“Look, your crash is one thing. Who knows why they want this hushed up, but I could come up with reasons. Maybe the pilot’s an ex-agent, maybe the guy’s wife is best friends with the director’s wife. Who knows? But Harper’s. . I don’t believe it. It’s fucking terrorists, for Christ’s sake, Jay. This is what we live for. It doesn’t jibe. I think Chuck’s being paranoid.”
“Maybe. You’re probably right.”
“Don’t condescend to me, you asshole. I want to know what you really think.”
“I think,” Justin said, “that I came up here to get some specific information to help me along in what I think is a murder investigation. And I think that’s as involved as I want to be with anything. Why don’t I just let you and Chuck handle this other matter. But I do think you should hear him out, although I’ll be surprised if he shows up in the morning.”
“Why?”
“Because he was supposed to fly up with me and he stood me up. My guess is he’s entangled in a whole lot of shit with your pals back in New York.”
“As long as you remember that they are my pals,” she said. “That’s who I work with. That’s who I work for. I’m not here for the sole purpose of giving you or Chuck Billings inside information.”
“I know you’re not,” Justin said. And then he said, “So do you have the pilot’s name?”
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
After another long silence, Justin just said, “Wanda?”
She sighed. “I don’t know why the information’s being blocked. But keeping it secret has been labeled top priority. Something nasty is going on here and I can’t figure out what it is.”
“It’s not your job to figure it out, is it?”
“No,” she said. “But it is yours.”
He nodded.
“The pilot’s name is. . was. . Hutchinson Cooke. People called him Hutch.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“No, no, please don’t thank me for risking my job to give this to you.”
“Thank you. Is there anything else I should know?”
“He was an Air Force pilot.”
“When he died? He was in the Air Force?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What does that mean?”
“He was definitely Air Force. And there’s no record that he was discharged.”
“So he was still in.”
“There’s also no record that he served anywhere. At least for the past eighteen months.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because we have access to records of all military personnel and where they’re stationed. And he hasn’t been stationed anywhere for the last year and a half. He just seems to have disappeared.”
“Was he still drawing a salary?”
“Air Force? Yes.”
“Okay, what aren’t you telling me here?”
“Christ, Jay, don’t you believe in doing any work on your own?”
“Wanda, I have a feeling there’s going to be plenty of work to do here after you give me everything you can.”
She sighed. “Two strange bits of info. He flew government officials.”
“What do you mean, government officials?”
“I couldn’t get his log. It was frozen. All I can tell you is he didn’t get as high as Air Force One. That log I could check. But that seems to have been his assignment for years, piloting whoever needed piloting to and from D.C. Other than that you’re on your own.”
“All right. What’s the second thing?”
“He was still receiving his Air Force salary, right? But he was also getting paid by someone else.”
“Who?”
“A company called Midas.”
“What the hell is that?”
“Don’t know. I didn’t have time to dig that deep. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t particularly want to.”
“It’s not illegal to be getting a civilian salary while you’re in the Air Force, is it? I mean, I imagine it happens all the time when rich guys go into the service. If any rich guys ever actually go into the service.”
“No. It’s not illegal. It’s just that. . this guy was a lifer, Jay. That’s what his records show. He wasn’t rich. And he wasn’t getting paid by Midas until eighteen months ago. Right at the time he seemed to disappear from the Air Force.” She cocked her head to the right and narrowed her eyes. “What the hell is going on here, Jay?”
Before Justin could respond, there was a firm knock on the den door. Both Justin and Wanda jumped a bit at the noise.
“Jay,” Justin’s mother called in. “Billy’s on the phone for you. He says it’s important.”
“Billy DiPezio?” Wanda asked, and for some reason she asked it in a whisper.
Justin nodded, leaned over to the other side of the couch, and grabbed the phone. “Billy,” he said. “What’s up? It’s too late for a free dinner, if that’s why you’re calling.”
“That’s not why I’m calling,” the Providence police chief said. “I’m over at Chuck Billings’s house.”
“Give him a message for me, please,” Justin said. “Tell him he’s an asshole. He’ll understand.”
“I can’t give him the message, Jay. I’m with his wife.”
“Well tell her to give him the message, please. I’d appreciate it.”
“Chuck’s dead,” Billy DiPezio said.
“What?” Justin found himself stammering. “When?. . How. .”
“Late this afternoon. He was driving up here, got off the I-95 for some reason, probably to find something to eat, and his car spun out of control, hit an oncoming car. Both cars were totaled.”
“What do you mean, he was driving up?”
“I mean he was driving from Long Island back home. He was supposed to get in tonight.”
“No, he wasn’t. He-”
“Jay, what the hell’s your problem with this? I spoke to him this morning, he was driving up. The local cops called me, said it looks like he fell asleep at the wheel. What the fuck are you arguing about this with me for?”
Justin heard Billy’s muffled voice-he must have put his hand over the speaker in the phone-apologizing to Chuck Billings’s wife for his language.
“Jay,” Billy said, quieter and calmer, “I’m calling you because when I spoke to him, Chuck said he was going to see you this morning. It means you were the last one to see him alive. The last one of us. I thought you might want to come see Katy, that’s Chuck’s wife. Thought there might be something you could tell her about your conversation.”
“Of course,” Justin said. “I don’t have much to report, but I’ll come in the morning. I’ll do whatever I can.”
He took down Katy Billings’s address, told Billy he’d talk to him in a few days, and hung up the phone.
He turned to Wanda Chinkle, told her about the conversation he’d just had with Billy. He realized his own nails were digging hard into his palm, causing the skin to turn a blotchy red and white. “It doesn’t look like Chuck was being paranoid.”
“Billy said it was an accident,” Wanda said slowly. “Don’t go off half-cocked, Jay.”
“He wasn’t going to drive. He was flying up with me.”
“Maybe he changed his mind.”
“Or somebody changed it for him.”
“Jay. .”
“Be careful, Wanda,” he said.
“Careful of what?”
“I’m not sure,” Justin Westwood said. “But right now, just to be on the safe side, be careful of everything.”
12
Muaffak Abbas was not afraid. He was, however, angry.
He felt that the man who had paid him so much money didn’t really trust him. Wouldn’t let him do the job he was being paid to do. Abbas felt some shame in this fact. And dishonor. But by the time he reached his destination, he realized that shame and dishonor in this world were of no importance. Soon he would be covered in glory. He would never feel worthless again for he would be meeting his God and spending eternity bathed in His light.
The feeling made him lightheaded. He felt as if God were already nearby, gently pulling him toward His eternal reward.
Thinking about his place in heaven, even Muaffak’s anger dissipated. When he walked into the small Italian restaurant on West 22nd Street in the evil city of New York, in the sinful borough of Manhattan, he felt nothing but peace.