The Delay of Plane 626

Airports tend to have a specific style of dis-interest. Not to mock airports, they try with fancy food places and popular coffee shops and magazine stands but, in the end, prices make people revert back to its dullness.

A recently heartbroken young man sat on one end of a oak wood polished-brown bar table and asked the bartender for another one with whisky this time. He waited for the arrival of his parent's plane from Hawaii impatiently due to the lack of entertainment in airports. He had been watching the same channel all day and had asked the bartender six times to change it. He was about to go for a seventh, when a young lady, blonde hair, brown eyes and Hispanic walked into the bar and sat a few stools away from him.

The airport attendant in charge of the microphones announced the arrival of plane 271 at terminal 6 over the intercoms.

His attention back on the young lady, he noticed she looked his way. She was reading a book called "Mark Pierley's Detective Agency" by Jose A. Zuniga, which currently sat on her lap, while she ordered a coke, no ice. She sipped the cup delicately, not that he noticed.

The young man was not the ambitious type. In fact, his previous attempts at love had ended in disappointment because the women that he loved had no interest in him. Vulnerability wasn't his strong suit, which is probably why it didn't work out because, to him, it seemed like they left him and not the other way around, which was the case. But, during that moment, he though of something clever that might improve his chances with the girl at the bar. He waited, watching T.V. to see if she would look at him again. Confidence was one thing but stupidity was quite another. She looked at him, less intently, but there was a enough of a glance for his purposes.

The young man, dressed in brown slacks and an over-hanging beige buttoned-up long-sleeve shirt, walked two stools over and said: "Excuse me, miss?"

The pretty girl wore a black tank top and blue jeans. She gave him a friendly stare.

"I noticed that you were looking at me with more-than-expected interest, do I came over to-?"

"Get to the point, Sherlock," She interrupted.

"I'm sorry. My name is Jevony Martinez and I was wondering if you cared to have a cup of coffee with me some day."

"Well, Jevony, I have a boyfriend," The girl said.

Jevony smiled at her and almost laughed. "That's a lie."

The girl's smile faltered a bit. "You expected me to say no?"

"No," Jevony said, "I expected you to say what you said but no would have been less tricky: I could have simply asked: 'why not?'"

"I could have said you weren't attractive to me."

"Is that true?"

The girl ignored the question. "So, I can't be rid of you, then?"

"Not that easily."

"I have pepper spray," she said with purpose. Her hand wasn't reaching for her bag, though.

"If you will accept my offer, I can take some to the eyes. It's actually better than coffee."

"Not a quitter, then?"

"Nope."

"What will you do when my boyfriend shows up?"

"Do you know why I know you don't have a boyfriend?"

"Why?" The girl asked, aggravated.

The attendant announced another plane arriving but they didn't hear her.

"Because you're reading that gibberish. It's been known that only people with low self-esteem and a lot of time on their hands read Jose Zuniga's thrash. Frankly, I'd rather hang garlic around my neck and go vampire hunting."

"Jose has his qualities. But you obviously have read his stuff to be so rude about him."

"Yes but not on purpose," Jevony said.

"In that case," the girl said with finality, "I don't really find you attractive."

"That's fine. I don't find you attractive, either."

"You asked me out," the girl said.

Jevony had been on his way back to his seat but stopped and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"You asked me out," the girl repeated in an annoyed tone.

"Does that make you attractive?"

"You pointed it out," The girl said, defensively.

"When?"

In the midst of this, came the voice of the airport attendant over the airport speakers a third time: "Arrival of flight 626 through terminal 10."

Then, someone was shot.

Away from the bar, in the middle of five six-chair rows was a rather chubby fellow, laying on the ground, clutching at his stomach with one hand and finding it hard to breadth. Jevony and the girl could see the blood.

"Get out of the way! Out of my way!" A police sergeant demanded, pushing staring people aside.

The girl stood over him as Jevony inspected the body. "What the hell!" The sergeant yelled and grabbed Jevony's wrist. "You can't touch him, kid." Jevony turned around quickly and gave the man a mean stare. He decided to walk away, though. Some teenage girls had their eyes open as they watched the fat man bleed to death. "Out of here! All of you. Police business! Hey, you. You touch him?"

"No, sir," Jevony said, "I didn't."

Jevony went and sat on the opposite terminal, pushing away some of the few people that remained. Others gathered, but the sergeant was adamant.

An hour later, detectives came. Two tall, bulky fellows in fancy suits. They came over to Jevony's pensive self with the girl, who had been volunteered to aid the sergeant in people control. Eventually, enough police arrived to take over and she was free to do as she pleased.

"Are you a witness?" One them asked him, and sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair across from him. He was a well-shaven fellow but had a look of distrust about him. He wasn't the cheery person that his partner seemed to be.

"I was at the bar," Jevony said.

"I'm detective Paul Bogart and this is my partner Richard Veracruz. We want you to tell us what happened."

"Like I said," Jevony said, "I was at the bar."

"You can clearly see across the bar what had transpired, no?" Richard asked him, sitting next to him. He was not cheery anymore.

"He was too busy asking me out, dad," the girl said, smiling at Jevony.

Jevony wasn't surprised by that. He crossed his hands and tried to look more annoyed. He couldn't pass off as a smart-ass by being content. "I don't want to make you guys look like fools," Jevony said.

"What?" The girl said, as if she was part of the interview.

"You sure he was with you?" The other detective asked, frowning at her.

