Chapter 26

Monday 29 August 2022

Larissa groaned when her alarm went off. Did she really say they’d get up that early? But this morning would be go go go, so she had no choice.

Alison let them into her room and hugged her tight. “Thank you,” she said. “I will never regret that we followed your advice.”

“Great.” She saw Landon coming out the bathroom, and hugged him too.

“Thanks,” he said. Then he turned to Julian and hugged him too. “Thanks, mate. Both of you really are very special for us.”

They all sat on the bed, Julian and Larissa and then Alison and Landon, all very close. The first call was to Landon’s family. Landon’s sister answered the zoom call they made on Alison’s computer. Right away, Larissa could feel her distance. Not quite hostile, but certainly not friendly. Sitting next to her were Landon’s mum Jessica and dad Samson, and they were at the kitchen table. “Hi Mum and Dad,” Landon said, “how are you doing?” For a few minutes, they talked about his parent’s health, which was holding, and the farm, and then Landon introduced Julian and Larissa to his family, though his dad remembered Larissa with a smile. Then his mum said, “Landon, do you have news?” Expectantly.

“We do, mum,” he said, with a smile. “Watch this.”

Alison leant forward, and played the video of their promises over the zoom meeting. The video started when Larissa was kneeling hand fasting them, and finished with them kissing passionately. When it finished, Alison showed them her hand, with his mum’s ring on her finger. “Mum, thank you for the ring. I wore it during the promises, and then only it for the gift that followed.”

His mum’s face was remarkable, so pleased, while Landon’s sister was visibly stunned. His mum smiled and said, “Alison, thank you for giving my son that gift. You are a remarkable woman, and I’m so happy for Landon.”

“Yes, Alison,” his dad said, “thank you for sharing that with us. Congratulations to both of you, and I think you’re perfectly matched in your hearts. Alison, I’m sorry I was slow to understand you. Now, I’m missing you, and we’re really looking forward to seeing you both come home.”

“Um, that’s good, I guess,” his sister said. “Did you announce taking his virginity to your family too?”

“Not yet, we’re doing that next,” Alison said, to his sister’s surprise.

After that, Jessica gently chided his sister for what she said, and then asked about the handfasting, and Larissa explained the symbolism, which Jessica loved. But then it was time, so they said goodbye. Next, Alison called Niall.

“Hi Grandpa,” she said. “I’ve got something to show you.”

He smiled and said, “Hi Alison and Landon, lovely to see you. And hi Julian and Larissa, you too.”

Alison showed him the video. At the end, he said, “That was genuinely beautiful. Congratulations to both of you, I loved it. What a wonderful thing to do. Landon, from today, I’m going to consider you one of my grandchildren. You’re not married, but that’s about as close as you can get without it.”

“Thank you sir,” Landon said. “I’m very appreciative of your support.”

“Alison, who else are you going to share that with? You’re about to call all the family, are you going to share that?”

“No, Grandpa. For now, just you. When I get back, I’ll think about it more. I’m going to report on the race to the family.”

She hung up and called her family. Over the next couple of minutes, much of the family joined, including her siblings and cousins, and her mum, who narrowed her eyes when she saw them all sitting on the hotel bed. Right, Larissa wondered whether she was more upset to see Larissa, or Alison and Landon together on a bed like that.

“OK, everyone, I know you all want to hear about the race. So firstly, on Friday, Julian and Larissa had their own race.” She told them about the race, and the forfeit. Julian’s one, but not Larissa selling her bikini top. Her family loved that, laughed a lot.

“Right. So the next morning, Larissa and I went for a swim, but she didn’t want to race.” She showed them on google earth where they swam. “But yesterday morning, she agreed to race me.” She described the race, and the dramatic ending, but she didn’t say who won, and who was pipped at the post. “OK. So that was the race. Who do you think was winner and loser?”

Her family erupted with noise, about half backing Alison, and half backing Larissa. When they are all silent again, Alison nudged Larissa. Larissa leant forward and said, “You need to know that I’ve significantly improved my time since I visited your house, and I beat Alison back then. So I’m pleased to announce that I was the loser, and Alison won the prize!”

For a second they were silent and then they laughed and cheered. Alison turned and gave her a smile and a kiss. When they were silent, Dee wanted to know what prize the winner got. Alison grinned. “Well, as loser, Larissa had to spend the whole day in her racing outfit, and as winner, I got to put my bikini back on.”

