Wes felt the skin on his arms tighten. “You’re saying this was the man who was supposed to be flying the plane yesterday?”
“What do you mean ‘supposed to be’?”
Wes leaned toward Lars. “What I mean is this wasn’t the man I found sitting in the cockpit.”
10
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m
Lars looked down at the paper. After a moment he said, “You’re the one who must have made the mistake. It’s easy to misidentify someone, especially from a distance.”
“What do you know about the crash besides what was in the newspaper?” Wes asked.
Lars hesitated. “Just what was in the preliminary report. But there wasn’t much.”
“Did it say anything about me?”
“You?”
“My involvement.”
“Just that you were first on scene. But there was a fire and you couldn’t do anything.”
So it wasn’t just the newspaper that had let Lars know Wes was in town, but Wes let that pass for now.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
Wes frowned. “Lars, I didn’t see him from a distance. I got right up next to him. He talked to me.”
“He talked to you? He was
Wes nodded. “When I got there, he was slumped down, unconscious. But I was able to bring him around.”
Lars looked down at the table, then back at Wes. “Then what?”
“Then I tried to get him out, but he was stuck. I left to grab a knife, only before I could get back, the cockpit caught on fire. None of this was in the report you saw?”
Lars shook his head slightly. “No.”
“Well, it should have been, because this guy here,” Wes said, raising the article a few inches off the table, “isn’t the guy I saw.”
Neither of them said anything for several seconds.
Finally Lars leaned back. “I’m impressed and, well, shocked, really, that you were able to do as much as you did. But bear with me for a second. Is it possible you might not be remembering correctly? After all, stressful situations can mess with your head and make you think you saw something other than what you actually did.”
“That had nothing to do with it,” Wes insisted. Still, there was some truth in Lars’s words. He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the face of the man in the cockpit. But the one he saw still wasn’t Adair’s. “There must be someone unaccounted for. Some other pilot who’s missing. That’ll be the guy I saw.”
“We don’t have anyone unaccounted for.”
Wes’s phone beeped in his pocket. It was his alarm. He frowned. “I gotta get back.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Lars said.
“Can you do me a favor and check it out?”
“Check what out?”
“This picture. The pilot. Just make sure there wasn’t a mistake. I saw the guy, Lars. It’ll help put my mind at ease.”
Lars rose from his seat and shrugged. “I don’t know what you expect me to find, but okay. I’ll check.”
They walked around to the parking lot off the alley that ran behind the restaurant. Lars stopped next to a generic-looking sedan that Wes immediately pegged as base issue.
“Seriously? If terrorists ever knew the Navy made you drive around in that, they’d realize they’d already won.”
Lars grimaced. “Yeah, well, we can’t all be driving BMWs.”
“You overestimate me. Back home I drive a Prius.”
“Tree hugger, huh?”
“Only in my off hours.”
Lars seemed to relax a little. Holding out his hand, he said, “It’s good to see you again.”
Wes shook it. “You’ll let me know what you find out?”
“Of course. But can I be honest with you?”
“Sure.”
Lars hesitated before he spoke. “I think chances are I’m not going to find anything wrong. So you might want to start assuming your mind’s playing tricks on you.”
“You’re probably right.” Wes smiled. “I’m glad we got together.”
“Me, too.” Lars opened the door of his sedan, then paused in the opening. “Welcome home.”
11
Lars Andersen had just driven through the gate of the China Lake naval base when his cellphone rang. He grabbed his Bluetooth headset off the cigarette lighter and put it in his ear.
“Lieutenant Commander Andersen.”
“Lars, it’s Janice. Commander Knudsen just got here for our meeting. You’re almost back, right?”
Lars checked his watch. The meeting with Knudsen was supposed to start in fifteen minutes. “Any way we can push it back an hour?”
“He’s already in the conference room. Why? You can’t make it?”
If Lars kept going on the road he was on, he’d be at his office in two minutes. Instead he turned left.
“You’ll have to take it without me.”
“He’s not going to be happy,” Janice said.
“Make something up. You can fill me in later.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“No choice,” he said, then disconnected the call. Immediately he punched in a new number.
“Commander Forman’s office, Seaman Litoff speaking.”
“This is Lieutenant Commander Andersen. I need to see the commander now.”
“Sir, the commander isn’t here at the moment.”
“Where is he?”
“I’m afraid I’m not authorized to give you that information.”
“Well, Seaman, I suggest you call your boss and tell him I’m on the way to his office and he’s going to want to see me right away. Understood?”
“Yes, sir. Understood. Can you tell me what this is regarding?”
“No.”
Lars disconnected the call.
12
Asit turned out,Wes could have stayed longer at lunch.
“Our afternoon schedule just got canceled,” Dione told the crew once everyone had regrouped at the
