Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
“This day has taken a turn.” Roz couldn’t hide her excitement as Alden drove them toward Comet Cove Airport, following Sebastian’s SUV. They were back on the paved road, and Sebastian had locked up the nascent movie studio.
“Did you know he was a pilot?” Alden asked.
“I had no idea, but how could we turn down his offer?”
“Flying over the site is not strictly necessary for the story, but I suppose it’ll be good photos.”
Roz looked over at him, sensing something else in his tone. “Are you nervous?”
Alden shrugged, focusing on the road. “I’m more comfortable in boats than small airplanes.”
“Even after—you know?” She flashed back on an unfortunate boat ride during the pursuit of their last big story.
He humphed. “Yes. Boats don’t fall out of the sky.”
“Oh, stop it. You traveled all over the world for the National Eye. Surely some small planes were involved.”
“They were. I’ll be fine.” But he still sounded funny.
“What happened? Something happened, didn’t it?”
Alden sighed. “My father’s a private pilot. He took my brother and I up sometimes when we were kids. He was trying to land in a storm and—well, we had a hard landing short of the runway.”
A shiver ran through Roz. She could’ve lost Alden before she even met him. “How hard of a landing?”
He lifted one shoulder, not taking his eyes off the road. “A wing broke off. But we were OK.”
“A wing broke off? What in the actual— How have you not told me this before?”
“It never came up.”
And the timing of his story wasn’t great, given they were about to fly in Sebastian’s plane, but she did ask. She wasn’t nervous, though. She looked forward to the flight. She’d never flown in a small plane.
“Do you want to stay behind?” she asked him.
“Hell, no. I’m OK with flying. As you pointed out, I’ve flown a lot. I just always take a moment to think about my mortality before I get on a flight, and I try to eat dessert first. Preferably with a good whiskey.”
She wasn’t sure if he was joking. “OK, if you’re sure. I think it’s kind of an adventure.”
“I never thought you’d be a secret adventure girl.”
“Maybe you’ve given me a taste for danger.”
“Ha,” he said. “I haven’t even gotten started. Here we are.”
The entrance to the airport bore a vertical rack of signs touting tourist flights, flying lessons, helicopter rides, biplane rides, an aerial sign-towing company, generically named aviation firms, and the Comet Cove Sheriff’s Department Aviation Unit.
Which Roz happened to know supported only visiting aircraft from the county or the state police, since their town was way too small to afford any flying machine bigger than a drone.
They followed Sebastian to a parking lot behind one of the hangars and exited their vehicles. Alden threw his jacket into the Miata, and Roz left her bag behind, taking only her camera. She didn’t want any carry-on luggage.
She trailed the guys through a small door, past an enclosed office and into a cavernous space with a tall, gently peaked ceiling.
The big doors were open, facing the runway. Two planes sat on the shiny concrete floor—one red and white, the other a bright yellow biplane with a tool-covered cart sitting next to it.
“Whoa,” said Alden, who had an eye for cars. Maybe he liked good-looking aircraft, too.
Roz personally hoped Sebastian’s plane was the red-and-white one. It looked more modern and less likely to force her to wing-walk. She was relieved when he walked toward it.
Then a head popped up from the cockpit of the biplane. “Seb! You going out?” called a man with tousled blond hair and a tan and weathered face.
“Jesus, Chuck, you startled me,” Sebastian exclaimed.
Chuck climbed out and hopped to the floor in his stained tan mechanic’s jumpsuit, wearing a wily smile. “Just thought I’d work in some time on my baby between jobs. Hey, Alden.”
Roz looked at Alden in surprise.
“Chuck, good to see you in your natural environment.”
“Haven’t seen you much around the Rusty Rocket lately,” Chuck said.
“I’ve been busy,” Alden replied. “Working a lot.”
“I know how that is.” Chuck looked toward her expectantly.
Sebastian introduced Roz. “Chuck does a lot of maintenance work for people around here, including my Cessna.” He turned to the mechanic. “Can you give me a hand?”