A few seconds while they processed that, and then they burst into incredulous laughter. “You swam naked?” Rita asked, a wicked smile on her face.

“I can’t comment any further. But did you see the photo?” Yes, they’d seen the photo. “Well, there you go. I had a great weekend, and made great friends, and there’s nothing more to say. We’re having a great time here in Australia.” Alison grinned and kissed Landon hard. “I’m looking forward to seeing you all when we get home. Gotta go, bye!”

When she hung up, she burst into laughter. “That’ll spin mum out. And Dee’s going to be killing herself.”

Sure enough, a message instantly arrived on Alison’s phone from Dee: “What!? You cannot hang up like that!”

It was time to check out. They went back to their room and packed up and went down to reception where they found Jayla with Alison and Landon, and Joe and Layna checking out. That left them time for a quick breakfast before heading off to the airport.

✉ Eloise: Larissa, thanks again. I had a great date last night. He might be my soulmate
✉ Larissa: Great!
✉ Eloise: I did have sex
✉ Larissa:?
✉ Eloise: Sex on the dance floor, and Pearled at both ends. He had Nectar in the Crack. We both LOLed for your drinks
✉ Larissa: Pleased to be of service ;-)
✉ Eloise: I have decided: I’m moving to Cairns to start over. I have a job already. There’s a cafe at the airport that needs staff, I’m here now and they just said I have the job
✉ Larissa: Awesome!
✉ Larissa: btw, Alison gave me a message for you: Landon is a fucking awesome lay
✉ Eloise: LOL Lovely to hear, thanks

Once they’d checked in, they walked back out of the airport and found a spot of grass out of the way. That was the only secure place anyone had found around the airport. Larissa looked at her watch, it was just before 9am. Once the meeting started, Layna explained about Isla. The team were looking at her, jaws on the floor. “Guys, you’ve been wanting some excitement, so you have it. If Isla says it’s go, then we’re filming in Kakadu on Wednesday, and we can’t fly commercial, and we don’t care what this one costs. We’ll know in less than an hour. Dean, would you like to comment? Is this going go be a problem for you?”

“Oh no,” Dean said, ‘I’ve met Isla a few years back. I’m completely in on this one. But her father ... he’s definitely a direct action guy. Team, this week, we need to be super disciplined, and super careful. Layna, time for you to have security, and everyone, until further notice, you don’t go anywhere without telling Suzy where you are.”

“I have security, and will up it through the week,” Layna said. “Nathan, we’ll work on getting permission for Ubirr Rock from the top. Does anyone know of any other problem we can’t solve?”

No one. “OK. See any problem, Chez is point for the trip, getting us there. You cannot speak about anything outside the team until Friday morning. This really is a big deal. I’m obviously exposed, and I’m going to be very careful this week. Have fun, next meeting same time tomorrow, unless we’re already flying.”

When she hung up, she called Hannah and got something from Hannah - Larissa didn’t know what.

“OK. We wait. Should be going down now.” Layna got up and walked around and sat down again. Larissa had never seen Layna nervous before, but she was now. They waited a while and then Layna got a message, and she said, “Yes!” She sent a message, and then said, “Isla has left her security team behind, and we’re now responsible for her security, and everything’s go. Julian, can you let the team know we’re go?”

A message arrived on the girls chat:

✉ Isla: I have escaped. I am no longer with my security team. Girls, heads down, it’s going to get crazy. You don’t know anything about it. And I’m turning my phone off for the next few days
✉ Isla: You’ll hear lots of things, like how crazy I am, but know that in my heart, I’m free
✉ Kayla: Awesome news
✉ Patti: How do you lose your security team? Asking for a friend

