Read Online Deadly Detail by Don Porter - Free Book Online

the engine. I opened the passenger door rather than the driver’s and leaned over to pop the hood latch. The engine was clean. Angie was in the house packing more clothes because she had decided to go back to work. There was nothing we could think of that she could do, at least at the moment, and she didn’t want to spend any more time sitting in a hotel room thinking.
    There was no traffic on the road. The camp robbers were squawking and arguing, but not concerned with trespassers. I went inside, borrowed a flashlight and looked up under the dash, nothing strange. I shoved the key in the ignition, gritted my teeth, and turned it. It was anticlimactic. The rusty old engine just coughed to life.
    To get to Badger Loop Road, we had to drive back through Fairbanks and out the Richardson, so Angie drove the Dodge back to town, parked it at the hotel, and joined me in the pickup.
    The canoe sat right where we’d left it, paddles underneath, shotgun still wedged inside. We balanced the canoe on the cab, tied the ends to the front and rear bumpers, and delivered it back to the riverbank behind the cabin. I couldn’t quite part with the shotgun. You just never know when you’ll need to shoot a pheasant, or an assassin.
    “How about an old towel or something to wrap it?” Angie seemed to concur. She went inside and came back with Turk’s blanket and a box of number six shot.
    “Alex, this is too weird. There isn’t a safer or more peaceful spot on earth, and you’re hoarding guns like it was Washington, D.C.” By hoarding , she meant the pistol that was in my belt. “When is it going to end?”
    “It’s going to end when we find who killed Stan. We have to believe they still plan to kill us. The strange part is that we don’t know who they are, they may not know who we are, or at least what we look like, and we’re hunting each other. They do know this pickup, so let’s get it stashed back at the airport.”
    We stopped in town, Angie followed me to the airport in the Dodge, and we put the pickup to bed in its nest beside the Sea Airmotive hangar. I transferred the shotgun to the Dodge trunk because it wouldn’t fit under the seat. It wasn’t handy, but it felt good to know it was there.
    “You sure you want to go to work this afternoon?”
    “Yeah, I think so. You’re going to be flying late again tonight?”
    “Probably about five-thirty or six. I’ll be home in time for dinner.”
    “Good. I’ll walk back to the hotel when I get off. I may not stay at the station too long, but I don’t want to spend the afternoon alone.”
    “Okay, but do stay wide awake. I really don’t think any bad guys know you by sight or where you work, but they will be trying to find out, so watch it. Check the street before you open the door, jaywalk across Second and cut through the drugstore to Third. If anyone seems the least bit interested, lose yourself in the biggest crowd you can find. Call the cops if you even get a premonition….”
    “Been watching too much television? Aren’t you going to lend me your pistol?”
    “Do you want it?”
    “No, I’m being facetious. Don’t worry about me, Alex. I’ll be careful, but I’m not hiding under beds just yet.”
    “Might not be a bad idea.”
    ***
    When I walked into the office at noon, Celeste gave me a friendly smile, flashing bright blue eyes and those fetching dimples under her platinum blonde pageboy. Apparently we were now old friends. She picked up her phone, punched two digits, and Freddy came from his office.
    “So, what did you think of the Otter?”
    “I’m taking it back to Bethel with me. I’ll just leave the Cessna 310 parked in the spot and you probably won’t notice the difference. Sorry about the cops last night.”
    “Hey, no problem. That’s what I get for hiring criminal types. Come on back to the office a sec. Reginald wants to say hello.” He raised the hinged section of counter for me to slip through. We passed the fateful warehouse door