Past Tense

Jack Reacher plans an epic road trip from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. He takes the detour, and in the city clerk's office Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?