Meanwhile, Layna had made another phone call, to the National Minister of Energy, which is what Hannah had set up. “Hello Minister, this is Layna. How are you this morning? Great. I have a favour to ask. I’m planning on recording a song for my trip to Europe next week. I’m doing it with a wonderful singer, and she’s asked to record it on Ubirr rock in Kakadu at sunset, and it will have to be this week. We’ve applied for permission using the formal paperwork late yesterday, but that permission usually takes weeks. We don’t need to record any rock art, but we will if the native title holders want us to. I’m calling you to ask if you can expedite the process as a favour for me - I’d really like to record on Wednesday evening. I’m sorry to throw this at you, but the opportunity just arose.” She paused and waited, listening. “Minister, I can email you the words immediately, but it’s nothing controversial, just emotive language about the sunset of the carbon age.” She waited again. “OK, thanks. But minister, there’s something I must tell you, and I must ask you not to tell anyone else, but I can’t let you be blindsided on this.” A pause. “The singer who’ll be singing it with me is Isla Jones. Yes. Her.” Larissa could hear the ministers laughter from where she was. “Minister, please, she’s putting a lot at stake, you cannot tell anyone till later in the week.” Another pause. “OK, I’ll let you know. Thanks Minister.”

Layna hung up and sighed. “Quid pro quo. He wants to be first to know that he can talk about it. I might as well do a joint press conference with him. Actually, that’s probably a good idea. Julian, time to make your call.”

Julian nodded, and called a number. “Hi. My name is Julian Wright. I was given this number if I ever needed to talk to Shane directly, or the operating commander of the day.” He listened for a few seconds. “Hi Evan, thanks for taking my call. My name is Julian Wright, do you know who I am?” A pause. “OK, thanks. I just want to let you know that a few minutes ago, an heiress of one of the richest families in Australia gave her security team the slip.” A pause. “Thanks. Her name is Isla Jones, and she deliberately left them.” Another pause. “All the circumstantial evidence will point towards Layna and my wife Larissa being involved, and they do know about it.” Another pause. “Well, we expect that her father will be very angry, and may come after them, and he may play rough or suborn police resources, given who he is. We’re just giving you a heads up, and should any police come to talk to us, we’ll only talk to them if we call this number and you confirm that they’re legitimate.” Another pause. “OK. I’ll send you our current numbers. Thank you.”

Julian hung up and said, “OK. I’ll send you that number. Someone will answer for any of us. Now I have to send him your numbers.”

Then Layna’s phone rang. “Isla! Hi, how are you?!” “Great!” “OK. Dee will look after you just fine.” “We’re still making plans, I’ll let you know.” “No, it’s our pleasure. Enjoy your freedom!”

When she hung up, she said, “Larissa, I’m sending you Isla’s temporary number. She’s free and feeling good.”

“Did you say, Dee? As in the Dee that works for Bob?” Layna nodded. “Fuck, Layna, we call Bob now. What the hell?”

“She contacted me. Said she’d do anything for us, if I ever needed her skills. And I don’t know anyone else, and she’s not working for Bob yesterday, today, or tomorrow.”

Larissa was just shaking her head. She sent a message to Bob, and showed it to Layna: “Need to talk to you now, urgent. Sorry!”

Layna was look at her, surprised.

“Layna, the one thing Bob hates is people doing something behind his back.”

As she said, that, Bob called. “Larissa, what’s going on?”

Larissa took a deep breath, put him on speaker, and together with Layna, explained about Isla, and what had happened. She could see Bob shaking his head in her head. When they finished, he said, “You girls have really pulled it out of the hat this time. Tangling with him? You’re nuts.”

“Yeah, well, you can disown us if you want,” Layna said. “I’ll understand if you do.”

“Oh no, Layna, I’m not doing that in general, but I certainly will on this when he calls me. I don’t know anything about the whole thing, and I’ll tell him, whatever it is is a crazy thing I’m not in agreement with. But what was urgent?”

“Umm, Layna set up her escape, some security person helped. Layna, tell him.”

“Ummm, Bob, I needed someone to do that for me. And I only know one person with those skills, so I asked her. Dee. Larissa’s worried that I should’ve asked you first, but I didn’t think to do that, sorry.”

“Ummm. Thank for telling me. It would be courteous to tell me, even though you don’t need to, true. It does make it more difficult for me to disclaim all knowledge, but I still will. You girls are on your own on this, but if it pays off, I’m on your side.” Bob knew he was screwing them on this, she could hear it in his voice, but she could understand. “But hell, every other big shot who’s tangled with you has gone away with his tail between his legs. Still, you need to be aware, this one’s a different kittle of fish altogether.”

“We understand. We’re quaking in our boots,” Layna said, “But we couldn’t say no to her. If you meet her, you’ll understand.”

Silence while Bob thought about that. “That might be true. Well, I’ll do what I can to help, but I cannot afford to oppose him. He can crush me like a gnat.”

