The Witch Tree by Wayne Johnson

Author:Wayne Johnson [Johnson, Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2025-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

27

Eli

At Lindbergh Airport, Eli checked his watch again, then grimly thought on Buck, out with Ambrose.

Buck being who he was, he could only hope he wouldn’t fuck things up too badly, cause some kind of mess. When Buck set his mind on something there was no stopping him, and that was worrisome.

Only, he had his own trouble to think about, and right here. Amidst throngs of jabbering, rushing passengers, and in a seeming whirl of competing perfumes, rattling bags, and beeping carts, he perched on a chair at the end of a row of chairs, waiting for the flight to come in from St. Louis.

He shifted this way and that, unable to get comfortable.

The flight would come in, Lester’d told him, and he was to walk with the passengers to baggage, where there’d be the drop off. They’d lost things, Lester’d said, coming up the highway. Cops. FBI. They’d been cracking down on chop shops, making stops.

That, and drug mules were using the highway, now, and that had put the matter over the line. Any driving infraction was an excuse for search and seizure, and they just couldn’t have it. So they were having to do things – differently. Cleaner. And so they couldn’t be traced. Wouldn’t lose critical things. And this thing – what he was picking up – was one of them.

Lester’d made such a point of explaining it, Eli’d wondered if it were some kind of set up.

Or, was this pick up an opportunity? The very one he’d been, desperately, hoping he’d get?

To his right, a man dipped to drink from a fountain, two women chatting, a suit reading a newspaper.

Time passed at a crawl, until, finally, the St. Louis flight was in; he could see the plane at the gate, the red NW on the tail, the plane like a winged arrow. Aimed right at him, whatever it was going to be.

Outside, a plane taxied, and he went to a window to watch. Hurtling up the runway, its nose slowly rose and, as if straining, the plane thundered into the air and away.

He set his forehead against the ice cool glass, wished he were on it with Jen and Buck.

At the terminal desk, two women in blue blazers checked in passengers for an upcoming flight. One got on a microphone.

“Will passenger–” he couldn’t make out the name, the system echoed so badly “–please come to Gate E 18?”

He glanced around him. Checked his watch. Only minutes had passed, but it felt like hours.

Now, the first passenger off the St. Louis flight strode into the airport, blinking under the lights. Could this be him?

Then they all came in a rush, a woman with ratty blond hair, lugging an enormous blue purse. A tall, cadaverous man in a brown suit. A guy in jeans and a thigh-length leather jacket. A school choir of some sort, chaperones and kids, and all thirty or so in maroon blazers and navy slacks.

He set his foot on the glass behind him, then pushed off, the fluorescent lights sliding overhead.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.