I knew he didn’t have one but it was the only thing I could think of at the moment. It wasn’t much, but maybe the cashier would notice. As I was about to hand the slip of paper back to the young man, Vernon grabbed it out of my hands.
He saw what I had written and tore up the receipt into tiny pieces that littered the floor.
“You don’t need that piece of paper, do you boy?” he sneered as he leaned into the clerk’s face.
“Uh, no sir, it’s in the register,” the young man said, backing away. He was used to rude customers before and this man was no exception.
“Good, have a nice day. Careful, Susan, remember your friends,” he warned as he guided me over to an empty table.
—-
The young man’s supervisor finished with another customer and turned around.
“The nerve of that man,” the older woman said behind the sales clerk.
“Yeah, it takes all kinds,” he replied. “I’ll clean it up.”
He rounded his station with a small hand broom and swept up the little white pieces of paper into a dustbin. For a second, he thought he saw something written on one of the scraps but continued cleaning in front of the counter. Standing, he took the litter back into the food kiosk and dumped the receipt strips into the trash bin under the coffee pot. His employer had lined the receptacle earlier with a fresh waste bag.
—-
Vernon and I sat down at an empty table to eat our lunch. I chose the chair where I could see what the young sales clerk was doing. I decided to distract my keeper so he wouldn’t look back at the young man.
“Where’s the mustard, I don’t see the mustard,” I complained.
“Here,” he said throwing over his yellow packet.
“Oh, here it is, under the sandwich. I can’t for the life of me know how you are going to pull this off.,” she whispered. “If you just walk away, you wouldn’t be charged for kidnapping. I could just tell the police you offered me a ride. I came on my own volition,” I said and took a large bite out of my turkey sandwich while I watched his eyes to make sure he didn’t turn around.
He looked at me and bit off a large portion of the corner of his sandwich.
“You play your part and nothing will happen to you. We’ll get on the plane and if anyone asks you, tell them I’m your husband or a good friend. Eat up, I don’t want your friends to see us together,” he said and ate a few potato chips from his bag that came with the packaged meal.
I overheard the woman supervisor as she admonished the young server. I rumpled up the paper from my sandwich to cover her voice, hoping McCarthy wouldn’t notice.
“You put the receipt pieces in there?” she asked. “We are required to keep all of the signed receipts in case someone challenges the payment. Go help that customer. I’ll take care of this,” I heard her say as we left the table. She began picking the tiny scraps of paper out of the waste bin.
Chapter 29
The Search
Larry Paige and the city police entered the airport and headed for the security screening at the same time David and Trisha approached the luggage check-in counter.
While my friend from our ship helped load Trisha’s large suitcases on the airline ticket agent’s scale for check-in and payment, he spotted a small white business card face down on the floor. He bent down to pick it up.
Trisha was done and got ready to go through security.
“What do you have there?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s just a business card from a Lorilee Dawn. I’ll put it in the trash,” he replied.
“Oh, no you don’t. That’s Susan’s friend. That means she was here! Let’s hurry before the security gate gets too crowded.”
They entered the line for baggage and body scan and loaded her carry-on luggage onto the conveyor belt system. As she took off her shoes, she heard a familiar booming voice attracting her attention. She looked over and Larry was going through the TSA approved line with the police. David, held up for a moment because he didn’t have a boarding pass, showed the officer his driver’s license and ship ID card. They let him pass through.
Larry waved to David to follow him as he hurried after the officer ahead of him. David helped Trisha over to a bench after she made it through the body scanner.
“Okay if I help your husband?” he asked her.
“Go ahead. I’ll meet him at our gate,” she said, pulling on her second shoe.
David could pick Larry out from a crowd by looking for the tallest man he could see. As soon as he spotted the bail bondsman, he hurried through the food court dodging many customers who were ordering their meals and passengers trying to locate their airline gates.
—-
The supervisor at the kiosk in the food court pieced together my signature on the bottom of the receipt and stared at my name. Under the signing line is the correct spelling of my moniker. Her eyes widen at the discrepancy. She looked up hoping to see a security officer when she noticed a group of police and airport uniformed men run by her station. Taping over the small puzzle, she ran out to stop one of them and screamed.
Larry and a security guard, hearing her screams, stopped and hurried over to find out what caused the lady to be upset.
“This woman says one of her customers wrote ‘gun’ on their sales slip,” informed the officer.
“Let me see,” Larry said, shoving people aside in front of the counter.
He looked down on the surface where she had taped
