Chapter Twenty-Six
Neveah had told Sam she could handle the mission to pick up the cell phones in Spokane, Washington, but truth be told, she was scared out of her mind to get on an airplane and jet through the night sky to the other side of the country.
By herself.
As she waited in line at security, she hoped she’d done everything right after viewing several YouTube videos on the rules of what was allowed and what wasn’t.
While she waited, she watched what the people ahead of her did when they got to the front of the line and took mental notes so she could move quickly and not irritate the travelers behind her.
Getting through security with nothing confiscated counted as her first victory.
Finding the gate, buying food for the flight and being where she needed to be when they started boarding the plane counted as her second victory.
She texted Sam. Getting on the plane. Will text when I land in Spokane.
Safe travels, Sam replied a few minutes later.
Neveah knew that was something people said when someone was traveling, but it made her nervous to think about what an unsafe flight would be like.
Her phone rang with a call from her dad. “Hey,” she said. “Did you get my message?”
“I did. You’re really flying to Spokane tonight?”
“I really am.”
“What’s there?”
“The cell phones of our murder victim’s wife and her sister. My job is to bring them back for analysis.”
“Do they know you’ve never flown before?”
“I told Sam that, and she offered me an out, but I didn’t take it.”
“I’ll never get over you working with the first lady or calling her Sam.”
“That’s her name, and if I called her anything else, she’d be pissed.”
“So you say, but still… Are you scared?”
“Terrified!”
“Aw, it’ll be fine. Find someone to talk to, and the flight will go by in a blink.”
“No one wants to talk on planes. I saw that on YouTube.”
“You might get lucky.”
“I have to go. They’re boarding.”
“Text me when you land. Both times.”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you, too, baby girl. Be safe, and don’t be scared. It’s safer to fly than to drive in a car.”
“Great, now I’ll be scared the next time I’m driving.”
“You should be scared every time you’re in a car.”
“Bye, Daddy.”
“Bye, baby.”
He was her best friend in the world, her port in a storm, the one who’d raised her on his own after her mother was murdered.
If asked, he would say he’d had tons of help from his parents and siblings as well as her mother’s sisters, but it had mostly been the two of them, and despite what he said, he’d done the majority of the work required to successfully raise a child.
As she presented her boarding pass to the gate agent, she thought of all the things the two of them had been through together, from kindergarten to middle school to her first period and getting her ears pierced, to high school, college and then the police academy, which had been the source of their one major disagreement.
Her father had been vehemently opposed to her becoming a police officer.
They’d argued for days about it, but Neveah had refused to back down. In the back of her mind, always, was the hope that maybe one day she might be able to work on her mother’s unsolved case, but she never told him that.
He knew, though. Of course he did. He seemed to know everything where she was concerned. “They’ll never let you anywhere near that case, so if that’s your plan, find another one.”
They hadn’t talked for days after that argument, which was a first. She’d suffered in that silence and knew he had, too.
Pulling her suitcase behind her, she stepped aboard an airplane for the first time in her life, nodded to the flight attendant, and made her way past first class, where some of the passengers already had cocktails.
She watched people stowing luggage in the overhead bins and followed suit when she reached row fifteen.
Neveah was settled in her window seat, watching the activity on the tarmac below when a young man settled into the middle seat.
She looked over at him, startled by the most extravagant eyelashes she’d ever seen on a man, framing golden-brown eyes.
He smiled. “Hey. How’s it going?”
“Not bad. You?”
“Eh, middle seat. Not my favorite thing.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, having never experienced sitting in the middle seat on a plane.
“You headed to Minnesota or just connecting there?” he asked.
“Flying on to Spokane.”
“It’s pretty there. My cousins lived there when we were growing up. Spent some summers out there.”
“It’ll be my first time. Looking forward to seeing it. What about you?”
“Going to Seattle for a work conference.”
“What do you do?”
“IT. How about you?”
“I’m a DC police officer.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Do you know the first lady?”
“She’s my boss.”
“No shit! What’s she like?”
“She’s an inspirational leader, although she’d hate me saying that. She doesn’t like anyone fawning over her or treating her differently. She’s a cop’s cop in every possible way. I’m honored to work with her and learn from her. And P.S., she wouldn’t like me saying that either.”
“She sounds like a fun boss.”
“She is, but she’s also very focused and always looking for justice on behalf of our victims.”
“That’s cool. I’m Jeremy, by the way.”
“Neveah.”
“That’s heaven spelled backward, right?”
“It’s supposed to be, but my mother didn’t spell it correctly.”
“That’s funny.”
“She didn’t think so when it was too late to change the birth certificate without a major hassle.”
