Maybe that would obscure a taxi connection. But then, what about surveillance cameras wherever she left it? What if somebody noticed it had been parked for a long time, and then checked it. What if she bumped into somebody she knew?
“That sounds like Alyssa talking,” Loren said. “It is,” Alyssa said. Fairy came back, speaking to Alyssa: “You know, honey, there aren’t any guarantees-and you’re making this way too complicated. You think we’ve got to get the car far away from here, but we don’t. If something happens with the car and they can match us to it, then we’re finished, no matter where it is. If we burn it completely, and they can’t make an ID, then it doesn’t make any difference if we do it right down the street.”
Alyssa thought about that for a moment, then nodded, sipped the V8. “Okay. But I’d rather not burn it
“Of course not-but it doesn’t have to be in North Dakota, either. I say we move the car out of the hangar during the night, drive it onto one of the construction sites down by the river bridge- that’d mean we’d actually be in the car for only a couple of miles, which would reduce our chances of getting stopped for some reason. We park it, we set it on fire, right then, in the dark, and then we run. Simple, effective. Black jogging suit, scout the way in and out ahead of time, burn it.”
“In the dark?” Loren asked. “You don’t see a lot of women jogging down there. There are some rough people around there.”
“I’ll take Hunter’s switchblade. It’s still there in his bedstand, and I know how to use it,” Fairy said.
“Of course,” Alyssa said, and she actually smiled. “If the police get there too fast…” Loren began. “We use a fuse. Soak it in fuel oil and gas, ten feet long, under the car, light it and run,” Fairy said. “We’d be a hundred feet away before it got to the car. In a minute, we’d be three blocks, jogging. The police aren’t going to get there in a minute. From there, it’s probably three or four miles-we can jog home in half an hour.”
“A risk.” Alyssa snarled at them: “If you morons hadn’t gotten us into this, we wouldn’t have to take any risks. If some guy thinks he’d like to sneak a peek at Hunter’s hangar, sees that car, looks inside… we go to jail. My prints and Patty’s blood are all over it. Maybe blood from some of the others, now that I think about it. You weren’t all that careful.”
“We were a little carried away,” Loren said. “The revenge was so… tasty.”
Fairy: “So we have to do something. We can’t
Alyssa: “You may be right.” Fairy: “Of course I’m right.” Loren: “What about Frank Willett?”
“I’ve got an idea on that,” Alyssa said. “The car not only has blood in it, it’s got the knife you used on Patty. We lift the knife out of there, clean off the handle so there are no fingerprints, but leave a little blood down where the blade goes into the handle. A few specks, stains. Then we put the knife in Frank’s house.”
“How do we get in?” Loren asked. Alyssa said, “I’ve still got a key to his house, if he hasn’t changed the locks since we were dating. I can’t believe he’s organized enough to do that,” she said. “We jog again. Watch until he’s out, I go in, I leave the knife, and then we figure out something that triggers Davenport to make a search.”
“We scare him. We get him to run away,” Fairy said. “We get Frank to make a break for it.”
Alyssa: “Not a bad idea. How do we do it?” Fairy: “I call him. I tell him that I heard that the cops were coming for him on the California dope warrant. I bet he’ll run. I bet he will.” Alyssa: “He’ll recognize my voice.” Loren, on the opposite chair, shook his head: “No, he won’t. You two don’t sound much alike. Fairy sounds younger, more perky, like a Valley girl. Her voice is pitched higher. You don’t sound much alike at all.”
“Really?” Alyssa said. “Really,” Loren said. “So. When do we do all this?” Alyssa looked at her watch: “Can’t do Frank until we’ve done the car. We’ve got just enough light to scout that right now.'
'Then we could even do it tonight,” Fairy said.
They took the Benz, and Loren sat in the back, where he could watch Alyssa’s eyes through the rearview mirror. “I like the idea of tipping Frank so he runs,” he said, as they headed out the driveway. “But if you’re the only one that Davenport’s told about the warrant, then he’ll figure out that you’re the one who told Frank.”
Alyssa nodded. “Let me think about it.'
'Gossip,” Fairy said a minute later. “What?” Alyssa asked. “You could talk to Gina. She’s the worst gossip on the staff, and she goes around to all the spas. You could tell her confidentially about Frank-ask if he’s been giving or selling dope to any of the customers. She’ll tell other people- it’ll be all over the place by the end of the day. Then, if Frank is tipped, it could be any of the staff members, clients, who knows?”
“Excellent,” Loren said. Alyssa said, grudgingly, “It’s an idea.” And a second later, “That would work.”
The river-bridge area wasn’t going to work for burning the car, they decided-the fire would be too visible to too many people on the highway; too many cell phones. It’d be reported within seconds. They gave it up after driving across the Wakota Bridge a couple of times, and instead began probing the area south of I- 494, along the Mississippi.
The South St. Paul airport, where the car was hidden in Hunter Austin’s hangar, sits on the top level of the Mississippi’s western valley wall. Down the hill east of the airport, Concord Street runs parallel to the river, and on the river side of the street, a complex of railroad- to truck freight terminals are jumbled along dead- end streets between the river and Concord.
“If somebody was planning to burn a car, this would be one place to do it,” Loren said, as they probed back into the complex of streets and warehouses. “You’d have to run less than a mile. You’d only be exposed for maybe ten minutes.”
“It’s better than I thought,” Alyssa admitted. “We do it like this: we drive the Benz to the hangar, leave it, drive the little car down here. Right behind that pallet yard, along the fence, where the fire would be hidden from the street by the warehouse. Touch the fire off, and we run straight down the road for what… maybe two hundred yards? We hook around that garage, cross Concord, and head up the hill to the airport. If we’re lucky, we’ll be across the street before anybody sees the fire.”
“Unless there are watchmen,” Loren said. “Watchmen would be inside, not out. I’ll look for lights… can’t be out here without lights. We can always revise at the last minute, drive around the block and come back, if we have to.”
“You could hurt yourself running in the dark.'
'Not if I stay in the middle of the street. There are enough lights around that I should be okay.” They drove the route, and Loren pointed out a couple of potholes left over from winter. “If you step in one of those, you’ll sprain your ankle. You could break a leg.”
Alyssa looked back along the road. “They’re both on the left side. I’ll stay on the right.”
They followed the approach up the hill to the airport, and the road in. Access to the private hangar area was through a card- controlled electronic gate, no problem to a person on foot, who could simply duck under it. Again, there should be enough ambient light to work with.
“Can’t do it in the middle of the night, though,” Loren said. “If people see you running then, they
'So, nine o’clock.'
'We’ve got the gas,” Fairy said. “Let’s do it tonight.'
'What about the knife?” Loren asked. “Soon as we can-before Davenport has too much time to think about everything,” Alyssa said. “I asked his wife to get him to investigate because he’s smart. Now, I wish he was a little dumber.”
“Water under the bridge,” Loren said. “… but we could place it tonight,” Fairy said. “Frank always goes out at night; I doubt that would have changed.'
'What if somebody sees us at his house?” Alyssa asked. “How many times did that happen when we were visiting?” Fairy asked. “One out of five?'
'Still happened once,” Alyssa said. “So, we check it out first. Go in the front door, one step to the left, key in the lock, we’re inside. Hide the knife, peek out the window for people on the sidewalk, listen at the door, and we’re out. If somebody should pop up by surprise, we go back, get the knife, and throw it in the river.”
“Okay. I’m just a little nervous.'
'You’re about to pee in our pants,” Fairy said cheerfully. “Don’t do that. I can’t stand wet pants.”