“We understand.”

When they hung up, Layna said, “Want to watch the livestream of her escape?”

“She livestreamed it?” Joe said.

“No, Dee did. Here goes.”

She brought it up on her computer, and they all watched. The video was shot from inside a police station. There was a taxi on the other side of the road outside the police station, cars going past. Isla came walking down the road, three security with her - in front, beside, and behind. They were worried, looking around, obviously jumpy. As Isla passed the door to the police station, she suddenly turned and went inside. Her security team freaked, it was obvious to see. They wanted to pull out their weapons, but they were right outside a police station. One of the team followed her in.

“Isla,” he said, “What the hell are you doing?”

The camera had followed Isla, and she ignored her security team, stood at the police counter and rang the bell. A few seconds later, a policewoman came to the counter.

“Do you know who I am?” Isla demanded, imperiously.

“I think I do,” the policewoman said, clearly surprised.

“Good. Here’s my ID.” The policewoman looked at the ID, and then gave it back to Isla. So what, her expression clearly said. “This is my security team,” Isla said, pointing at the man with her, and outside the station. “They’re protection for me, but they work for my father.” The policewoman nodded. “They’re under instructions to prevent me from doing things they don’t approve of. But I’m an adult and I want to leave here with this woman, not my security team.” She pointed at the camera. “If my team prevent me from doing that, and force me to go with them instead, they’ll be kidnapping me, right?”

“They would be, yes.”

“OK. I’m going to leave here with this woman. If they stop me, that’ll be a crime. Can you please prevent them from committing a crime? Thanks.”

She turned and walked out of the station, and the camera followed her. The lead of her security team said, “But your father ... Isla...!”

“I don’t care,” she said, brushing past him. “Don’t stop me.”

The camera followed her as she crossed the road, and got in the taxi. The holder of the camera walked around the taxi, and then the camera showed the security team, stuck in place, looking confused and jumpy, with the boss on the phone. Then it stopped.

“Fuck, Layna, that’s a blockbuster,” Julian said, “What a sequence, what a way to escape. What’s everyone going to say? Who’s idea was that?”

Layna grinned. “It’s in the cloud, and I’m sending you five the link. But we’re holding onto it for now. And that was my idea.”

Julian was shaking his head. “Jayla, what did you think of that?” Alison asked.

Jayla laughed. “If that’s ever released to the public, a whole lot of security people are going to lose their shit. That was perfectly executed, and I would have no idea what to do if you ever did that to me, Boss.”

“Yeah, well, now I’m boss, it won’t ever be necessary.”

“Well,” Layna said, “all that was fun, but the dice is cast, and we better get through security.”

Layna’s phone was going nuts, Larissa could see, but she was relaxing now herself - Isla was away, and Dee would definitely know what to do from now. A taxi for cash, dropped off in a car park, a double car switch, and then go and hang low in a hotel somewhere, running up a room service bill.

She could see people looking at them as they passed through security. It could be any of them, really, but most likely Layna or her grabbing everyone’s attention. They were standing near the gate waiting for the flight when Larissa heard the telltale signs of tween fans: squealing, followed by rapidly approaching footsteps. She turned to see a group of young teens running towards them, and then she realised whose name they were calling: Alison.

“Alison! Alison! And Landon!” They were beyond excited, jumping, with their hair flying. Larissa was looking at them in disbelief. Alison? And Landon?

“Hi Girls!” Alison said. “Nice to meet you. How come you recognise us?”

“The olympic trials! Alison, you’re the best rider ever! And Landon, the best horse trainer! We’ve got the article!” One of them pulled out an equestrian magazine, and opened it up to a well thumbed article which was about Alison and Landon’s recent performance at her state championships, and her olympic aspirations, and showed it excitedly around.

“Wow,” Alison said, “I didn’t know that was published here. Do you girls ride, do you?”

Did these girls ride? They were from the Cairns equestrian club, heading down to Brisbane to catch a horse show. Was that where Alison was going? Sadly no, but Alison and Landon chatted to them about horses while Alison signed the magazine, a shirt, a cap, and agreed to wait for them to go and buy some more copies of the magazine in the airport news agency.

