Endangered Species (14 page)

Anna waited.  The question was rhetorical and with Alice Utterback

somehow one wasn't tempted to pry.

"I flew with him once or twice when I worked in Region Six-in Washington

State," Utterback volunteered ." He was a hotshot.  Or thought he was.

One of those fellas you've got to get to know quick because they aren't

going to live all that long.  Too bad they usually manage to take

someone with them when they go.  The passenger was the district ranger

here?"

" Todd Belfore."

Alice switched her light back on and returned her focus to the

instrument panel ." Norman said he left a widow."

"She's in a hospital in St.  Marys.  Or was yesterday.  She's seriously

pregnant."

"That's a pity," Alice said, and: "Write this down." Speaking slowly,

undoubtedly accustomed to giving dictation to people not trained in

shorthand, she listed the readings on the instruments: "Gas valve is on

the auxiliary tanks, landing gear is up, altimeter looks about right,

throttles .  .  .  too damaged to tell."

In her best Catholic school hand, Anna wrote down every word.

"Does this tell you anything?" she asked.

"Not much," Alice admitted ." But you never know.  We may turn up

something."

Shorty came over then and they cleared out, leaving him room to

photograph the interior of the plane.

Utterback strolled around in what appeared to be an aimless fashion.

Hands shoved deep in her pockets, she scuffed through the duff, gazed at

the trees, the sky, whistling soundlessly.  Finally she stopped, pinched

her underlip in a thoughtful way, and stared intently at the ground.

"What?" Anna asked after a minute.

"I think I'm getting a cold sore , Alice said abstractedly ." I hate

those doggone things." She plucked a little longer at the offending lip,

then said: "Write this down.  Put it in parentheses so I'll know it's

just me guestimating and not God's honest truth.

"It looks like Hammond was flying too low and too slow.  For some reason

the airplane rolled sharply to the left and flew nose down.  He hadn't

left himself any maneuvering room and stacked it, inverted, nose down."

"Got something, Alice?" Wayne called.

"Nothing to take to the bank."

Again Utterback wandered off.  Scribbling, Anna tagged along.

"Inboards blew?" Alice asked ." There's two on each wing, one close in,

one further out-inboards and outboards," she said before Anna was forced

to expose her ignorance ." Did the ones close in explode?"

"Yes, ma'am.  The left tank exploded on impact and the right shortly

after we arrived."

Alice was nodding; it tallied with what she'd seen ." Got the severed

wingtips mapped?" she hollered at Rick and Shorty.

" Right yes.  Left no," the Forest Service man called back.

Alice resumed her soundless whistling and meandered toward the

aircraft's right wing.  It lay forty yards north of the fuselage and was

still, to some extent, intact.  The outboard tank inside the wing had

not been ruptured.  Cables and lines snaked out to shredded ends like

the sinews and ligaments of a severed limb.  Leaf litter, plowed up on

impact, covered the leading edge.  The trailing edge was a foot off the

ground, lending an aspect of movement and speed to the derelict wing.

The sun had climbed past meridian.  Anna's stomach was beginning to

growl tentatively for lunch.  Down in the live oaks there wasn't the

faintest breath of air and the temperature was near a hundred degrees.

Sweat ringed the men's armpits, staining their shirts all the way to the

belt line.  Rivulets trickled down Anna's neck and back, doing an

excellent job of mimicking the sensation of little tick feet burrowing

down for a snack.

Alice was completely untouched: her weathered skin was dry and

powdery-looking, her white hair lying in neat waves, Twice she' circled

the wingtip.  Anna stood aside, pen poised, trying to look intelligent

." Could he have run out of gas?" she ventured.

"Could've," Alice said ." Always take a look." She crouched down by the

trailing edge and removed the gas cap ." Hey, Shorty," she called ." I

need to take a peek in the outboard tank.  Got a match?"

Familiar laughter at a standard joke filtered back to them as Utterback

poked the beam of her Maglite into the recesses of the gas tank.

" Nearly half full.  Write that down," she said ." Right auxiliary a

quarter full-make it a quarter."

Dutifully Anna scratched out the word "half," feeling a mild resentment

that her so-far perfect notes were now besmirched.

"My, my, what have we here?" Alice took off her glasses and pushed her

eyeball up to the tank's opening ." Some sort of foreign object."

Anna resisted the childish urge to say, "Let me see!  Let me see!"

Shorty had come up behind them ." Let me see," he demanded, and Anna was

jealous.

"Looky." Alice handed him the Maglite ." Way in the back.  Kind of an

amoeba thing."

"Quit with the fifty-cent words," Shorty grunted as he squatted to look.

After some discussion as to the nature of the alien item, Anna was

dispatched to find something with which to fish it out ." Maybe a coat

hanger," was Alice Utterback's unhelpful suggestion.

Lest she miss out on anything, Anna jogged to where the pumper truck was

parked on the road.  Amid the collected garbage behind the seat was a

length of welding rod.  Feeling mildly heroic, she carried her prize

back to the accident site.

"Perfect," Alice said, and Anna was rewarded for her zeal.

