Marine One

'Like always.' Byrd sipped his coffee. 'But how do we know it's him? Could be anybody. I talked to my boy in the Secret Service too. He said he was cool, but maybe they didn't like me doing that…' He thought about that for a moment, then asked, 'Anybody else you know who has a stake in this?'

'If it isn't a defective helicopter, then there's someone who cares a lot.'

'Who?'

I shook my head. 'No idea. Don't even have a theory. If you could find out why Adams was in such a big damned hurry to get to Camp David, we might have an idea. Short of that, no. So, have you found anything interesting?'

His eyes brightened. 'I've got some access. We can take further advantage of it.' Tinny picked up his battered briefcase and folded over the large flap. 'First thing I've got…' He pulled out two files and handed them to me. They were fairly thick, well organized, clearly photocopies of something, and unlabeled.

'What's this?'

Byrd leaned close to me. 'These, my friend, are the personnel records of your hero. Mr. Colonel Charles Collins.'

My eyes opened wide. 'You got Collins's personnel file?'

'Mm-hm.'

'How'd you do that?' I could tell he wasn't going to answer, at least not directly. I felt like I was in the middle of a drug deal. 'Did you read them?'

'Yeah.'

'Anything?'

'He's been a lot of places and done a lot of things. He's got enough medals for three men, his fitness reports are pegged in the top one percent. He's just a star, plain and simple.'

'That's it? No issues? Just pure starhood? Nothing you think you need to follow up on?'

'Nope. Not really. I did get a real good history. I made a summary of that here.' He handed me a single sheet of paper. 'This is all his commands, his dates of service, his commanding officers, his awards and medals, and some other stuff you might want to have. I want to follow up with the guys in his most recent squadron. I think you've already talked to one of them.'

'Yeah. I did.'

'Can I start with him?' Byrd finished his coffee and waited for my answer.

I already knew I was going to be stepping on some friends. 'Yeah. Go ahead. Britt's a good place to start. I wouldn't spend a lot of time with him, but get names and numbers from him if he'll give them to you. Keep me posted and don't do anything illegal. Or stupid.'

'Wouldn't think of it.'

I tossed my paper cup in the green trash can.

Byrd was about to stand up when he stopped himself. 'There's one other thing, I almost forgot. You're not going to believe this.'

'What?'

'Collins had a nice house, very nice.'

'And?'

'I'm not saying there's some funny-money business going on here. Some guys are smart in real estate. We've all seen those Marines who buy a house wherever they're stationed and after twenty years own ten houses. That's fine. But I checked out the house.'

'Meaning?' I said with growing interest. I stared at Byrd's face, which had the hint of humor of someone who knew an inside joke.

'Meaning I don't think our boy was getting any.'

'What do you mean?'

'You know, with the wife.'

'What are you talking about? And how could you possibly know that?'

'I'm talking about exactly what you think I'm talking about. And I have my ways of knowing.'

I leaned over the table. 'Are you saying he wasn't sleeping with his wife?'

'The man had his own bedroom.'

I frowned. 'I assume they have a guest room. What makes you think he was sleeping in it?'

'Oh, he was sleeping there all right. I promise you. Not only was he sleeping there, he was living in that other room. His computer was set up there, his clothes were in the closet, and his pictures were on the wall. That was his room, dude. I'm telling you. They were living apart in the same house.'

'That's bizarre. What do you make of that?'

'Don't know. But I'm sure going to find out. He was leading some kind of double life. You imagine walking into the ready room and having one of the other pilots say, 'How was your night, dude?' and him saying, 'I don't know, I was sleeping in my own room.' Not going to happen. He'd rather die. Just like I would. Course I would never be in another room, but that's the difference between me and him. At least one of the differences. I'll track it down. Maybe he's a cross-dresser. Maybe he's gay. I don't know, but there's something there and I'm going to find out what it is.'

'What could it have to do with the accident?'

Byrd, who was turning away, turned back and looked at me. 'You of all people to ask me that. You know accidents, Mike. It's never one thing. It's always a series of things, and you never see the links until the 'Aha!' moment.' Byrd chuckled. 'Can you imagine if I find a picture of the president's pilot dressed as a woman? And not at a Halloween party? Holy hell. And I know where his personal photos are on the Internet. He used one of those photo-storage Web sites. I think I'll take a look at them today.'