While that was happening, the girls did selfies with Landon and Alison, and then one of them asked them for a kiss. Given what had happened the night before, Alison laid a very sizzling kiss on Landon, much to the excitement of the girls, who couldn’t possibly make more noise about it. Larissa noticed plenty of adults paying attention too, and taking photos, and when an older woman asked who Alison was, one of the tween girls very excitedly explained about Alison and Landon: power couple of American equestrian sports. She was still signing stuff when they had to board, to the bemusement of the airline staff.

“Wow,” Alison said, “that’s beguiling. Don’t you think, Landon?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, “I’m going to try and remember that when I’m next getting up at 4am to check on the horses.”

Jayla laughed, and said, “Boss, in USA that would mean that there’s a good chance there’ll be paparazzi waiting for us in Melbourne.”

Alison shrugged. “We’ll give them a good kiss then.”

“Sure, boss, but you might consider not lifting your leg up to get it around Landon like you did when you’re wearing such a short skirt. Unless Larissa would.”

Alison laughed. “Larissa might well do that, but OK, I won’t do that again! This time.”

Larissa was settling into her seat when her phone rang, an unidentified number. Weird, maybe it was the police, so she answered it. “Hello, Larissa speaking.”

“Hello, Larissa, it’s David Jones here. Where’s my daughter?”

Fuck. Isla’s father. What the fuck should she say?

“Umm, do I know you?” She mainly said that for time.

“No, we’ve never met,” he said, as if she was an idiot. “But you know who I am. I want to know where my daughter is.”

“I have no idea where Isla is. She’s not with you? Umm, she lives with you, right?”

There was a silence.

“Listen, I’m on a plane, about to take off for home. They’re telling me to turn my phone off. If you send me a number, I’ll call you when I land, and if she’s still missing, I’ll see if I can help you somehow.”

“Don’t play with me, young woman. We’ll talk when you land.” And then he was gone.

“Fuck, Layna, that was Isla’s father.”

“I figured. Julian, she just told him where and when we’re landing.”

Julian nodded, he was already calling someone.

“Sorry,” Larissa said, feeling stupid. “I didn’t think.”

Layna smiled at her. “You did well, with no warning. I thought he’d call me. Sorry.”

Julian suddenly spoke. “Evan, It’s Julian. Larissa just got a concerning phone call from David Jones.” “During the call, she told him when we’ll be landing in Melbourne.” “We’d really appreciate that, thanks.” He read the flight details from his boarding pass. “Ok, Thanks.”

“Well, we have an escort when we land,” Julian said. “Babe, don’t sweat on it, I thought you did well. How aggressive was he?

“Umm, pretty pushy, but not aggressive.”

“OK,” Layna said, “I’ll let the girls know.”

✉ Layna: Isla’s father is chasing her hard now. Heads down, don’t say anything, you don’t know anything. We’re flying for the next 3 1/2 hours, out of contact.

Larissa turned her phone off, and tried to calm down.

After the plane had taken off, Jayla poked her head over from the seat in front of them. “I think Larissa is the one who needs security.” Larissa nodded. She’d just come to the same conclusion.

“Did you find anyone last night?” Layna asked.

“I did. Sorry, just been so busy this morning. If you want someone in Melbourne, ex-special forces, I have a number. He’s available this week.”

“I think we’ll call him once we’ve landed.”

Perhaps it was the let down from the sudden stress, but Larissa drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, they were getting the plane ready to land. “That was a long sleep, babe. Well deserved.”

She smiled and kissed Julian. “Did you get any sleep?”

“A little. I’m fine. We’ve talked about it while you’ve been asleep. One way or another, you’ll talk to her father again, right?” She nodded, reluctantly. “Unless there’s some surprise, offer that you’ll set up a zoom call and get Isla on it with you and her mum, no one else, and record it.”

She nodded, that made sense. “If you can get Isla to agree to that.”

“She agreed with me yesterday that she would do something like that, that she’d need to,” Layna said.

It was hard to sit still while the never ending approach happened. Why did they get the plane ready so early? Ridiculous.

As soon as the plane landed, she turned her phone on, and it went nuts. She tried to sort through all the messages first. Nothing from Isla’s father. Nothing from all the girls. Something from Bob, which turned out to be a link to a recording of a phone call from David Jones.

“Hello, Bob speaking.”

“Hi Bob, it’s David Jones. Your daughter has abducted my daughter.”

“I’m sorry, what? What daughter?”

