he wasn’t lying to me, he knows where to find me. And if he was…” She shook her head and said, “Screw it.”
Once she’d retrieved her suitcase and left, Quinn pulled out his phone and took a picture of the photograph of Burke and Ellie on the boat. He asked Orlando, “You didn’t happen to see a ticket for their flight, didn’t you?”
“If he printed them out, they’d probably be in his carry-on up in his room.”
Quinn ran up the stairs, and returned a few moments later with several pieces of paper.
“You think he’s stupid enough to still go?”
“Let’s find out.”
He led the way back to the car. Just as he was climbing in, his phone vibrated. He pulled it out and saw that he already had one missed call.
“Hello?” he said.
“It’s Daeng. I’m at your house.”
“Oh, crap,” he said. “I forgot to tell Liz you were coming. Please tell her I’m-”
“She’s gone.”
Quinn had been about to start the car, but paused. “Gone?”
“She left a note. It says, ‘Jake, I can’t stay here. Don’t call me unless you find him. I need to think about things. Liz.’”
Quinn grimaced. It was just as he’d feared. She was going to get hurt all over again, and, ultimately, it would be his fault.
“Snap a photo of it and message it to me, okay?” he said. He wanted to make sure it was her handwriting.
“No problem,” Daeng told him. “I
Quinn glanced at the tickets Burke had printed out. “No. It’s better if we just leave her alone. I actually have something else I need you to do. I’m going to send you a picture of a guy named Douglas Burke. He’s scheduled to fly out on Qantas for Australia tomorrow night, but I have a feeling he’s going to try to move up his reservation. Get back to LAX. If you see him, detain him. I don’t know if he’s driving in or flying, but he’ll have to go through the international terminal. We’ll get there as quickly as we can.”
“Good afternoon,” the female attendant said as Daeng walked up to the Qantas Airlines check-in counter. “Passport, please.”
“Actually, I’m not checking in,” he said, putting on his friendliest face.
“Oh. Well, then, what can I do for you?”
“I hope I’m not too late. I’m supposed to meet someone who
“No problem. Name?”
He set the envelope on the counter so she could see it. She typed in the name, then studied her screen.
“Oh,” she said after a few seconds. “I see he changed his reservation to today.”
“Yeah. He was supposed to leave tomorrow. That’s why I had to rush.”
“Well, he hasn’t checked in yet, but his flight doesn’t leave for another five hours, so you have plenty of time.”
Daeng put on his best look of relief. “Thank God. I was told the plane was leaving at seven p.m.”
She smiled. “No. Just after ten.”
“That’s good. Well, except now I have to sit around and wait.” He grinned and shrugged.
“Better than missing him, though, right?”
“That’s true,” he said, picking up the envelope. “Thanks.”
At the back of the Tom Bradley International terminal was a balcony level with several restaurants that overlooked the check-in area. Daeng went up, bought a bowl of chicken udon soup from the Japanese place, and took a seat at the front edge of the balcony, with a view of the Qantas counter.
For the first hour, it saw very little action. Then, just a little after six p.m., traffic started to pick up. First the line was a constant half dozen, then a dozen. By seven p.m. it had almost doubled again, and new staff had come on to direct people to the different stations as they opened up.
He still hadn’t seen Burke.
At a quarter after seven, Quinn called.
“We just landed,” he said. “Any news?”
“You were right. He changed to tonight’s ten-o’-clock flight. But so far, he hasn’t checked in.”
“All right. We’re on our way over to you.”
“I’m sitting at the-” He paused, his eyes narrowing as he looked at a man who’d just joined the end of the line.
“Daeng? Are you there?”
“I think I see your friend.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hard to tell from where I’m positioned. I’m going in for a closer look, but you’d better hurry.”
“Five minutes,” Quinn said, and hung up.
Daeng dumped his empty bowl in the trash and rode the escalator back downstairs. As he approached the line in front of Qantas, he saw his instincts had been right. It was Burke.
The guy was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses despite the fact he was inside, but the jawline was the same, as were the ears and the mouth. He was nervous, too. He kept looking over his shoulder, scanning the crowd. He even paused on Daeng for a moment, but quickly moved on, obviously dismissing the former monk as a threat.
By the way the line was moving, it would be at least ten minutes before Burke’s turn. Daeng moved down to the end of the aisle nearest the front doors, and casually stood where he could keep an eye on the man.
Quinn and Orlando joined him three minutes later.
“Where?” Quinn asked.
“Qantas line, about midway, in the baseball cap and glasses.”
“Subtle,” Orlando said.
“Yeah, wouldn’t have been my choice,” Quinn agreed. He watched Burke for a moment. “Here’s what I’d like to do.”
“Good evening. Passport, please,” Maddee James said.
The passenger placed his passport on the counter. “My reservation was for tomorrow, but I switched it earlier today,” he said.
“No problem, sir,” she told him, hoping he was right. It had been a long day already, and the last thing she wanted was to deal with a passenger who thought he’d changed his flight but actually hadn’t. It had happened before and it was never any fun.
She input his name into the system, and smiled. He was indeed on tonight’s flight. She printed out his boarding card, tagged his bag, and handed the card and passport back to him.
“Security check is in the back and to the left. Have a nice flight, Mr. Burke.”
It wasn’t until he grunted a thanks and walked off that she remembered his name from earlier. He was the person that cute messenger was looking for. She had a second to wonder if they’d been able to find each other before the next passenger walked up.
“Good evening. Passport, please.”
Quinn watched from the back end of the aisle as Orlando moved in beside Burke, and Daeng took up position behind the man.
Subtly, Orlando angled her path so that Burke had to move more and more to his right. As they took the turn toward security, he was almost up against the wall. That was Quinn’s cue.
He moved in quickly, a broad smile on his face, his arms open wide. “Doug!”
He enveloped Burke in a hug before the guy even knew what was happening.
