“I doubt it, but somebody on their team may be talking to somebody on Trini’s team, or we may be dealing with another team entirely.”
“And what team would that be?” Dino asked.
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out the hard way.”
“Then let’s go to Florida,” Holly said. “I have a perfectly good house, and if we get rumbled there, we can go to Ham’s place.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ham said. “You two can sleep in the hammock on the porch. Hasn’t been anybody there to feed the mosquitoes.”
“You make it sound irresistible, Ham,” Stone said. “How quickly can you two get packed?”
“Ten minutes,” Holly said.
“Dino, can you give us a ride to Teterboro?”
“Sure.”
Stone picked up a phone and called Atlantic Aviation. “Please top off my inboard and outboard caps,” he said. “Be there in half an hour.” He hung up, then dug out a chart, called Flight Services and got a weather report, then filed a flight plan. He went upstairs, threw some things into a couple of duffels, and came back down to find everybody waiting for him. “Okay,” he said, “let’s run the gauntlet.”
They trooped downstairs and got into Dino’s car while Joan stood by the garage door switch.
“I’ll be on my cell phone,” Stone said. “Hit it.”
Joan opened the door, and Dino started backing up. He switched on his flashing lights and hit the whooper for a minute, and the crowd scattered. As he pulled away from the house, reporters ran alongside the car, shouting questions, while photographers fired their strobes. They lucked their way through the traffic light at the corner and, with the help of the lights and whooper, were soon out of range.
At Teterboro, Dino faked his way through the security gate and pulled up to Stone’s airplane, which had been pulled up front. The fuel truck was finishing the top-off.
Stone stowed everybody’s luggage in the rear compartment, then did a preflight inspection of the airplane.
“Wish I was going with you,” Dino said. “I could use some sun.”
“I’ve got plenty of
room for you and your wife,” Holly said.
“I’ll ask her.” He shook Stone’s hand. “Call me in a couple of days, and I’ll let you know if things have cooled off.”
“Will do.”
“By the way, we were followed out here by a black Lincoln Town Car. I wasn’t sure until we made the last turn.”
Stone laughed. “Let them try to follow us now.” He got onto the airplane, showed Holly and Ham how the door worked, then settled in the pilot’s seat, with Holly beside him. “Everybody buckle up.” He worked his way through the checklist, got a clearance from the tower, and taxied to runway 24. He did a run-up, then called the tower and was cleared for takeoff. A moment later they were climbing through a thousand feet, with the setting sun to their right, bright orange through the New Jersey haze.
Stone climbed to flight level 250, switched on the CD player, and, having gone through his cruise checklist, relaxed. He noted that Holly and Ham were both already dozing.
With the autopilot flying the airplane, Stone began to think back over the events of the day, but the scene that kept flashing through his mind was the memory of the motorcycle propelled across the meridian of the Brooklyn Bridge into the path of the cement truck. He tried not to think of the aftermath.
Finally, he checked the airplane’s Garmin AirCell phone to be sure he had a signal, then he called a New York cell phone number, pressing a button on the audio panel to isolate his headset from those of Holly and Ham.
“Yes?” a familiar voice said.
“Lance, it’s Stone.”
“Nice to hear from you,” Lance said smoothly. “I’ve been hearing about you on the news. Are you okay?”
“Just fine, thanks.”
“What’s that noise in the background?” Lance asked.