On Tenterhooks (25 page)

He
turned to
Veronica
.
 
“Think about it.
Twenty-four hours ago, you were sitting in your office doing your advertising thing. Then we show up, botch your afternoo
n and less than a day later you’re
sitting
here with two virtual strangers,
waiting for a plane to take you halfway across the country. Is that your idea of
the start to
an average weekend?”

“Yeah,”
she replied
,
“I get it
.
You’ve got a valid point.
But
how
are you
going to approach it on the other end of this flight
?”

“I haven’t the fo
ggiest. I am making this up as we
go.”

The group fell silent in the waning moments
left before they were to board
.
T
he overhead PA in the gate area crackled to life
,
and the boarding process began
.
They gathered their bags and fell into line, waiting for
the attendant to call the
ir group
.
After long minutes of shuffling forward, Steve made it to the atte
ndant
.
She smiled as he handed
her his
boarding pass
. She
scanned it and
handed
it
back to him with the generic
“enjoy your flight” sendoff.

As he stepped into the
jetway
,
Veronica
grabbed the strap of the bag on his should
er
and hissed “Look!”

Steve turned and loo
ked at her
.
Over her
shoulder,
he saw
the
preacher on
the other side of the gate area. His long, tall frame leaned casually against a carpeted column
, with
o
ne foot propped up
behind him so that the sole of his shoe brushed
against the column. He clutched the Bible with both hands in front of him
.
T
he stance was arrogant and un
-
priest
-
like
in
its
flamboyance
.
He looked more like a
cocky
gunslinger than a man of God.
His
deep red lips
rose
slightly at the edges in
the mockery of a
smile
, and it
was the smile that Steve distrusted most
.
It
seemed to be
a
veil that did little to hide the contempt that bubbled beneath the surface of
the man’s
pallid complexion.

Veronica
was too
frightened
to look
back
again
.
She stared straight at Steve
, eyes wide,
as she handed the attendant her
boarding pass
.

“Ma’am?” said the attendant, holding out
Veronica
’s
boarding pass
. “You need to keep this with you, for your seat assignment.”

Veronica
nodded absently and
took
the stub
back. She followed Steve to the edge of the
jetway
, but still refused to look back.

Martin approached the
podium
stop with his head down
.
Clearly
,
he had seen as well. He
finished
with the attendant and urged them up the jetway with sweeping hands. Steve resisted, staring hard at the
preacher
.
From this distance, he felt much braver, for the moment.

Preacher’s smile broke i
nto a wide grin
,
and he mouthed
a single,
now-
familiar phrase at Steve:
“LETITGO
.
”

Steve’s shoulders convulsed in an involuntary shudder
.
He relen
ted to Martin’s pushing
,
and they
traveled up the jetway, huddled in a small pack
like a pee-wee soccer team fighting for the ball.
They boarded the plane and found their seats quickly. Martin and
Veronica
sat together and Steve sat directly across the aisle from them. They were
seven
rows back from the front of
a 737
.

“Holy Christ!”
hissed
Veronica
. She leaned
to the side
,
so that Steve could hear her. “Who the hell is
he
?”

“I don’t know.
But he seems to be very interested in us.”

“I got this tight feeling, down low here in my gut,” said Martin, putting a hand on his lower stomach. “And it felt
. . .
wrong
.
I turned around, thinking I was gonna have to break for the bathroom
,
and then I saw him there. And as soon as we got up the jetway, the feeling went away.”

“What are we gonna do when he gets on the plane?”
asked
Veronica
.
She was watching the front aisle intently.

“I don’t think he will,” said Steve. “He didn’t look like he was in a rush to get in line.”

“So?” said
Veronica
, her voice pinched with near hysteria
. “What does that matter?
You think that
mean
s
he isn’t getting on?”

“
I don’t know. But
what if he does?” asked
Steve
. “
You can’t claw the guy’s eyes out just for being a creep.
I mean, believe me, I agree the guy is strange, but technically, he hasn’t done anything
to us, right?
”

“How about sending that security
guard
to attack me?”
Veronica
raised her voice.

“You don’t know for sure that was connected,” said Steve
,
with as much of a diplomatic tone as he could muster.

“The hell I don’t! You weren’t there,” said
Veronica
.

“He told me to let it go again
,” said Steve.

“What?” asked Martin.

“
Just now
—
h
e said ‘let it go
.
’
I could read his lips.
It’s the same thing he said to me when he saw me at the airport in
Charlotte.”

“Let what go?”
Veronica
asked.

“This search,” said Martin.

“Come on
,
Martin,” said Steve. “I don’t believe that. What is he
—
some
kind of mind reader?”

“I don’t know.
But that guy is not right
.
I don’t know what he is, but there is something strange
.
I am telling you
,
I
get a very bad vibe
from him.”

“He’s right, Steve,” said
Veronica
. “I get the same creeped-out feeling
.
I could feel him when Roth called
,
like he was right there with me. And he looked at me from the lobby, I had some kinda physical reaction even. I am not bullshitting you
.”

Steve shook his head
.
“Let’s get a little grip on reality here
,
folks
. Now look, I grant you that the guy is a little off
.
But seriously, listen to yourselves!”

“Then how did he know we’d be here today, Steve?” snapped
Veronica
. “Are you telling me that was coincidence?”

“No
,
b
ut maybe he’s tapped your phone. Or maybe he followed you here, like he was staking you out last night and trailed you here.”

“Chris
t
, Steve
.
This isn’t some eighties buddy
-
cop movie!  This is real
.
Wake up!”

“Come on guys,” said Martin
.
“This is getting us nowhere
.
Look, she’s closing the cabin doors.” He gestured to the front of the plane
.
The flight attendant
sealed t
he hatchway. Steve craned his neck to see the rows in front of them
.
There was no sign of the preacher
.
Each of them breathed an
uncontrollable, but audible,
sigh of relief.

None of them spoke again
.
The flight attendants paraded and demonstrated the aircraft’s safety features
.
Steve stared out the window, scanning the tarmac for a distraction
.
Veronica
flipped viciously through the
pages of
an
in-flight
magazine
.
Both she and Steve had flown enough times to be able to chant along with the attend
ant’s voice over the PA system.
Martin paid close attention, having only flown occasionally.

After several minutes, they rolled into line, taxi
i
ng for takeoff
.
Twenty-four
minutes after they
’d
boarded, they
were off
the ground. Steve settled back into his seat, eyes closed
.
He was beginning to feel a weight of responsibility to which he was not accustomed
.
He had started out
alone
, looking to find answers
and
a black
-
and
-
white resolution
.
And n
ow two
more people were involved.

He didn’t have a solid plan
.
In fact, it seemed comical to him that he was on a plane to try to pick up yet another stranger to add to his band of merry wanderers.
He
had
started this thing, so that meant he had to lead the way, right?  Every time he turned around, he
failed to get
answers
.
The questions were mounting on him at an alarming rate
, faster than he could resolve them
.

The argument with
Veronica
had hit him hard
,
because he knew she was at least partially correct
.
The preacher was beginning to be more than a wrinkle in the progress
.
There was something about him, lurking b
eneath the reach of the light,
like a splinter embedded under the skin
.
Do you leave it alone, trying to forget it
,
or do you
dig
it out with the sharp point of a
knife
to be sure it was
truly
gone
?