Character mistake: At the police station, he refers to the officer as Sergeant Diaz, and on his way out he says, "Thank you, Lieutenant." The officer has no rank on his uniform.
Continuity mistake: A woman approaches Oscar Finlay when he's having a beer at the bar. She asks him "What do you do?" and his hand is at the bottom of the glass, only to be at the top of the glass in the reverse shot. It happens again as the two different angles alternate. (00:36:05)
Factual error: When Reacher talks on the phone with Secret Service agent Molly Beth Gordon, she is using a Huawei phone, which has been banned from all agencies since 2019.
Answer: As Reacher had arrived in town just after the murder occurred and being a stranger, he became a suspect (or at least a person of interest) and taken into custody for questioning by the police. He was released fairly quickly. It was coincidental timing of an outsider arriving at the same time as the crime occurred.
raywest ★