Read Online 5 - Choker: Ike Schwartz Mystery 5 by Frederick Ramsay - Free Book Online

would. He hadn’t brought that map along and he regretted it. He’d have to check on it when he returned to the cottage that afternoon.
    “I’ll check, but first, let’s fly Nick’s line and see if you can see what I saw.”
    ***
    Trent’s voice crackled over the head set, “I don’t think you need any more flight instruction, Ike. Maybe more hours would help and, of course, since I don’t know what the Air Force put you through, I don’t know what your emergency plans might be.”
    “Bail out, mostly.”
    Trent grunted.
    Eastern Bay appeared on their horizon and Ike dropped down to five hundred feet.
    “How low can I go before I get into trouble with the FAA? What’s the limit? We weren’t taught that in the spy flying school.”
    “None—if you’re crop dusting—otherwise, prudent and nonintrusive.”
    “Meaning?”
    Trent rolled his eyes heavenward and recited: “Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes: (a) an altitude allowing, if a power unit fails…oh, never mind, I’ll keep you legal.”
    “How about you take us down as low as you can and fly us like a crop duster back and forth over this area?”
    “Roger, that.”
    Trent was a skillful pilot and sure enough, he handled the plane like a crop-duster—no mean feat as those planes are designed with a huge lift-to-drag ratio that allowed them to climb quickly and fly slowly. On the fourth turn, Ike thought he saw the glint of light from the ground again. It seemed to come from the land near a wooded plot that bordered the water.
    “Did you see that?” he asked.
    “See what?” Trent flew the plane with absolute concentration. He wouldn’t have noticed.
    “Thought I saw a flash of light.”
    “Water sparkles, and up here it’d look like a flash.”
    “No, it came from land.”
    Trent shrugged. “I don’t see the shadow or whatever either.”
    “Tide’s running out. Silt from the rivers and creeks muddies things up.”
    “The photos taken the day before and after showed a barge over there.” Ike pointed toward the shore.
    “Not there now.”
    “No, there’s something else in about the same position. What is that?”
    Trent took a pass at the object in the water. “Duck blind.”
    “Like for hunting?”
    “Right. You have to get a permit to use them, and they are limited as to how many and when you can shoot.”
    “Funny place for a duck blind. It faces the deep water. I thought duck hunters shot over shallow water.”
    “Not my hobby. Bow and arrow for deer, now that’s hunting.”
    “Fly over the place where you saw the tail section.”
    “Where I thought I saw the tail section, you mean.”
    “If you think you saw a piece of airplane, I’m guessing you saw a piece of an airplane.”
    Trent turned the plane inland and pointed to a narrow strip of sand a mile in. “Over there just beyond the pier.”
    The narrow strip extended on either side of a pier. A work boat was moored to the end, but Ike didn’t see anybody on or near it.
    “Not there now.”
    “Nope, it was gone the next day.”
    “Nobody reported a piece of wreckage even when the missing plane was on the news for days?”
    “Nope.”
    Ike shook his head. “Something’s amiss here. Why wouldn’t you report something like that?” Trent shrugged again.
    “About your tide charts…there’s a problem. Unless you know for certain when the piece of airplane touched land—”
    “I know. I can’t be sure enough to backtrack…it could have floated further in, then washed ashore on the way back out when the tide turned.” Trent looked disappointed.
    “We’ll stay with your best guess for now. I think we’d better get back to Martin State. I’ll come back here later by car. I need to talk to the people on the ground. Someone must have seen something.”

Chapter 12
    Lanny Markowitz’s note said that he’d arranged an appointment with the school’s principal after football practice.