His low chuckle brought out a dimple on the right side of his face. “So if the first lady is your boss, then you’re a homicide detective?”
“I am.”
“Aren’t you, like, kinda young for that job?”
“I’ve been a police officer for nine years.”
“And you’re already a homicide detective?”
“I am.” She didn’t mention the hundreds of extra hours she’d worked at every rank to move toward the next one, or how she always gave one thousand percent to everything she did, which had been noticed by people who mattered.
“That’s hella impressive. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, although working the murder beat isn’t as much fun as it seems on TV.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Most people can’t and are better off if they don’t.”
“I saw in the news that your boss’s nephew was one of the missing kids. I was glad to hear they were found safe.”
“Two of them were, including her nephew. The young girl is dead, though.”
“What? No way. I hadn’t heard that.”
“Yeah, it’s terrible.”
“Did you work that case?”
“I helped out where I could, but a different case is taking me to Spokane.”
“Oh, so it’s a work trip?”
“Yes.”
When the plane began to back away from the gate, Neveah grasped the armrests as her anxiety spiked into the red zone.
“Are you okay?”
“Can I tell you something silly?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve never flown before.”
“Never?”
“Nope.”
“Are you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Don’t be. It’s not bad at all. You’ll see.”
As they taxied toward the runway, Neveah wished she hadn’t volunteered for this mission or been so confident in her assurances that she could handle it. At the moment, she felt like she was about to implode from anxiety.
“Hey, are you okay? It’s really nothing to worry about. It’s super safe.”
“I’m okay,” she said through gritted teeth as the pilot announced that their flight had been cleared for takeoff.
Jeremy extended his hand. “You want to hold on?”
She did. More than anything. “My hands are sweaty. They get like that when I’m nervous.”
“That’s no problem. Hold on. I’ve got you.”
Neveah wiped her palm on her jeans and then took the hand he offered to hold on for takeoff, which was one of the most exhilarating and terrifying experiences of her life. The whirs of machinery and thumps and bumps as the plane ascended caused her anxiety to skyrocket.
“That’s the landing gear being put away, the flaps adjusting for altitude and a few bumps from the clouds that don’t appreciate us disturbing them.”
With her eyes tightly closed and her focus on breathing, Neveah didn’t want to smile at his commentary, but the cloud thing was cute.
“Open your eyes. Check it out. It’s like looking at heaven, spelled correctly.”
She chuckled and forced her eyes open so she could look out, and sure enough, if there was such a thing as heaven, it must look just like that.
“Nice, right?”
“Yeah.” She realized she was still gripping his hand tightly and released him.
“Sorry about that.” Her father would have something to say about her holding hands with a white guy, which didn’t matter at all to her.
As she regularly told her dad, people were people, and she’d spend time with anyone she wanted to.
“No worries. I’m here for the whole flight if you need a hand to hold.”
“Thank you so much. That’s very nice of you.”
“Not a problem. What do you do for fun when you’re not working?”
“I work a lot.”
“You know what they say about all work and no play…”
“I’m a very dull girl.”
“I don’t think so at all. You’re a homicide detective. That’s baller.”
“Not sure about that, but if you say so.”
“Tell me about the gnarliest murder you’ve ever worked on.”
“You don’t want to hear about that.”
“Oh, I really do.”
“Well, there was this one guy who was abducted by aliens, and when they returned him to Earth… they’d taken his most important parts, if you know what I mean.”
He stared at her as if trying to decide if she was for real.
Then she smiled, and he laughed.
“You got me for a second there.”
“What could’ve been the giveaway that I was messing with you? Was it the aliens?”
“You’re funny.”
“Nothing funny about murder, though.” When she thought of the many ways her mother’s murder had ruined her life and her father’s, she wanted to talk about something else. “So,” she said, “where’re you from?”
“Grew up in Springfield, Virginia, but I live in Arlington now. What about you?”
“Born and raised in the District and still live there.”
They chatted the rest of the way to Minneapolis, which made her almost forget she was on a plane. As the pilot announced their final approach into the Twin Cities, Jeremy held out his hand again. “You want to hold on for the landing?” After a beat, he added, “Since it’s your first time and all.”
“Sure, thanks,” she said as she accepted his offer.
Holding his hand felt different this time after spending a couple of hours getting to know him.
“Will you give me your number so we can get together when we’re back at home?”
“You want to get together?”
“Yeah, I do. Don’t you?”
After being intensely focused on her career for years, she had about as much experience with men as she had with airplanes.
“Don’t answer too quickly. You wouldn’t want me to think you like me or anything.”
She laughed. “I do like you, and yes, I’ll give you my number.”
He smiled, revealing that cute dimple again. “Great, now hold on tight for landing.”