Beth got off the couch and said, "I'll say good night."
"Good night."
She walked to the door. He went with her.
She looked up at him.
"Thank you again," she said. "Good luck."
"You're welcome again," he said.
She took the lock off the door.
"Beth," he said, very seriously. "There's something I've got to tell you."
"What's that?"
"Don't get your hopes up too high about the wedding night, the honeymoon."
"Excuse me?"
"I've seen Righteous in the shower. I've seen bigger you-know-whats on a Pekingese."
He held up his right hand with the thumb and index finger barely apart to give her some idea of scale.
She swung her purse at him.
He caught her wrist.
She spit in his face…then fell into his arms.
She didn't go home until it was almost midnight.
By then it had stopped raining.
THIRTEEN YEARS LATER
[TWO]
Cairns Army Airfield
Fort Rucker, Alabama 1820 1 September 2005 The glistening white Gulfstream III taxied up to the visitors' tarmac in front of the Base Operations building. Waving wands, ground handlers directed it into a parking space between two Army King Air turboprops.
Colonel Jake Torine looked out the cockpit window.
"Our reception committee apparently includes a buck general, Charley," he said. "You want me to do the talking?"
The reception committee walking toward them included four military policemen and half a dozen other men in uniform. Three of them were armed and wearing brassards on their sleeves, making Castillo think they were probably the AOD, the FOD, and the OD, which translated to mean the Air Officer of the Day, the Field Grade Officer of the Day, and the Officer of the Day.
One of the others was a general officer, and another man was more than likely his aide. Castillo hoped that a public information officer was not among them, but that was a very real possibility.
Cairns had not wanted them to land, and they had had to declare an emergency.
"Please, Jake," Castillo said. "And take Doherty with you. Maybe they'll be impressed with the FBI."
He followed Torine into the passenger compartment.
"Jack," he said to Inspector Doherty, "would you come flash your badge at these people? They didn't want us to land."