Louisiana and had a cop with him. They wanted to know about my plane and then about any small planes that took off in about a two hour time span on Monday. There were only five and they were asking if I was piloting any of them.”
“But you used Harvey’s name on your flight plan, how-”
“I know, but one of the guys in the control room mentioned that Harvey and I were good friends and then someone else mentioned the flight plan couldn’t have been right because they saw Harvey that afternoon. I guess it was all he needed. He’s in a Gulfstream 350, and Harvey said they flew out of there around 8:30 or 8:45. If someone hadn’t called Harvey, you would have seen Micah this morning, and I don’t think he would have been happy to see me.”
My head went back against the seat as my heart continued to pound in my chest, “I never, ever should have agreed to let you help me,” I choked. I could feel the emotions wadded up in my throat, but nothing was rising to my eyes. If Micah didn’t show up with his pistols strapped to his sides, it wouldn’t matter because he would beat Ryan to death, and I know I couldn’t stop him.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, his hand reaching over and squeezing mine.
“He’s just going to follow us to wherever we go and-”
“Only if he’s a freaking psychic! He can’t follow us this time; we don’t have a flight plan.”
“Will you be in trouble for that?”
“The FAA wants every trip to have a flight plan, but for small aircraft it’s only strongly recommended. They can’t pull my license or anything for not doing it.”
My heart was beginning to slow from its fast pace and air was returning to my lungs. Running away from Micah I had known all along wasn’t going to be easy, but I never expected him to find me so quickly.
Chapter Ten
Micah studied the property records on his laptop. He found Harvey Pinchon’s information at Heaven’s Landing. He knew exactly which house he would be going to when they landed in a few moments. He turned off the computer and closed the lid.
Gwen gave him a sympathetic look as they descended onto the mountaintop airstrip.
He hated that look. He didn’t want sympathy. In fact, he didn’t want her along at all, but he’d made himself bring her so it would be easier to get information at the airport, and so when he found them, she could talk him out of killing Ryan.
They landed and taxied toward the hangers where a group of men were standing.
Micah wasted no time in concocting a believable story. “Hello,” he said as he and Gwen disembarked. “Harvey sent us up here to check on some friends staying at his place.”
“You just missed them,” one man quickly offered. “They flew out of here about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Do you know where they were headed?” Gwen asked.
“No,” another man answered, “but they were in a hell-fire hurry, said it was a matter of life or death. The guy wasn’t even going to do his preflight check, but we talked him into it.”
“He didn’t even fuel up,” the first man added. “He only had about a third of a tank so he won’t go more than a couple hundred miles before he has to refuel. And,” he added, pointing to the big black truck, “He left Harvey’s truck sitting here with the keys in the ignition.”
“I’ll take the truck back up to Harvey’s,” Micah said smoothly.
No one was going to argue with someone his size, nor with a cop, as they watched the two of them get in Harvey’s truck.
Micah had the information from the computer memorized, so it was no problem for him to pull into the right driveway.
“I’m going inside,” he simply told Gwen.
“That’s breaking and entering, Micah, I don’t think-”
“Then stay outside,” he growled back. “See if there is a garage door opener in the-”
Gwen already had it in hand. She had found it in the seat when she climbed in, but hadn’t shown it until now. She hit the button and the door went up.
Micah smiled at the open door inside the garage leading into the house, “You don’t have to come inside.”
Gwen didn’t say anything as she followed.
The house wasn’t messy, but it was obvious they left in a rush. Micah inspected each room; pausing the longest as he looked at the unmade bed. He went into the master bath and then left the room and headed to the kitchen. He pulled out the kitchen garbage can and took off the lid and began pulling out empty Wal-Mart bags. Eventually he found the bag he was looking for as he removed a receipt and put it in his pocket. A little further down, below a couple more bags he stopped and stared for a long moment.
Gwen started to walk toward him when he spewed out an obscenity and slammed his fist through the kitchen wall.
“Micah!”
Three more powerful punches to the wall and she was struggling to get a grip on his arms. “Stop. Quit being an idiot! You’re going to hit a stud in a minute and break your hand!”
“Damn it, Gwen-Damn it all to hell,” he didn’t sound furious at the moment, only defeated. “Do you have,” he tried to say, but his voice caught on the words. He took a choppy breath and tried again, “Do you have an extra hair tie or a rubber band?”
Gwen reached up and pulled the hair band from her short pony tail and handed it to Micah.
He reached into the trash and removed a big lock of shimmering brown hair about eighteen inches long. He wrapped the end of the hair carefully and tightly with the band and then shook it as the intermixed black hairs fell away. He smoothed the hair between his fingers until it was straight and then slowly lifted it to his face and inhaled deeply, “It smells just the way it did the morning she left me.”
Gwen had no words to comfort him, as she rubbed her hand softly on the back of his broad shoulder.
He coiled the hair and placed it carefully into his shirt pocket and then reached back into the trash and pulled out several bottles of hair color and their boxes, “I believe my wife is a blonde now, with highlights.” He grabbed a half-filled bottle of red. “And the asshole is now a redhead.”
He looked around the house for a few more minutes and then walked outside. He had the sales receipt in hand and was dialing the store’s phone number, “Yes, can you tell me where you’re located if I’m coming from Heaven’s Landing? And is April working this morning? Thank you.” He closed the phone and opened the door to the truck as he started to get in.
“Micah, you can’t just take this truck. We’ve got to call a cab.”
“Can’t a police officer commandeer a vehicle?”
“Yes, I can, but-”
“Good, then you drive,” he said, handing her the keys.
Within fifteen minutes they were approaching the customer service desk as Gwen showed them the receipt pointing to the name of the cashier on the paper, “Hello, I’m police chief Gavarreen and this is detective-”
“Michaelson,” Micah said, reaching out and shaking the manager’s hand. “We need to speak to April regarding a missing person that came through her line a few days ago.”
“Oh-oh sure, I’ll go get her.” The slight-built man hurried off to relieve her from her register. It didn’t take long for the twenty-something, gum chewing, curly haired cashier to greet her visitors.
“Hi, ya’ll. My manager said you needed to see me about someone that I rang up a couple days ago, but there are a lot of folks that come through-”
“You might remember this couple,” Micah interrupted, showing her a picture of Leese and watching her reaction as she earnestly studied her face. Then he handed her one of Ryan.
“Those two! Oh, Lord, yes. Who could forget those blue-eyes? He was a real card, half crazy, I think. I thought there was something wrong about them.”
“Why?” Gwen asked.
“The girl, she was real quiet, but he was talkative enough for the both of them. He said they got married the
