Stuart Woods - Under the Lake

“The hell I will.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather Bo thinks you will. It might help keep you… both of us, alive.”

Scotty’s eyebrows went up. “I see, I see. Good move. What can it hurt?”

“Us, if you get cocky. I’m not at all sure Bo bought it. The best thing we can do for ourselves is act as though he didn’t.”

“I get your point. Now, what did you deduce today?”

“Actually, I got lucky. There wasn’t much deduction to it.” Howell spread out the ledger sheets. “I figured out what LSCA is.”

Scotty hunched over his shoulder. “What? What?”

“Well, SCA is Sutherland County Airport.”

“What? I didn’t even know there was a Sutherland County Airport.”

“There almost isn’t. It’s a grass strip less than a mile from here, just past the Kelly place. There are a couple of light aircraft up there that don’t look much used. There’s a disused shack – apparently there used to be a local flying club – a wind sock, and – most important – runway lights.”

“Landing, Sutherland County Airport,” Scotty read out, looking at the sheets. “LSCA”.

“What else?”

“And we know what day and what time,” she shouted, gleefully.

"We do, unless it’s changed,“ Howell said. That’s why I told all to Bo; I don’t want him getting nervous and making new arrangements. Still, you better keep a sharp eye on the teletype, okay?”

“Sure thing. And I want to go up there and take a look at this landing field.”

“Absolutely not. I don’t want you anywhere near the place. We don’t know who’s in this with Bo. He might have the place staked out for days ahead of time. I only hope nobody saw me poking around.”

Scotty nodded. “I see what you mean. Well, do we have enough to go to the GBI or the Feds, now?”

“Yeah, we might have, but I don’t think we’d better do that just yet.”

“How come? We’re going to need a stakeout at the airfield on the night. I don’t much fancy trying to arrest Bo ourselves; like you say, we don’t know how many others are involved.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to try that. But I don’t think we can just telephone the law, either. Bo’s getting his schedule on a statewide, law enforcement teletype. His messages could be coming from any state, county, local, or federal office hooked up to it. If we yell cop now, there’s no telling who might hear us. If somebody cancels the landing, then what have we got?”

“A phony passport charge. Apart from that, zip.”

“Right. So I think our best bet is to go up to the landing strip on the night and get some substantiation of our charges. If we can prove it’s happening and, maybe, place Bo there, then the law will have to move on it. Certainly the newspaper will.”

“Oh, yeah,” Scotty crowed, “they’ll jump a mile high when I come in with this.”

“Well, if you want them to jump that high, you’d better come in with some pictures, I think. You’ve got a camera up here, haven’t you?”

“A Nikon and five lenses.”

“Good. I called a fellow I know, and he’s sending us half a dozen rolls of some extremely light-sensitive film. We’ll be able to get faces and numbers on an aircraft in nothing more than starlight.” Howell turned and pulled her around to face him. “Now look, Scotty, we’ve only got a few days to go. Don’t get too eager around the office, okay? If we blow this, somebody could get hurt, and it would almost certainly be us.”

“I’ll be cool, I promise,” she said.

“And I want the gun. Now.”

Scotty pulled back. “I don’t know…”

“Listen, the heat’s off with Bo. You can only get yourself into trouble with that gun.”

She turned her eyes to the floor for a moment and thought. “Oh, shit, all right,” she said, finally. She went to her handbag and fished out the little revolver.

Howell unloaded it and put it and the bullets in his desk drawer. He felt better, now, but they only had three days, and he had the feeling that if he didn’t resolve the O’Coineen question by that time, he might never have the chance again. He had a lot to do in the meantime.

Bo left the office and drove slowly through the town. He had been relieved when John Howell had come clean about Scotty, but now something felt wrong. He knew from reading Howell’s investigative stuff and his book that he was a clever and tenacious reporter, and Bo felt himself getting off a little too easily where Howell was concerned. His description of Scotty as a green cub rang true, and he now felt little fear of her, but Howell was another matter. Bo was worried.

He had nearly a million in Switzerland, and if he was going to stick it out here, what was the point of taking this risk for another eighty thousand bucks? He was greedy, God knew, but he wasn’t stupid. Alarm bells he didn’t even understand were going off, and he was listening.

He reached the parking lot outside Minnie Wilson’s grocery store a couple of minutes before the hour and sat in the car for a bit. When there was half a minute left, he got out of the car, went to the pay phone in the parking lot, dialed a number, fed the phone some quarters, and waited. The phone was answered before the first ring was complete.

“Okay, I got your message.”

“We’ve got problems; I’m canceling.”

“What problems?”

“There’s a reporter up here sniffing around.” Bo didn’t feel it necessary to mention that the reporter had been working in his office for more than three months. “Apparently, there have been some rumors.”

“Does he know what, where, and when?”

“No, but – ”

“No buts. We’re on.”

Bo began to sweat. “I say whether we’re on or not. It’s off.”

“Scully, let me tell you something. This delivery has been in the works for nearly a year. The stuff has been stockpiling in a jungle for that long. What we’ve been bringing in in light planes the last couple of years is nothing compared to this. A lot of time and a lot of money have been invested, and the people who invested it are expecting a big return. Why do you think your end is eighty?”

“Now, listen – ”

“Ours is the third of three aircraft to be used to keep the feds off the track. We’re on a tight schedule; we have to pick up on time, and we have to deliver on time. My plane left this morning; it picks up tomorrow; it delivers when you were told it would. If you’ve got problems on your end, solve them. You understand me? Listen, because I’m telling you this like a friend. You confirmed a week ago. Everything is in motion, now. If that load doesn’t deliver and distribute when we said it would, you will be the only reason. The people we’re dealing with won’t let you live an hour. You think there’s no backup at your end? They’ll be there. That plane lands, unloads, and takes off on schedule, or you’re a dead man. There, on the spot. Is that plain enough for you?

Sweat was rolling out of Bo’s armpits and down his flesh. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“No guessing. We’re on as confirmed, right?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Say it. Confirmed.”

“Confirmed.”

“I’ll tell them you said so.” The connection was broken.

Bo hung up and pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the phone booth. He had never thought they’d have anybody on the ground here. Maybe that was a bluff, but probably not. If what his contact had said about the load was true, backup on the ground made a lot of sense. It was the sort of thing he’d do himself, if he were running things. He took a couple of deep breaths and resigned himself to what was coming. He’d just have to make sure it went smoothly.

Bo got back into the car and started the engine. As he started to pull into traffic, he glanced down the road and saw something that interested him. A few hundred yards away, in the little hilltop cemetery, were two men. One was on his hands and knees, doing something to some shrubbery, the other stood over him, watching him work. Bo put on the emergency brake and reached into the glove compartment for his binoculars.