Wings in the Dark by Michael Murphy Read Free Book Online Page A

followed them.
    “Putnam.” I gestured toward the blonde still studying the plane. “Who’s that?”
    “Fanny Chandler. She and Amelia have been friends for years. She’s a damn good pilot herself and the best aircraft mechanic we have. She arrived in Hawaii a month before we did, to work with the organizing committee to make sure we had everything we needed. Let me introduce you.”
    I followed him toward the back of the plane.
    “Fanny, this is Jake Donovan, a former detective.”
    Her blue eyes stood out, even without makeup, and like Amelia’s, her skin was sun- and wind-damaged. I shook her hand. There was grease under most of her nails. Like Amelia and her husband she appeared to have adjusted to a dead body in the hangar. She looked more concerned about the aircraft.
    “Nice to meet you, Miss Chandler. How’d you get mixed up with this?”
    “I came by to check out the hydraulic system. It’s been acting up since the plane arrived in Hawaii. We didn’t need any more mechanical troubles.”
    Amelia had mentioned that during our sightseeing flight earlier in the day. “Troubles?”
    Putnam looked at the red glossy plane. “We took every precaution during the ocean voyage, but we’ve had more than our share of mechanical issues, particularly the hydraulic system.”
    Fanny swallowed hard. “If there’s a small leak, it might not show until Amelia was halfway to California. She’d lose control of the rudder, and she wouldn’t be able to regulate the…Well, you get the picture.”
    Were they describing something more than routine mechanical problems? “Sabotage?”
    Putnam blew out a puff of air like I’d socked him in the gut. “I hadn’t considered that until now.”
    “Miss Chandler.” I hoped to come across as less threatening than Tanaka. “You arrived before or after the shots?”
    “I guess I was in my car when that happened. I parked in back and climbed out. George was running toward the back door. I didn’t hear anything.”
    “Did you see anyone leave in a hurry?”
    She shook her head. “Seeing George run like that, I thought maybe Amelia was hurt, so I ran inside and saw the body. I couldn’t believe it. Amelia was standing beside the plane, looking like I felt. I didn’t know it was Mr. Kalua until later.”
    “Fanny, I have to ask this.”
    She nodded, looking fearful of my question.
    “Was Mr. Kalua meeting you here?”
    Fanny scoffed. “Why would he be meeting
me
?”
    I didn’t like rhetorical answers to yes or no questions.
    Fanny shrugged. “I only saw him around the hangar once before, when he took a tour with a bunch of other suits.”
    Putnam shook his head. “He had no reason to be here.”
    I rubbed my forehead and glanced back at the body. A chilling possibility crossed my mind. Perhaps the shooter came for Amelia. When Kalua arrived, he might have surprised the killer, tried to stop him, and was shot for his troubles.
    “What’s wrong?” Putnam’s eyes widened.
    I didn’t want to share the theory quite yet, and not in front of Fanny. “Just trying to wrap my brain around what happened.”
    As Pete approached, staring at me over the top of his glasses, I ended my talk with the mechanic.
    Tanaka returned to the body and began to search the contents of the man’s wallet. He looked up and tapped his watch.
    I shook Fanny’s hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Chandler.”
    “Fanny.”
    She got the message, lit another cigarette, and went out back.
    I checked my watch. “I need your story, George.”
    “I can’t add much to what Fanny said.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I heard two shots, then another, and came running, half expecting…the worst. This is horrible. It could postpone Friday’s attempt to cross the Pacific.”
    Three days. A man was dead and Putnam’s own wife might be a suspect in the murder, and this guy seemed more worried about Amelia’s next record-breaking flight.
    He apparently read my mind. “I don’t mean to