'You can't just go look at his photos.'

'They're on the Internet. Fair game.'

Byrd left and I went up to my office. In just a few weeks, he'd obtained records from the Pentagon that he wasn't supposed to have and knew more about Collins's family life than probably anybody else. That was a little unsettling. I didn't have quite the same constraints a prosecutor would in obtaining evidence illegally. I could even use some illegally obtained evidence, depending on the circumstances. But I had to tread carefully.

12

AT EIGHT O'CLOCK sharp, the experts I had invited were waiting in the boardroom. Dolores had ordered muffins and coffee. I introduced them to each other, at least those who didn't already know the others, and gave them a quick summary of where we were in our preparation. They had all read the NTSB's preliminary report, had followed the case closely in the media, and were anxious to get started.

Rachel had been working furiously since before I'd sat down with Tinny. On the large whiteboard at the end of the room, she had outlined the NTSB's preliminary findings, other possible theories, the investigation we had conducted to date, and areas we needed to cover. Her handwriting was meticulous, and the board looked like it had been printed out of a massive computer and stapled to the wall. We all stared at the writing as we sat down.

Wayne Bradley, an extremely bright former chairman of the NTSB's metallurgic lab, was also as big as the proverbial house. A humorous but intense man, he was considered the most brilliant aviation metallurgist in the country. Retired from the NTSB, he was now sixty-seven. He liked to get out in the field, to dig in the ground, to touch the metal. He was phenomenal. I had used him in cases before and was glad to have him aboard. Some people were concerned that his huge size would turn off a jury when he testified, but I never found juries to be that shallow. If you give credible testimony, the rest doesn't matter.

To his left, farther away from the whiteboard where Rachel stood, was Holly Folk. Her background was as different from Bradley's as her petite figure was from his massive one. She had gone to Purdue University in their aviation program because 'that's where Amelia Earhart had gone.' Not only did she obtain her commercial pilot's license while in college, she graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering. She got a job flying for a commuter airline, transferred to the big airlines, and got laid off when they declared bankruptcy. She hadn't really liked airline flying anyway and had gone back into the marketplace by devoting herself to investigating airplane accidents. She had obtained her master's degree in engineering and had attended the aviation-accident-safety school at the University of Southern California. She had gone to work for the NTSB and had achieved investigator-in-charge status of several major investigations. But she quickly realized her income would forever be limited by two initials, GS, and to get ahead in life she needed to go into the private sector. She had been in demand ever since and was the first person I called when I had an accident case. Every case that she had helped me on, we had won. She looked like an engineer but had a wonderful if quirky sense of humor. We could never figure out what triggered it. She routinely thought things were funny that we didn't.

I saw her look at Bradley's plate while she picked at the five pieces of fruit on her plate and drank the strong coffee.

The third expert in the room, Karl Will, our accident reconstructionist, sat motionless drinking his coffee. He and Bradley had worked together numerous times. Bradley never tired of asking, 'Karl Will what?' Karl never thought it was funny, not the first time, and not the hundredth. He was one of those lean, sober Arizona types. He looked like he'd been cooked in the sun for ten years. His skin was permanently brown, and even though he wasn't wearing a hat, you just knew that he usually did.

I stood at the whiteboard waiting for everyone's attention. Bradley finished his second muffin and leaned back in his chair to turn toward me. 'All right, Mike, what do you have?'

I said, 'Morning, everybody. We're glad you were able to make it. We're going to talk for about an hour, then we're all going out to the crash site. The NTSB has released it. Rachel and I have been back a couple of times, but we want to get you all out there today. The weather's good. The ground should be dry and firm, and we shouldn't have any trouble.'

Rachel passed a handful of CDs to Karl Will, who passed them to the other experts. I said, 'These are copies of all of the photos that have been accumulated so far, both the photos the NTSB has given us on a separate CD, and the photos that we took at the scene and at the hangar in Maryland as part of our investigation. I also put together a DVD'-Rachel handed another stack of Diamond Boxes to Karl-'that are the digital videotapes that Rachel took at the scene. There is some footage at the hangar as well, but most is from the scene at the day of the accident.'

'Did you give all this to the NTSB?'

'No. They didn't ask for it. We weren't the official representatives of WorldCopter, we were just there to assist WorldCopter. These tapes belong to me, or