“I’ve been taking very good care of her for her parents,” she told Officer Salazar, as if imploring him to intercede. “Her uncle barely knows her. He has not bothered to keep in touch with the family.”
She had just made a mistake. A big mistake. Whatever game the girl was playing, Creed decided he disliked even more the one her keeper was playing. A teenager he could forgive for making up stories and games, but this woman’s insistence on lying was making him suspicious and starting to piss him off.
“All the more reason for us to catch up,” Creed said, and smiled as he offered a hand to Amanda. “I was just going to take a break. How about I walk you to your ride?” And with only a glance at the woman, he added, “I’m sure Officer Salazar won’t mind helping you process your luggage.”
“Not a problem. I can do that. Anything for you, Mr. Creed. We certainly appreciate all your help.”
Creed shook the man’s hand, thanking him. Officer Salazar’s back was turned to the woman and he wasn’t able to see her eyes flash daggers into Creed.
“Amanda and I’ll meet you out front.”
He took the girl’s arm as he pulled the pink squeaky elephant out of his shoulder pack and tossed it to Grace. She caught her reward in midair. At least he was able to get one of the three females to stop staring at him.
18
“You have exactly three minutes to tell me what the hell’s going on,” Creed told the girl as he tightened his grip on her arm and led her through the crowds in baggage claim.
With a glance over his shoulder, he saw the girl’s keeper still watching them, even as CBP Officer Salazar stood beside her at Carousel #3, waiting for her luggage to come around on the conveyor belt.
Grace scampered beside them, squeaking her pink elephant in her mouth. At least one of them was happy with their day’s findings.
“She’s a bad woman,” Amanda said, noticing him look back.
“Less than three minutes now.”
“She’s made me do terrible things.”
“Like carrying drugs?”
“What? No! That’s crazy.”
But he could feel her body almost melt.
“Bad decision to lie to me. I know you have drugs somewhere on you. Are they in your handbag?”
She shook her head.
“Because I’ve seen it all. Candy bars with cocaine middles. Peanut butter jars.”
Grace and her squeaking managed to clear a path as people stepped out of their way to see what was making the unusual sound, despite the clamor of so many other noises.
Creed pulled the girl across to the other side of the concourse and toward the Ground Transportation exit.
“Please, don’t let her take me,” the girl whispered when she saw where they were headed. “They’ll kill me this time.”
“Where are the drugs?” he asked.
“There are no drugs.”
“Grace says there are, and she’s never wrong. One last chance, where are the drugs?”
“You’ll turn me in. I’ll be arrested. Please, they’ll kill me.”
“I know most of these officers. They won’t hurt you.”
“They have people who’ll get to me. They’ll kill me.”
She was shaking now, and her skin was slick with sweat. If this was part of some game, she was very good at it.
And then she said something that made Creed’s insides twist into knots.
“I’m only fourteen and my stomach hurts so bad because they made me swallow forty-two balloons.”
“Holy crap,” he said under his breath.
He felt her eyes searching his reaction. He slowed his pace, took some deep breaths. He looked back toward Carousel #3, trying to see through the crowds. The woman and Salazar were gone. Luggage retrieved. Salazar would make sure it was processed quickly. A car was probably waiting out front. If not the car itself, then certainly the driver. If the girl was telling the truth, the driver would most likely be armed. And there could be others watching.
Creed reversed course. Immediately Amanda thought he was taking her back to the CBP officer, or worse, back to her keeper. She started to cry. She was too weak to pull away from him, and now he understood that she was in pain. That’s why she was shaking and sweating.
“Settle down,” he told her.
Instead of continuing back into baggage claim, he took a right and led her toward a door that warned NO EXIT. One of the benefits afforded him and Grace was a parking slot just outside the terminal. Creed pulled his ID badge off his neck and slid the card through the slot beside the door. The flashing red light clicked and started flashing green.
He pushed the door and held it open for Amanda to go through. When she hesitated, Grace nudged her leg, then went around her and marched across the threshold as if she were showing her what to do, even standing on the other side as far as her leash allowed. She waited and wagged, a bit impatient with this new part of the game.
He saw the girl turn to look back. She was clearly debating her choices.
“You came to me,” Creed reminded her. “If you want my help, you’re gonna need to trust me.”
He watched her face — pain, fear, anxiety — she couldn’t hide it anymore. He almost wished she’d choose to stay. He still had time to fetch Officer Salazar and let him take care of her. That was CBP’s job. Creed and Grace’s job was simply to search and find. Maybe if he didn’t still remember those girls and boys from the fishing boat — the looks on their faces forever embedded in his memory — maybe he’d have let Salazar take care of it from the very first lie. Because he knew as soon as this girl walked out this exit with him, his life would never be the same again.
She looked up at him, eyes watery, nose running, and nodded. “I guess I have nothing to lose,” she mumbled, so quietly he figured she was telling herself instead of him.
And she squeezed past him through the doorway and into the hall that would take them directly to his Jeep.
He let the heavy door shut behind him and waited for the lock to click. All the while, in his mind, he kept thinking that he had absolutely everything to lose.
19
Creed watched the rearview mirror. His security clearance parking meant he didn’t have to deal with any of the airport checkpoints. Whoever was waiting to pick up this girl and her keeper would never get a glimpse of his Jeep Grand Cherokee leaving.
Maybe if he was lucky — God willing — it would take them a while to figure out who he was. But because of his and Grace’s unwanted celebrity, they certainly would figure it out quickly. And when they did, they would know exactly where to find him. Right now Creed wasn’t sure what would be worse — the drug thugs finding him or having to tell Hannah that he was bringing home one of their mules.
Hannah had brought home quite a few unsavory characters from Segway House: drug addicts, runaways, wounded soldiers like Jason. But this was different. None of them had targets on their backs. Nor did they have thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine in their gut that belonged to someone else.
He glanced at the girl and wondered if her name was even Amanda. She had curled herself tight into the passenger seat, buckling up only on his insistence. Still, she managed to hike her feet up and hug her knees to her chest. He’d covered her with a jacket when she mumbled that she was cold. She kept the jacket in place, though she turned down his request to flip the seat warmer on. It had to be almost ninety degrees outside. He kept the temperature on her side of the Jeep at seventy-three.
She no longer trembled but her face still glistened with sweat. She was still in pain. She’d taken a bottle of water that he’d offered earlier but it remained in the cup holder on her side, unopened.