Chapter 4 - THE BADGE WITH THE WRONG FACE
Emma tugged the black photo badge free just before Susan could crush it beneath the handbag.
A laminated crew ID swung from the clip.
Another woman’s photograph stared up at us.
Not Susan.
A brunette in navy uniform.
Crew smile.
Professional headshot.
Airport access badge.
The cabin went completely still.
“Why do you have a flight attendant’s badge?” Emma asked.
Susan actually lunged across Emma to grab it.
That was when Megan moved.
She crossed the aisle in one step, caught Susan’s wrist in midair, and pulled Emma behind her with the other hand.
“Hands off the child.”
Susan’s expression changed.
All the fake annoyance vanished.
Now she looked frightened.
Truly frightened.
“Give me that,” she hissed.
“No,” Megan said.
She took the badge from Emma and looked down at it.
I watched her face pale.
Then she whispered:
“Oh my God.”
“What?” I asked.
Megan didn’t answer immediately.
Because in the exact same second, something else slipped loose from inside Susan’s open coat and fell into the aisle.
Another badge.
This one face-down at first.
Then it flipped over.
This time the photograph was Susan’s own face.
But the name clipped beneath it was not Susan Blake.
It said:
Sandra Bell
SkyBridge Catering Access
Megan stared from one badge to the other.
Then back to Susan.
“Why do you have two identities?”
May you like
Susan went white.
And for the first time since she had kicked my daughter’s backpack, she looked less like an entitled passenger and more like someone who had just realized the room had stopped believing her.