“My daughter Isla disappeared this morning. Your daughter Larissa appears to have set it up. She’s in the air now. Talk to her when she lands, and stop this madness.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about but Larissa? Why would she do that? I mean, that’d be absolutely crazy. Why do even you think that?”

“My daughter spent the weekend with your daughter. You know about that?”

“Oh yes, I heard about a weekend somewhere. Sounded like they had good time to me.”

“Well, somehow Larissa did a number on Isla, completely scrambled her brain, and she spent the weekend naked, and came home obsessed with her, madly in love.”

“Umm, that does sound like Larissa, she’s good at getting people’s clothes off, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

“This morning, Isla went out with her team, and then she just disappeared. And she’s obsessed with your daughter, who seduced her, sucked her in. Isn’t that obvious?”

“Umm, no. Larissa has extremely strong morals, very focused on doing the right thing. If she had anything to do with your daughter, it definitely wasn’t anything to do with seduction. But if she did something for some reason, there’s little chance she’ll listen to me. She might be sort of my daughter, but she’s extremely headstrong. But I’m still not hearing it. Your daughter was quite taken with Larissa, and now she’s disappeared. Where’s the link? Didn’t you have security on her?”

“I did, but she just walked away from them. Someone helped her.”

“OK. But why do you think it was Larissa?”

“I spoke to her, and she denied it.”

“Right.”

“Look, this isn’t getting me anywhere. You talk to her, and tell her, don’t cross me. And if I find out you were involved...”

“I’m not crazy. There’s no way I’d do anything like that. I don’t have a death wish. I’ll talk to Larissa, and I’ll let you know.”

That was it. She gave her phone to Julian so he could listen to that. “Well, there’s no number to call him on. So someone’s waiting for me out there.”

“I agree,” Layna said. Julian frowned, and gave her phone to Layna to listen to.

When Layna had, she gave it back to Larissa, who said, “We didn’t hear that, OK?” They both nodded.

“Babe, Joe and I will go out and make sure it’s OK. When we say it is, we’ll let you know, and you come out. Alison and Landon and Jayla can come out with you.” Jayla gave him a thumbs up for that.

Once Julian and Joe had gone, Layna said, “Are you OK?”

Larissa frowned. “I think so.”

“OK,” Layna said, “Isla just confirmed that she’ll join a zoom call when you send her the link. If anyone other than you and and police or her mother are on it, she’ll leave.”

Larissa thought about that. She’d have to give Isla strength, and not let her mum get under her skin. She’d be under instructions to do that, to get Isla to spill some information. “Send her the link now.” She got her computer out and started to set it up.

Then she got a message from Julian: “Stay there!”

That was all. Spooky. She showed Layna, and Layna said, “Well, we do that. We wait as long as we can.”

The plane was nearly empty of other people when her phone rang, another unidentified number. She ignored it. A few seconds later, she got another message: Larissa, call me ASAP, Minister Lisa Neville.

That she could do, and she called that number. “Hello Lisa, it’s Larissa.”

“Larissa, where are you?”

“Sitting on a plane that just arrived at Melbourne Airport. Julian told me not to get off.”

“Stay there. There’s a jurisdictional dispute going on between federal police and state police inside the airport.”

“OK. I’ll wait.”

“Now, what have you done?”

There was no choice but to tell the truth, but she’d already decided, it was the truth or nothing now. “I know about a very wealthy man’s daughter escaping from his clutches. For some reason, he’s decided I’m somehow responsible. I don’t really know anything more except that his daughter is afraid of him, and I promised not to tell him anything.”

“He’s saying that you abducted her.”

“That’s not true. I did nothing, she did it. We have video proof.”

“You what? Really? Can I see it.”

“It was livestreamed, minister. I’ll send you the link.” She did, and a few seconds later, she heard the start of the video, and then Lisa watched it.

“Remarkable, Larissa. Who’s seen the livestream so far?”

“As far as I know, you, me, and the people who helped her.”

“OK. Sit tight.”

She sat tight. The hostess came down and said, “You need to get off the plane now.”

“Sorry, I know this will be a problem for you, but I just spoke to the Police minister, and she told me to stay right in this seat for now.”

The hostess was really surprised by that, and she walked off the plane. A minute later she came back, and said, “Well, there’s a lot of police out there. I guess you’re staying here right now.”