Killertrust by Sharon Woods Hopkins Read Free Book Online

father’s watching
us right now,” Rhetta said after she and Woody piled out. She aimed the remote
device and heard the Trailblazer beep, indicating the doors had locked.
    Woody’s head swiveled from
side to side. “I don’t see anybody paying us any special attention. In fact, I
don’t see anybody at all.”
    Rhetta glanced around.
“Neither do I. I feel pretty stupid. I think someone’s playing a joke on me,
and is probably laughing his butt off as I run around trying to match a key to
a locker.” She extracted the key from her pocket and waved it at Woody. “All right,
we might as well give them something to bust a gut at. Let’s go find this
locker.” As she led the way, she barely avoided bumping into a thin man
hurrying out the front door. A few strands of dark hair from his hatless head
lifted in the chilly breeze. He wore the collar of his sheepskin rancher-style
coat turned up near his ears. The coat covered him down to his knees, but
Rhetta spotted blue jeans and brand name hiking boots.
    “Woody, does that man look
familiar to you?” When Rhetta looked at Woody for confirmation of her
assessment, Woody was looking in the wrong direction. “Over there,” she said
and turned to point out the man. He was gone.
    “Sorry, I guess I didn’t see
him.” Woody followed Rhetta’s gaze as she took in the parking lot. “What did he
look like?”
    Rhetta shrugged. “Medium
height, thin. He reminds me of someone I know, but I can’t place him.” She
needed to get a grip. She was imagining stalkers at every turn.
    “Maybe he’s one of those
actors. I read where they will be coming into town today.”
    “What actors?” Rhetta stopped
her march into the terminal, a tan brick building that was a clone of hundreds
of other drab buildings from the seventies. “What are you talking about?”
    “I read in the paper this
week that some of the cast and crew from that movie that will be filmed here
next spring are supposed to arrive in town this week. It was on First News , too.”
    “Now I remember. Kelly
Davenport was all a-twitter about it. Sheesh. It will probably amount to a big
zero, like when they filmed Killshot here. They had businesses and streets
closed, and everyone was excited. Then when the movie finally came out, they
had re-shot every single scene that had been filmed in Cape Girardeau. I think
they used a studio to recreate the outdoor Mississippi River scenes. A total
bust. I guess that’s why I forgot all about it.”
    “That guy might have been one
of the actors. They tend to slip in quietly, you know,” Woody said. “It’s not
always paparazzi and glamour for these actors. A lot of them are almost
nomadic, getting parts in movies all over, and living on the road.
    “Yeah. Well, I guess we
better find the lockers.” Rhetta took stock of the airport’s T-shaped layout,
searching for the storage lockers. Not finding them, she approached an
information booth in the center of the T and asked the young man working behind
a circular desk where she might locate the lockers. He barely glanced up from
his computer screen long enough to point to a hallway behind him.
    “Straight down there, ma’am,”
he said, waving behind him, never taking his gaze from his computer.
    “Don’t you have to be at
least sixteen to work in Missouri?” Rhetta said to Woody as she rounded the
desk, arrowing toward the hallway the young man had indicated.
    “I think so. Why do you ask?”
Woody said, easily keeping pace with her trot.
    “That kid back there,” Rhetta
said. “He doesn’t look a day over twelve.”
    Woody’s eyebrow shot up. “Uh,
huh. Is that a sign you’re getting old? The young adults look like
twelve-year-olds?”
    “That kid? There was nothing
adult about him. He didn’t even have facial hair under all that acne.” They
arrived at a U-shaped alcove lined with metal lockers much like the ones she
remembered from high school. All of the painted grey lockers gleamed under