Read Online Dance for the Dead by Thomas Perry - Free Book Online Page A

and
bolder. “Here’s what it will be. They’ll follow you
to the car desk. They’ll stick around long enough to be sure
what you’re doing, and then they’ll leave to try to get
to the lot before you do. The lot will be the first time you’re
alone and away from airport security. They’ll want to get into
the car with you.”
    “Then what do I do?”
    Jane looked at her in
disappointment. “As soon as they’re gone, cancel the car
and go to the next desk, of course. Rent from a different company.
They’ll take you to a different lot.”
    “Just let me get it
straight. Stay on the plane, get off quick, rent a big car, pick you
up at baggage.”
    “Right.” She looked
up at Mary critically. “Come to think of it, even if you don’t
spot anybody behind you at the rental counter, cancel the car and go
to the next desk anyway.”
    “You don’t think
I’ll see them, do you? That’s it, isn’t it?”
    Jane stuck the two magazine
covers into her belt under her coat at the small of her back. Then
she leaned back and closed her eyes again. “Bet your life on it
if you want. Either way I’ll come out of the baggage door and
look for you. If you don’t come, I can probably find a cab.”
    When the pilot’s voice
came on the intercom and said something inaudible that contained the
words Las Vegas, Jane opened her eyes. People ahead of her in
the plane were looking out their windows and nudging each other.
Probably they were beginning to see the lights. Flying into Las Vegas
after dark was always a strange experience. The world below the plane
was as black as the sky above it, and then suddenly, with no warning,
there was a light like a frozen explosion in the middle of it: not
just a lot of dull yellowish bulbs like the lights of other cities,
but crimson, aquamarine, veridian, gold, and bright splashes of
white. As the plane descended, the lights moved, blinking, flashing,
and sweeping, and a line of fan-shaped beams of car headlights were
visible flowing up and down in the middle of it. The explosion had
gotten even crazier in the past couple of years, she noticed.
    Mary was staring out the window
like the others. “God, I love this place,” she said. “Are
we going to be here long?”
    “Not unless you’re
held over by popular demand,” said Jane, and closed her eyes
again. She listened and let her body feel the machinery of the plane
work. The ailerons moved to tilt and swing the plane around, and then
the right one went down with the left and the plane leveled to skim
over the desert. There was the odd whistling noise of the wind
holding the plane back, and the engines cut down, and then the noise
seemed to get louder for no reason she had ever understood, and then
the hydraulic system pushed the wheels down until they locked with a
thump, and there was the long sickening feeling of the plane losing
altitude. She said, “You okay on everything?”
    “Yes,” said Mary.
    Jane nodded. The best part of
the plan was that if Mary Perkins, or whatever her real name was,
panicked and ran, they would both have a pretty good chance. Mary
Perkins would be behind the wheel of a big, fast car with a good head
start. Most of the watchers would still be following Jane.
    The plane bounced along the
runway, slowed, and taxied to a stop at the terminal. Jane stood up
and joined the line of impatient people opening overhead compartments
and shuffling along between the seats. She stepped into the boarding
tunnel and picked out a man a few paces ahead of her. He was tall and
in his mid-forties and had the preoccupied, bored look of a salesman
making his rounds.
    She hurried until she was at his
side, then matched his pace to make it look as though they were
together. As soon as they were out of the tunnel and around the
corner she separated herself from him and ducked into the gift shop.
She took two steps past the entrance and found a baseball cap with
las vegas on the crown in sequins and gold thread, and a