The girl nodded.

"You're in deep water, kid," Richard said, "But we'll talk about my daughter later. Tell me what you think happened."

"What I saw happening is different from what I think happened and completely off-base from what did happen. You see this little passage? Lost of people walk back and forth through it, but you figure this was done by the two guys you have in custody, but found no weapon and they claim they're innocent. You have good reason, too, since they were the only two running through the hallway, as well, passing by a man carrying plane food on a roll-around service cart."

"What did you see?" Detective Bogart prompted.

"I saw a man get shot," Jevony said, annoyed. "Good day to you, detectives."

"We're not through with this session, kid."

"My name is Jevony," Jevony said.

"Right, Jevony. What else did you see?" Bogart asked, again.

"All I saw was a man get shot," Jevony said.

"Apparently, you also saw those two guys running," The girl said, waving that infernal book at him.

"They would have missed," Jevony said.

"True," Detective Richard said and explained. "We came to that conclusion, too. At any give moment, though, there's twenty different people walking through here. This guy must have been clever at disguising himself. Let us know, if you notice anything strange in particular."

"Oh, wait," Jevony said, "You didn't ask that question."

"Huh?" Detective Bogart replied, sitting back down.

Veracruz looked at him and smiled. "What did you notice?" He asked, interested.

"I saw a man get shot, but I noticed that the bullet hit him directly above the belly button, so as to hit any which vital organ. The injury, however, wasn't severe, so whoever shot the man hadn't accounted for his weight."

"Do you know the man?" The girl asked.

"You've seen people die before," Richard pointed out.

Jevony said nothing and the annoyance was gone from his face, leaving him with a sort-of vanishing sadness. It switched to determination. "Anyway," he continued, "The cart boy did it. I didn't see it, though. Is that enough?"

"Wait, what? How can we take your word for that?" Richard accused. "This is a serious investigation."

"I was going to go out with you?" The girl asked herself.

Jevony's attention was caught. "I could explain, if it'll help."

The girl took a seat for this and the detectives attention was on him again. "The gun didn't appear out of nowhere. I saw the man fall. You don't go down that quick by a fool running with a gun, even two. There had to be some plans for aiming and adjustments for such a direct hit. Those two brothers were playing around. One probably had a grudge against the other. They passed by the man with the cart, as did others but the man with the cart already had the gun aimed and ready to shoot. He was waiting for a scapegoat. And, as fate would have it, there were two. I know none of this; it's just logic. The gun had to come from somewhere. When we heard the loud bang, we ran to see his body and I noticed a man with a cart from the direction in which it was obvious that the bullet had come. His face was comely and he was offering people standing around peanuts prior to the shooting. He was playing the innocent so that no one would suspect. Another clever ruse."

"Not if he's innocent," The girl said.

Jevony stared at her for a second. "You think like your father, a detective. You want proof. Proof isn't important. I'm trying to get these two kids off the hook before their parents find out. It would surely be amusing to watch the police explain that their kids were accused of murder but are actually innocent, no?"

"But we need proof," Richard concluded, frowning.

"This is about me dating your daughter," Jevony said, smiling.

The man took a deep breadth. "The girl is more trouble than she's worth."

The girl crossed her hands. "No, I'm not."

"Aren't they all?" Jevony asked.

The father smiled and said to his daughter, "I'm sorry, honey."

Jevony got up to go the bathroom.

"Where are you going?" The girl demanded.

"I'll be back," Jevony said.

The bathroom was a few steps to his right along the hallway, next to a magazine shop.

He couldn't believe how dull the builders of airports had managed to make their bathrooms. The condoms caught his eye but they were too expensive.

On his way out, a man without a cart slammed into him and knocked him down. Both bodies hit the floor, Jevony's first and then the other guys.

A few seconds later, Jevony looked up at the pretty smiling face of a blonde Hispanic girl. She gave him a hand. "That end of the passage is a dead en," She said pointing behind her, in the direction that the incoming guy had come from, "Unless plane number 626's door opened to let passengers in. The killer could have easily escaped, except for the fact that the lady on the speaker was wrong about the arrival of plane 626. He was very clever in that, too. He would have stepped out to the flight line and walk to a different part of the huge airport. When he realized he couldn't escape, he tried to play the same innocent routine and my father asked him a couple of questions and he ran. They found a gun under his cart of peanuts."

The person who had slammed into him was already in handcuffs and in the hands of a couple of police officers. He had been trapped all along.

The two detectives walked over to them. "Ah, kid. You caught him for us, twice." The detective cleared his throat. "Beginner's luck, I'd say," Bogart replied, "Still, could use someone with your expertise in the force."

"Let's go, Paul. See you at home, honey. What can I say kid. You made me look like a fool," Richard said, shaking his hand.

"Not intentionally," Jevony said, "See you later, detective."

The two detectives seemed to have vanished.

Jevony and the girl were again alone and had decided on a second drink at the bar. "My name is Maribel," The girl said, "You were very impressive, the way you-?"

"Cut to the point, Sherlock," Jevony interrupted, sipping on his sprite.

The girl blushed and said, "Would you mind on having coffee with me some time?"

"Let me think about it," Jevony said. They laughed.

Their laughter increased in volume when the following was announced over the speakers by an airport attendant: "The true arrival of plane 626 at terminal 10 is at present still delayed. We apologize for the incorrect arrival time that was previously given and any inconvenience this may have caused."