Die a Stranger by Steve Hamilton Read Free Book Online

official trooper face on until the quarter dropped and he recognized me.
    “Mr. McKnight,” he said. “What’s going on?”
    “What happened?” I looked past him at the runway. There was a small Cessna at one end. One truck with big off-road tires, one SUV, then all of the police cars. I saw two different tarps covering two different things shaped like human bodies, and from the way the cops were buzzing around it looked like there were more down the runway.
    “We’re real busy here,” he said. “You’re gonna have to read about it in the paper.”
    “I’m looking for a friend of mine, Sergeant. I just need to know he’s not here. Then I can sleep tonight.”
    “What’s your friend’s name?”
    “His name is Vinnie LeBlanc. I can’t imagine why he’d be here at the airport, but I haven’t seen him today and—”
    “Vinnie LeBlanc.” I could tell he was filing away the name. “Is he Bay Mills?”
    “Yeah. Why?”
    “I just figured. Lots of LeBlancs over there. You say he’s missing today?”
    “I wouldn’t say missing. I just can’t find him.”
    “Well, we’ve got five dead bodies in here. I don’t think any of them are your man, but—”
    “Five dead bodies? What the hell happened?”
    He hesitated for a moment, looked behind him at the scene, then took a step closer to me. “All right,” he said. “Quick version, it looks like a drug delivery gone bad. That plane over there is Canadian registered, and it’s stuffed to the rafters with bags of marijuana. Like more than I’ve seen in my whole life. Two men were probably waiting for the plane, another two men showed up. They handcuffed the first two men, then shot them in the head.”
    “Okay, that’s two dead. How did it get to five?”
    “The pilot had a gun, apparently. After he landed, he must have seen he was in trouble. It looks like everybody started shooting at the same time. One of them was crawling back to one of the vehicles and almost made it.”
    “A night delivery,” I said. “They find an airfield out in the middle of nowhere. The plane comes in low and turns on the runway lights automatically.”
    “How come you know so much about it?”
    “It was in the paper. Last month, remember? Downstate somewhere.”
    “Yeah, I remember,” he said. “The state police down there think it probably happened a dozen times until that one went bad. Now we’ve got this one. Right here in Newberry? Why’d they pick this place?”
    “If they’re looking for the middle of nowhere, I think this qualifies.”
    “Just what we need,” he said, shaking his head. “But as far as your friend goes … I mean, we don’t have any IDs yet.”
    “I’m sure he’s not in there,” I said. “He doesn’t even smoke the stuff.”
    “You don’t have to smoke it to sell it.”
    “Seriously. I can promise you, Sergeant. Unless you’ve got a black Ram truck in there, and an Indian with long hair down his back.”
    “No, that much I can tell you. We don’t have that.”
    “All right then,” I said. “I’ll let you get back to it. Thanks for taking the time. I feel a lot better now.”
    “No problem, Mr. McKnight. Good luck finding your friend. I’m sure he’ll show up somewhere today.”
    “I’m sure he will.” As I walked away, I looked back through the fence. One airplane. Five dead men on the ground. Nothing to do with Vinnie. Obviously.
    But I still didn’t know where he was.
    *   *   *
     
    Jackie was waiting at the door for me when I got back to the Glasgow. “You were supposed to call me,” he said.
    “Sorry. I don’t think my cell phone would have worked out there, anyway.”
    “What did you find out? Was it an accident?”
    “No, some kind of drug deal gone bad at the airport.”
    “At the Newberry airport? That one little runway that gets like one plane a day.”
    “It can happen anywhere,” I said. “Especially when you’re this close to a border.”
    “That kind of stuff happens down in