When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [35]
Thomas snatched a Snickers off a snack rack on the counter. He walked toward the checkout line, too. He stood behind the mother and her kids.
Mama had apparently communicated to the kids to shut up in the public place. Good advice, but a little too late.
“I overheard your kids. A flying girl from outer space,” he said with a pleasant chuckle and smile. “Just like you read about in that crazy rag, the Star.” He hooked his thumb toward one of the tabloid newspapers displayed near the counter.
“We did see a flying girl,” the boy insisted, blew his promise immediately. “Didn’t we, Elizabeth?”
His sister shot him a warning look, but the boy didn’t care. Thomas looked skeptical, which was no problem. He was hoping to draw them out some more, and he was unusually good with kids.
Two mountain bikers entered the minimart just then. They were plastered in mud, carrying helmets, wearing bike shoes. Thomas hoped they wouldn’t hear anything. Fortunately, they continued to the rear of the store.
“Bailey, Bailey,” the mother said. “What am I going to do with you?”
She turned to Thomas, smoothing her henna-colored hair with her hand, self-conscious under his gaze. “They watched Hook on video the other night? Now what does he see? Tinkerbell flying about in the woods, right. So he says. I suppose it’s a good thing.” She smiled. “He has a truckload of imagination, and they say it leads to creativity later on.”
The boy’s voice cracked with hurt and indignation. “I’m not making this up! We saw the girl in the woods near the blueberry bog. She said her name was Tinkerbell and she flew real high over the trees. Cross my heart.”
Harding Thomas thought he knew the place they were talking about. He’d been through the bog a couple of times with his search team, but they hadn’t seen any trace of Max. He tossed two singles onto the counter, then said “So long,” in the general direction of the woman and her children.
Chapter 35
THOMAS FOLLOWED the woman and her kids in his off-white Range Rover. The family had an old, dented, and weather-beaten Isuzu pickup. The mother wasn’t in any big hurry to get home from the Quik Stop and following them couldn’t have been easier.
As Thomas tailed the pickup, he thought about his life. Once upon a time, he’d taught science at the Air Force Academy. He’d been a captain. Dr. Peyser had contacted and recruited him for a job. He had explained his dream, and Harding Thomas understood and believed the first time he heard it. He wasn’t the only one. And he believed that the dream, the vision of the future, was worth protecting. So he followed the Ellers family from the Quik Stop.
When the pickup pulled into a deep-rutted, weed-infested driveway, Thomas understood why the family wasn’t hurrying home. The house was a disaster.
The off-white paint was blistering and peeling on every surface. The front porch sagged and almost looked dangerous to walk on. The grass near the house was at least a foot and a half high. The name Ellers was nearly faded off the mailbox.
The mother and her kids were just getting out of the truck. Thomas accelerated, and pulled in behind the Isuzu. The woman looked up alarmed. So did the two kids.
Harding Thomas hopped out of the Range Rover, threw his hands in the air, produced a big, friendly grin. He played Uncle Thomas for them. He could appear to be everybody’s friend when he needed to.
“Hey. Hi, kids, remember me? No need for alarm. Smile, you’re on Candid Camera! I just had a thought about what the kids might have seen in the woods. Thought it might be important to you.”
“I didn’t say I saw anything,” the older girl protested, “because I didn’t. Neither did my extraterrestrial brother. He’s a big fat storyteller, that’s all.”
“Mister, I don’t think—” the woman started to say something.
“They saw an eleven-year-old girl with wings,” Harding Thomas stopped her in midsentence. “I believe what