A detective from Fairfax County met the plane.
Eli came through the arrivals doors at Dulles at 2:40 on a Saturday afternoon, in the navy blazer with the London crest, with a Fairfax County detective on one side and a flight attendant on the other, and he saw me before I saw him, and he ran.
He hit me so hard that I sat down on the floor of the arrivals hall, in my coat, with my back against a pillar, and I held him there while people stepped around us, and neither of us said anything for a full minute.
Then he said, into my shoulder, “Did you keep it?”
“I kept it.”
“Did he get it?”
“He never even saw it.”
He let out a breath that was far too old for him.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. Then it worked.”
Behind him, Spencer came through the doors with two detectives, no handcuffs, and the face of a man who has been handed a bill.
