Harlan Coben - Live Wire

The limousine pulled right out onto the tarmac next to the aircraft. No luggage check-in, no boarding pass, no security line in which the man in front of you forgets to take the spare change out of his pocket despite forty-seven requests to do so and sets off the metal detector. When you fly private, you pull up right onto the tarmac, you walk up the stairs, and bingo, you’re off.

As Win often pointed out, it was good to be rich.

Win was on board already with a couple he introduced as “Sassy and Sinclair Finthorpe” and their twin teenage sons, “Billings and Blakely.”

Myron frowned. And rich people made fun of African American names?

Sassy and Sinclair both wore tweed jackets. Sassy was also decked out in riding pants and leather gloves. She had blond hair tied back in a severe ponytail. She was probably in her midfifties with plenty of hard wrinkles from too much sun. Sinclair was bald, paunchy, and wore a real-live ascot. He laughed heartily at everything and said, “Quite, quite,” in reply to nearly anything said to him.

“This is so exciting,” Sassy said through the clenched teeth. “Isn’t it, Sinclair?”

“Quite, quite.”

“Like we’re helping out James Bond on a secret mission.”

“Quite, quite.”

“Boys? Isn’t this exciting?”

Billings and Blakely looked at her with classic teenage loathing.

Sassy said, “This calls for cocktails!”

They offered Myron a drink. He passed. Billings and Blakely continued to look on with haughty scorn, or maybe that was their default genetic facial expressions. The twins both had wavy, Kennedyesque hair and wore tennis whites with sweaters tied around their necks. Win’s world.

They all took their seats, and within five minutes of boarding the plane, the wheels were up. Win sat next to Myron.

“Sinclair is a cousin,” Win said. “They have a place on Adiona Island and were going to head up there tomorrow. I just asked them to move it up.”

“Because Crisp won’t know we’re on this flight?”

“Exactly. If I had taken my plane or a boat, we would have tipped him off. He may have a man watching the airport though. We’ll let my cousins get off first and then sneak out.”

“Do you have a plan to get us onto Wire’s property?”

“I do. It will require some local help though.”

“From?”

“I’m handling it,” Win said with a small smile. “There is no cell phone service on the island, but I have a satellite phone, in case the hospital needs to reach us.”

Myron nodded. He leaned back and closed his eyes.

“One more rather important thing,” Win said.

“I’m listening.”

“Esperanza ran a trace on that license plate from the trailer park. The car is currently leased to a company called Regent Rental Associates. She then traced back the company’s history. Guess who owns Regent Rental?”

Myron still had his eyes closed. “Herman Ache.”

“Should I be impressed?”

“I’m right?”

“You are. How did you know?”

“An educated guess. It’s all connected.”

“And you have a theory?”

“A partial one.”

“Do tell.”

“I think it’s what we said before. Frank Ache told you that Wire had big gambling debts, right?”

“Correct.”

“So we start there-Gabriel Wire and maybe Lex owing money to Herman Ache. But I think Herman really got his hooks into Wire during the Alista Snow incident.”

“By protecting him from criminal charges?”

“By making the charges-criminal and otherwise-disappear. Whatever is going on here, it all started the night Alista Snow died.”

Win nodded, mulling it over. “And that would explain why Suzze visited Karl Snow yesterday.”

“Right, another connection,” Myron said. “Suzze is somehow linked into that night too. Maybe via Lex. Maybe via her secret lover Gabriel Wire. I’m not sure. But for whatever reason, she needed to come forward and tell the truth now. She went to Kitty and admitted some wrongdoing by switching out her birth control pills. Then she went to Karl Snow. Maybe she told him what really happened to his daughter, I don’t know.”

Myron stopped. Yet again something wasn’t adding up. Win voiced it.

“And then, after clearing her conscience, a pregnant Suzze T purchased heroin, went back to her penthouse abode, and committed suicide?”

Myron shook his head. “I don’t care what the evidence shows. That doesn’t make sense.”

“You have an alternate theory?”

“I do,” Myron said. “Herman Ache had her killed. It was a professional job all the way, so my guess is, Crisp did the deed. He’s good at making murder appear to be natural causes.”

“Motive?”

Myron still wasn’t sure. “Suzze knew something-probably something that could damage Wire, maybe bring back the criminal charges from Alista Snow. So Ache has her killed. Then he sends two men to find Kitty and kill her.”

“Why Kitty?”

“I don’t know. Again he was cleaning house. Herman figured that she knew something or maybe he was afraid Suzze had talked to her. Whatever, Herman decided to take no chances. Scorch the earth. Kill Suzze and Kitty.”

“And you,” Win finished for him.

“Yep.”

“And what about your brother? How does he fit in?”

“I don’t know.”

“A lot we don’t know.”

“Almost everything,” Myron agreed. “But here’s another thing: If Brad went back to Peru, why was his passport in the trailer?”

“Most likely answer? He didn’t go. And if that’s the case, what might we safely conclude?”

“That Kitty lied,” Myron said.

“Kitty lied,” Win repeated. “Wasn’t that a song by Steely Dan?”

“ Katy Lied . And it was the name of an album, not a song.”

“Oh, right. I loved that album.”

Myron tried to turn his brain off for just a little while so as to rest up before they stormed the castle. He’d just closed his eyes and put his head back when the plane began its descent. Five minutes later they were on the ground. Myron checked his watch. He had arrived at Teterboro Airport forty-five minutes ago.

Yep. It was good to be rich.

The shades on the plane were pulled so no one could see inside. The Finthorpe family disembarked. The pilots parked the plane, turned off the lights, got off themselves. Myron and Win stayed in place. Night had fallen.

Myron tried the hospital from the satellite phone. This time Dr. Ellis got on the phone with him. “Your father is out of surgery, but this has been a tough one. His heart stopped twice on the table.”

The tears started coming again. Myron forced them back. “Can I speak to my mother?”

“We gave her a sedative and she’s sleeping in a room down the hall. Your nephew is asleep in a chair too. It’s been a long night.”

“Thank you.”

Win came out of the bathroom, dressed head to toe in black. “There’s a change of clothes for you in there,” he said. “There’s also a shower. It might help refresh you. Our help will be here in ten minutes.”

The plane’s showerhead was not designed for the tall, but the water pressure was surprisingly strong. Myron hunched over and used nine of his allotted ten minutes under the nozzle and one minute drying off and slipping into the black garb. Win was right-it did refresh.

“Our ride awaits,” Win said. “But first…”

He handed Myron two guns. The larger one had a shoulder holster. The smaller was to wrap around the ankle. Myron fastened them into place. Win led the way. The plane steps were slippery. Rain pelted down on them. Win ducked back under the plane for protection. He took night-vision goggles out of their case and strapped them onto his face like a scuba mask. He slowly turned around in a circle.