< previous page page_171 next page >

Page 171
huge black off-road vehicles chasing him, and the sounds of gunfire echoing.
The air was heavy with the smell of Ave's stale cigars. The house, wood frame painted scaling white, shingle roofed, stood on the edge of the airport on Highway 1, with the town of El Granada and the sea a half mile away to the west. The narrow shelf between the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Range was rich and green, prime land given to truck and flower farms. Fog and rain were common here. In deep winter the sky, when it could be seen at all, was usually a cold silver color, merging with the distant horizon far out at sea.
A bank of wet fog drifted a mere fifty feet above the tarmac runways of the airport this November morning. The galvanized iron hangar of Peters Aviation was visible between half-drawn shades, fluorescent ceiling lights still glaring. Inside, Ave's Cessna 310 was undergoing an engine change. Morgan silently cursed the delay.
Ave Peters, a man in his sixties with the body of an aged linebacker, divined Morgan's thoughts and said, "It's in good hands. The best. Johnny and Don Desmond are as sharp and as quick as they come. She'll be ready to fly by ten tonightsafely. If that's not good enough for you, tough shit." He spat with unerring aim into the brass cuspidor in the corner of the room. "By the way, you'd better watch yourself with that little man trap in there. She's the sneaky kindand that makes it all the worse for you when it ends."
Morgan regarded him evenly, ignoring his comments, refusing to acknowledge his suspicions. "Where can I leave the rental car?" he asked. Years ago he had learned that the proper way to deal with Avery Peters was to present him with a steady series of technical or tactical situations in need of resolving. Like many former case officers, Ave was a very practical man. He claimed to dislike problems, but he relished finding answers.
"Let me take care of it. I'll lose it somewhere down below Half Moon Bay, on one of the back roads. The sheriff's people

 
< previous page page_171 next page >