“It’s a plane crash simulation, based on the information in the flight data recorder. This is what they use to investigate plane crashes. Once it’s compiled, it works just like watching a movie.”
“Devich gave it to you?”
I popped the top on my Coke. “Yeah. Back when he was planning to pay me, rather than kill me. I’m betting he regrets sharing information with me now.”
“I’m sure. So how does this work?”
“The box records on a one-hour loop, but you were only in the air for, what, twenty minutes?” Cale nodded, and I continued. “So, we should have the entire flight available, though we’ll only need the last few minutes.” Sipping from my soda, I clickedplay, then clicked thefast forwardicon three times, for optimum speed. On the screen, the digital C130 seemed to float in place, and I couldn’t tell that it was moving until small islands began flying by comically fast in the water below. In seconds, the shore came into view, and the plane began heaving and bobbing erratically as it moved toward the mainland. Seconds later, it dipped drastically to sheer the tops from a strip of trees before finally crashing into the earth.
I clickedstop, then tapped therewindicon once. On-screen, the plane flew backward across the trees, which slowly rebuilt themselves. In the air again, still over the water, Devich’s plane began pitching back and forth. When it evened out, I clickedpauseand turned to face Cale. “There.” I tapped the screen. “The plane’s getting tossed around like Dorothy in the damned tornado. Were you still on board when that happened?”
His face brightened. “Yeah! Right after I pushed the box over, the plane started dipping and heaving. I think part of it was the storm, and part of it was the pilot over-correcting for turbulence. Either way, it knocked me right off my feet. Twice. By the time I made it back to the rear of the plane, the pilot had already hit the switch to raise the ramp.”
“Good.” I glanced at the screen, where the plane’s current coordinates were displayed in a box in the bottom corner. “That’s where you were right after you pushed the box off. Let’s see if we can find the exact moment. It’s a long shot, but we may get lucky.”
I clickedrewindagain, but only once, to keep the reverse action slow. On screen, the plane flew backward again as we watched, our cheeks practically brushing, our noses inches from the screen. “Look!” I clicked the cursor, watching as what I’d seen played again in real-time. “Did you see the plane bob?”
“Yeah, just barely. What was that?”
“I think that was you pushing the box out the back. How much would you say it weighed?”
“Several thousand pounds, at least. If not for that wheeled track, I couldn’t have budged it.”
“That might actually do it. The shift in weight made the plane bob just a little. The pilot probably adjusted for it at the controls. Then, a couple of seconds later, the plane starts pitching with turbulence. Is that how you remember it?”
He nodded, brilliant blue eyes wide as he stared at the screen.
“I need a pen, some paper, and a map,” I said, pushing my chair away from the table. Cale dug through his backpack while I pulled a thick, folded bundle from my inner coat pocket, where it lay thrown over the back of the armchair in the corner.
“Here.” He handed me his convenience store atlas, along with the green notebook and red pen.
I took the notebook and pen, but only glanced in contempt at the atlas. “What, you couldn’t find a treasure map in your breakfast cereal box?”
“What?” He frowned.
“You couldn’t get your lines to match up because your map’s a piece of shit. You need to be able to see both Maine and Nova Scotia on the same page.”
“You looked at my atlas?”
I shrugged. “When I’m stuck on a problem, I use every tool to at my disposal to work it out.” And I sure as hell wasn’t going to apologize for that. “Fortunately for us both, I have much better tools than you do.” I held up the folded packet I’d pulled from my coat.
“What’s that?”
“It’s an aeronautical chart. I found it in a pocket on the pilot’s chair when I was in the cockpit.”
Cale’s expression froze half-way between a smile and a frown, as if he wasn’t sure whether to kiss me or yell at me. “Good thinking,” he said finally, as the smile won out.
“Jot down the coordinates for me while I spread this out.”
He arched one brow at me. “What’s the magic word?”
“Now?” I guessed, not the least bit surprised when he shook his head. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” I snatched the notebook and pen from his hand and took down the on-screen coordinates while he spread the chart out on the dingy brown commercial carpet. The map took up a good bit of the available floor space, but it contained just what we needed: a detailed, two-dimensional view of the Maine coastline, all the way north into Canada.
We knelt on the floor together and I traced the longitude while he followed the latitude, until our fingers met. Then, because I didn’t trust his navigational skills after what I’d seen in his atlas, I double checked his. He was right, and it was a damn good thing, because he was already circling the point on the map in red ink.
“Use a pencil,” I said, fighting to unclench my jaw. “Everyone makes mistakes.”Andsomepeople make them compulsively…
He ignored me with impenetrable good humor, tapping the red ring on the map. “This is where the box fell?”
