Quiver by Holly Luhning

Author:Holly Luhning
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horror, Suspense, fiction
ISBN: 9781453218068
Publisher: Pegasus
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

He walked through the Heathrow arrivals door, pulling his black wheelie suitcase with one hand, holding his briefcase and a large boutique bag in the other. The crowd waiting to meet travellers was sparse today, and he picked her out immediately, even though they had never met in person. Tall, with long, dark hair and olive skin. She was focused on her phone.

He parked his suitcase in front of her. “I believe you’re my ride?”

She looked up. He surveyed her brown, almost black, eyes, fuchsia-slicked lips. Her long legs, white and silver python-skin boots. She lived up to his expectation that she would be uncommonly pretty.

“Yes,” she said. “Lovely to meet you, finally.” They leaned towards each other and kissed cheeks. She smelled like sandalwood and honey, and ran her hand down his shoulder and upper arm.

He followed her to the car.

“I’m to take you straight to the meeting,” she said as she merged onto the motorway.

“So, no nap to get over my jet lag?”

“I’m afraid not. My instructions were explicit.”

“Well, if those are the instructions. Of course.”

“The thing is, it’s all moving along fairly quickly.” She saw him stifle a yawn. “Well see about getting you a coffee.”

“Great. So things are on schedule?”

“More or less. Almost everyone is here. The painting arrived a little while ago.”

“Really? I’ve never seen it, you know, in person.” He’d been involved in the cause for over a year, but had been outposted for most of that time.

“It’s spectacular. It’s stored it in my flat at the moment.”

“Could I sneak a look?”

She shifted gears and accelerated the Audi past two cars, then veered into the left lane. “Do you have everything ready?”

He unzipped a compartment in his wallet and took out an SD camera card. “Right here.”

He’d spent months abroad to get these photos. The town was small enough that people often left their car doors unlocked, made small talk in coffee shops about the weather, but still big enough for him to blend in. He’d researched three possibilities. There was a series of photos of a girl in an ice rink, fair hair peeking from her hockey helmet. Off-ice, lugging her equipment bag across the parking lot. Another girl, at the public library. He’d worn a ball cap and read a novel while he shot her, his small camera hidden under a few blank pages of loose-leaf. And what he thought was his best work: a half-dozen photos of the girl who bused dishes at a diner. The way her thin arms trembled under the weight of the dishes made her seem waif-like. Barely strong enough not to break under a fully loaded tray.

He felt an anxious flutter as he displayed the card in his palm. They’d all agreed the next project needed to be away from CCTV cameras, so he’d been sent to scout girls someplace more remote. But would they be able to get everything in place? “It seems so...”

“Impossible?”

“Complicated. But yes, maybe impossible.” He slipped the card back into his wallet.

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