Girl of Lies Read Free Page A

transportation area stood Hairy Chest. His eyes scanned the traffic, looking for his ride. He didn’t have any bags, just a small backpack. Odd for an international flight. At least she was done with him. She leaned forward in her seat a little to look at her phone, laying on the dashboard. It hadn’t taken enough of a charge to start yet.  
    Dan muttered, “Can you sit back please?” Then she jerked in her seat as he suddenly swing the car over to the curb, directly in front of Hairy Chest.
    Before she could speak or say anything, Hairy Chest opened the door and jumped into the front passenger seat. “What the hell?” she cried, reaching for the door handle.
    It pulled, but the door didn’t open. She yanked at the handle again, as Hairy Chest shouted, “Go! Go!”
    Dan, the driver, hit the gas, the car accelerating rapidly away from the airport.

1. Sarah. April 28. 4:50 pm
    S ARAH THOMPSON leaned her head against the steering wheel, trying to contain her frustration. The sound of cars and shuttle buses echoed off the roof above her, and she could smell gasoline and diesel fumes in the air. The text message from her little sister Andrea was clear enough. She was waiting at the Terminal C, near ground transportation, at the first exit from the terminal.
    That’s where Sarah was. That’s where the cop waving her on was. But Andrea was nowhere in sight.
    She double-checked her phone, and then sent a reply.
    I’m here ... where are you?
    This time there was no response at all. What now?
    Sarah had turned eighteen years old just a few weeks before, and she was a bundle of walking contradictions. Dressed in grey and black, her hair was cut off in jagged, rough edges at her collar, died black with bleached white highlights shifting as her head moved. Dark eyeliner and mascara set off pale blue eyes that scanned the terminal for her sister.
    The cop waved her on again. His face was growing tense.
    She checked her phone again. Still no answer. Had Andrea’s battery died? What the hell?
    A loud rap on the window. She jerked in her seat.
    “You can’t sit here.” The cop… actually TSA… looked cranky. His face was a little round, a little red in the cheeks. Late forties, balding, a good-sized paunch. But the gun on his hip and the badge he wore were real enough.
    Sarah rolled down the window. “I’m picking up my little sister.”
    “Go back around, and wait at the cell phone lot until she calls you.” The cop’s demeanor was agitated.
    Feeling her face flush, “She did call me . I’m confused, she says she’s at Terminal C at the first exit.”
    The cop frowned. “Well, is she?”
    Sarah shrugged. “No! I don’t understand, look, here’s the text from her.” She showed him the phone, with Andrea’s message. I am Terminal C, next to first exit.
    The cop shook his head. “She must be confused. How old is your sister?”
    “Sixteen,” Sarah responded.
    The cop frowned, looking at the text. “And when did she send you this text?”
    “Five minutes ago? I tried to call her back and she’s not answering now.”
    He stood there for a moment, as if undecided whether or not to take this seriously. Then he looked back at Sarah. “All right, I want you to pull ahead, down there to the end of the terminal so you aren’t blocking traffic. I’ll meet you there in two minutes.”
    Sarah nodded, her pulse throbbing in the arteries in her neck. She knew it was nothing. Andrea was in one of the other terminals, and her battery had died, or something else. Andrea was fine.
    But sometimes, even when you thought things were fine, they weren’t. She’d learned that the hard way. It still felt like yesterday. She’d been sitting in the back seat of Carrie’s Mercedes, arguing with Jessica, when a jeep came out of nowhere, slamming into the car. Instantly her life had changed. Everything changed. When she woke, her brother-in-law Ray was dead, killed in the accident.
    Not accident. It was murder. It took away the