taken their cut. Danny had been notified of the amount by e-mail, and that figure too had been one that had taken his breath away. But even after their money came out, he still had a ton more left. The people at the other end had advised him not to withdraw too much while he was still at home; that could make the bank suspicious. But nothing had happened so far, and as the line inched forward again, Danny smiled to himself. Finally. Finally it’s happening . . .
He hadn’t bothered to say good-bye to his boss, or even to tell him what was happening. Danny simply hadn’t gone to work today. His apartment was already empty of everything that mattered to him, all the things that counted stuffed into a storage place last week, and the key stuffed into his landlord’s mailbox along with the torn- up lease. They could keep his security deposit: Danny didn’t care. In his wallet he had the address for the hotel he was staying at in the Keys until he flew out to Bermuda and beyond a few days from now. All his thoughts now were on mint juleps and white beaches, and Danny smiled as the line inched forward again, leaving him with only two people in front of him, a husband and wife who were arguing under their breath about something as they waited for the next counter to open up.
The phone in his pocket was mercifully quiet. For all Danny knew, his boss Ricardo was calling his old number every five minutes, demanding to know where he was. But that phone was now at the bottom of the wretched scummy little lake between the old strip mall and the FedEx depot. Standing there last night under the yellow sodium lights, throwing the phone in and hearing it splash, had been one of the happiest things Danny had ever done. He smiled again to think of Ricardo railing at his voice mail, threatening Danny with firing and worse. There’s a voice I won’t ever have to hear again, he thought. Thank you, God.
The married couple were waved forward to the counter in front of him. Danny had just time enough to pull out the printout of his e-ticket and his new passport when the lady at the counter over to the left called, “Next!”
He headed over to her, handed her the e-ticket. She smiled. Danny smiled back: she was definitely pretty enough to be worth smiling back at. “Heading for Key West—” she said, and started tapping at the keyboard.
“That’s right,” Danny said.
“Can I see your ID, please?” she said, still tapping away.
Danny handed it over. “Kind of busy today,” he said.
She glanced at him, glanced at the back page of the passport, tapped at the keyboard again, and pushed the passport back to him, smiling. “It’s always busy these days,” she said, turning her attention back to the monitor behind the counter. “Vacation time . . . everybody’s going away . . .” She shook her head, frowned slightly at the monitor, and typed some more. “How many bags are you checking?”
“None,” Danny said. “I’ve just got the carry-on. Is the plane full?”
“Yeah,” the counter lady said, “pretty full, shoulder season’s just about over . . .” She peered at the monitor for a moment. “Here we go. Aisle or window?”
“Uh, window,” Danny said.
She typed for a few moments more, then pushed him across a tag for his carry-on bag. “Just put that around the handle,” she said, and a moment later slid his boarding pass across to him. “Twelve- F, gate D16, boarding time is ten forty-five.” She circled the boarding time on the pass with a colored marker and put a slash through the seat number. “Probably you should just go straight through.” And she smiled at him again. “Have a nice trip!”
“Thanks!” Danny said. “Enjoy your day!” And he headed for security, where he handed the bored-looking blue-shirted Homeland Security agent his passport and boarding pass and glanced at the long line of resigned-looking people in various stages of taking off their shoes and belts.
That was when he realized that the woman in the blue shirt was looking over his shoulder at something else, her expression still bored, as she held his boarding pass up. Danny looked over his shoulder and saw two burly guys in Atlanta police department uniforms coming along, staring at him with great interest.
The Homeland Security agent handed one of the policemen Danny’s