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 ”I’ve got it, we’ll call a lawyer first.”  Phil said, showing the first signs of a smile that Bob had seen in hours.

“A lawyer?  Why”

“Because, we’re obviously going to need one.  They’ll want somebody to take the fall for a fallen officer.  I’m sure Mojito or whatever her name was is long gone.”

“Mokoto.”

“Again, why are you correcting me?”

“We need to keep our stories straight and consistent.”  Bob looked at the passing scenery.  A grove of trees flew by as he heard Phil start to snicker.

“Admit it Bob, you’ve got a thing for her.”

“EXCUSE ME?  The woman who was stalking us, shot a cop and tried to shoot us.  Yeah, she’s way my type.”

“Hell, I agree, but I can’t argue that she’s well put together, and I’m not big into Asian girls.”

“And I am?”

“Let’s see” said Phil as he folded his legs and started counting on his hand.  “First off, you bought Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the day it came out, and you kept raving about how great Zhang Ziyi was in it.”

“IT WAS A GOOD MOVIE.”

“Second, every MySpace survey you fill out that has the question ‘favorite actress’ you put Lucy Liu.”

“I like Lucy Liu.  Is that a crime?”

“Finally, the first bookmark on your browser’s bookmarks toolbar is 3DBooru.”

Bob’s face turned red.  “Hey, how did you know that?”

Phil shook his head.  “A guy can only get called into a room for so many funny YouTube clips before he starts noticing things on that computer’s Firefox bar.”

Bob put his head on his hands, slouching in a way that reflected defeat and dejection.  Suddenly, his head popped up and looked at Phil.  “How do you know what 3DBooru is?”

Phil rolled his eyes.  “Maybe it was that time you emailed the link to me and said ‘check this site’ perhaps?”

Bob put his head back on his hands, and returned to his regularly scheduled dejection.

***

The slow creaking of a door was last heard a minute ago.  There was no sound of running water, no noise from the stalls, and no zipping or unzipping.  Geoff was still breathing heavily, but he was keeping it as quiet as he could.  He was in a locked stall, in a catcher’s crouch while he kept dialing numbers in his phone that Jer might pick up.  Geoff dialed number after number, only to hear the familiar “mailbox full” refrain.  Geoff then started focusing on the cell numbers in his list of contacts.  Jer had at least two of those, and a few more Geoff knew he used to have.  His fingers started typing hastily and in all caps:

R U ALIVE?  J AND J KNOW YOU MIGHT BE.  WE NEED 2 TALK.  WHERE TH F R U?

Geoff hit send on the last number, when he heard the door open again.  He froze in place as he heard the footsteps of someone wearing boots walk in.  Geoff waited while he heard the familiar zipping noise.  What heard next was something he hadn’t heard yet.

“TYLER, WHERE ARE YOU, OVER” came the voice from a handset, the kind security kept attached to their shoulder.

“I’m in the bathroom, over”

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE YOUR POST LIKE THAT, OVER.”

“Relax, I have Thompson covering for me.  Besides, Mr. F.B.I. and that prick from the S.F.P.D. can handle things now, over.”

“TYLER, GET BACK TO YOUR POST.  WE HAVE IMAGES OF A PERSON OF INTEREST WHO MIGHT STILL BE AT THE AIRPORT.  ONE GEOFF PRYBLINSKI, OVER.”

“Roger, over and out.”  There was a quick zipping noise and the sounds of those same booted feet running out the door while the auto-flush kicked in.  Geoff knew that the police would be on his trail eventually, but he didn’t know they’d be after him already.  Geoff didn’t want to race both Jeremiah and Jebediah, along with the Sioux Falls police.  Plus, now that he knew the F.B.I. was in town, his margin of error was suddenly a negative number.  I wish I’d studied the airport layout better he thought as he got down from the toilet.  He exited the stall and began washing his hands, ignoring the sound of the door opening.