him a gun. While driving home, they learn that the road is washed out and are forced to spend the night sleeping in the same motel room. Roscoe then takes him to a bar, where Reacher begins to open up about his past. Reacher sets a meeting with Spivey but gets ambushed by two South American ex-soldiers, allowing Spivey to escape. Finlay's friend, FBI agent Picard, agrees to take Hubble's wife and children into unofficial protective custody. The mayor, Grover Teale, himself dirty, appoints himself as police chief and orders Finlay to conduct a sham investigation into Morrison's death. Finlay's boss, Ed Morrison, is gruesomely murdered at his home Reacher deduces that he was killed for not taking care of Hubble. Reacher teams up with Finlay, the local police captain, and a cop named Roscoe to investigate his brother's murder and the recent disappearance of Hubble following his release from custody. At the morgue, a discussion about both the recent murder and another one earlier in the week leads him to identify the first victim as his older brother, Joe. When he later returns to the police station, he is informed about a second killing. After being released, Reacher is verbally threatened in town by the son of local businessman Kliner. Hubble explains he confessed to cover for a criminal organization that would have otherwise killed him and his family. Spivey, a crooked guard, puts them in with the general population, where Reacher brutally foils an attempt on their lives.

He is sent to be held in the local prison with Paul Hubble, a banker who falsely confessed to the murder. The following morning, Jack Reacher arrives on a Greyhound bus and walks into town, where he is arrested at a diner for the murder.

Army military policeman, visits the fictional rural town of Margrave, Georgia, and gets arrested for murder.