Five minutes' careful maneuvering produced a plastic bag, the sort the

grocery stores provide by the roll in the produce section.

With great care, Alice laid it out on the wing.  The excitement had

attracted the others and the six of them stood around staring at it.

"Got stuck in by accident?" Shorty offered, then argued with himself ."

Not likely.  Too big.  You'd have to poke it down on purpose.

"Could have been there for years," Wayne suggested.  He was the mechanic

and that gave his opinion weight ." I've found stranger stuff.  Once I

found a used condom in the tail of an old J-three Cub .

The bag might have fallen in when the tank was being manufactured and

got sealed up."

"How long will plastic last in hundred-octane solution?" Alice asked.

Nobody knew.

"You know what to do for your next science project," she said .

"Bag it and send it to the National Transportation Safety Board lab .

Maybe there was something in it."

"Sugar," Anna said.  The parks were well enough versed in the methods of

monkey wrenchers for her to take a stab at the obvious .

Sugar in the gas tank was the oldest of tricks, almost a clich&, but

very effective.

"Why not just pour the sugar in?  Why stuff in the whole bag?"

Alice asked.

"Good measure?"

Everyone ignored Anna.

"Would it cause the aircraft to malfunction and crash, Mrs. Utterback?"

the chief ranger asked.  Hull always sounded stilted, and Anna began to

wonder if English was his second language.

"It'd wreck the engine," Alice said, "but it shouldn't cause a crash

like this.  Photograph it.  Bag it," she said again, and lost interest.

Speculations were of little import.  When the facts came back from the

lab the issue would be reopened.

With a purpose that was a mystery to all, Alice stomped off, Anna in

tow, and set up camp at the ruin of the left wing where it rested a

dozen yards from its fellow.

The left outboard fuel tank was ruptured, the gasoline all leaked away,

but Alice wouldn't leave it alone.  While the others continued with

their mapping and data collection she and Anna sifted through the litter

around the ruined wing.  Twice Anna asked what they were looking for.

Twice she was told: "Just looking."

Near sundown, as the men were packing their equipment to leave, Alice

Utterback muttered, "Bingo," and, "Eureka." Buried in the leaf litter

seven feet from the ruptured tank, she'd found what she was searching

for: a second plastic bag.

"Somebody was up to something," she said ." But I'll be jiggered if I

know what."

N THE FLATLANDS of east Georgia the sun set in slow motion.

lTwilight filtered down like fine dust, a gray drift over the brash

colors of summer.  Anna drove, Alice Utterback riding shotgun .

There was no place they had to be and Anna idled along at twenty miles

per hour enjoying herself.  After a day of following Alice it felt good

simply to sit.  Utterback never seemed to tire and while the others took

breaks for a cigarette, a drink, a bull session, the two of them had

worked.

Even now the chief investigator was not truly relaxed.  The pla tic

sacks they'd found in the Beechcraft's outboard fuel tanks rested in

sealed evidence bags on the truck's dashboard.  Ignoring the

kaleidoscope of green and gold spinning past the windows, Alice stared

at the bags and Anna fancied she could hear the well-oiled gears of the

older woman's brain whirring.

"Clearly the bags were stuck in the tanks on purpose," Alice said after

a while, talking more to herself than to Anna ." Though to what purpose

I can't imagine.  There's just no good reason.  Hammond might've stuck

them there to smuggle something but it'd be a pretty feeble attempt.  If

they had anything in them you'd have a heck of a time fishing them out

and if they didn't, what's the point?"

" Could they gum up the works somehow?" Anna asked ." Like sand or

throwing a wooden shoe in the machinery?"

"Sabotage?" Alice echoed ." Not really.  I mean I suppose they could

float around in there, maybe settle over the fuel outlet and stop it up.

But the odds of both of them doing it at the same time and staying put

long enough to cut off the gas are pretty slim .

Something sure as heck stacked that Beechcraft though.  Hammond was a

boob but he wasn't a bad pilot.  Still, short of some kind of

interference, Hammond shouldn't have plowed in like he did.  The

Beechcraft is a forgiving little airplane.  Under most conditions it'll

see you home-or at least to a flat spot.  If somebody wanted to kill

him, there are better ways."

"Would anybody want to kill Slattery Hammond?" Anna asked.

"Oh sure.  He was one of those guys that always had something going.  A

bit of a schemer.  And he was flying drug interdiction.  That wouldn't

endear him in some circles."

" You think he was onto something?"

"I doubt it.  Those guys play hardball.  I can't see a dope dealer

stuffing sandwich bags in a fuel tank-not unless Slattery was about to

bust up a ring of ten-year-olds.  What was that fella's name with him?

Belfore?  Maybe he'd got on the wrong side of somebody-"

"He wasn't even supposed to be in the plane," Anna said ." The hief

ranger was scheduled for that flight."

c

" Maybe somebody knew he and Hull switched."

A memory surfaced in Anna's mind: Tabby in a red dress, partially lit by

the glow of a headlight, crying: "You would leave me!" as her husband