“Sure.” Chuck helped Sebastian use a tow bar to pull the Cessna out of the hangar, then looked at his watch. “I’ve got an appointment down the alley. Have fun.” A moment later, he strolled away with a bag of tools over his shoulder.
Sebastian told the reporters, “I need to run my checklist. There’s a restroom back by the office, and there’s a vending machine in there if you want anything.”
“There’s your chance to eat dessert first,” Roz murmured to Alden as Sebastian got started on preflight checks.
He snorted. “No, thanks. I’d rather have a nice dinner later with you.”
“Or would you rather go to the Rusty Rocket?”
Alden smiled. “I had to do something to pass the time before I met you. It’s a dive, but they have good bands.”
“You’ll have to take me sometime.”
Alden and Roz each took advantage of the restroom, then Roz checked her camera to be sure she had a fresh battery and plenty of room on the memory cards.
It took Sebastian just over ten minutes to complete his checks, punctuated by a couple of reverberating sneezes, and then he invited them to climb aboard. No stairs were needed—the plane wasn’t that big. Roz and Alden entered the door under the wing on the passenger side.
“I want to sit in the back so I can move from window to window,” Roz said as she ducked into the second row, which had two seats. The plane had only four, and calling it cozy was generous.
“I love the front,” Alden said with a touch of sarcasm as he settled in the seat next to their pilot, who handed them headphones with a microphone attached so they could talk.
Sebastian touched buttons and switches while scanning a laminated checklist. “Make sure your harnesses are secure for takeoff. You might be able to move around later. Waist first, then click in the shoulder straps.”
Alden was way ahead of him, door secured and already buckled in, and Roz buckled hers, too, after a minute of figuring out the system. Though she hoped to free herself later and shoot from both sides of the plane.
Her adrenaline jumped as Sebastian turned a key and the engine roared to life. After more checks, he called out on the radio. “Comet Cove traffic. November one seven niner Bay Rays, departing runway one-one southbound. Comet Cove traffic,” he repeated.
Roz chuckled at the “Bay Rays.” Hardcore baseball fan, indeed.
No one called back, and Sebastian took a good look around to make sure no one was leaving or landing before he lined up for takeoff. And then they were rolling down the runway with the sun behind them.
“You two all right?” Sebastian asked, his voice slightly distorted through the headset.
“All good,” Roz said.
“Fine,” Alden answered. Was he?
Roz reached forward and touched his shoulder, and he shot her a smile over his shoulder. He seemed fine. But she wondered if she should’ve bought him a chocolate bar anyway.
“Takeoff,” Sebastian said.
They lifted off the ground, wobbling a bit, climbing. She could’ve sworn the engine hiccuped, and Alden sent their pilot a sharp look. But Sebastian’s face betrayed no concern, so Roz decided not to worry either. He knew what he was doing.
The view quickly captured her attention as he banked the plane toward the south. “We’ll look at the studio lot first, and then I’ll show you all of Comet Cove if you’re interested,” Sebastian said.
“Awesome,” Roz answered.
Sunset was still more than an hour away, but the aging daylight touched the sky with magic. Only a few wisps of cloud remained after the earlier rain, and they glowed with a pale amber light against a sky of softened blue.
The plane leveled, and Roz looked out and snapped photos of the land below where it abutted the Indian River Lagoon.
She wasn’t a hundred percent sure she was shooting the right thing, as there weren’t a lot of buildings south of the airport, but then she saw the tiny facades of the fake street and zoomed in to snap several pictures.
Now that she knew she was looking in the right place, it was easy to find the lake Sebastian had mentioned. It was definitely woodsy around it. There was a lot of space and a lot of potential. She popped open her seat harness and moved to the other side to take more pictures.
“Got it?” came Sebastian’s voice in her ear.
“Got it!” she said, and he changed direction, arcing north even as he gained altitude. The engine coughed again.
She and Alden exchanged a glance.
“Great view, isn’t it?” Sebastian said. He sounded calm, but he looked at the dash with concern.
What was going on? The engine sounded rough. Was this normal?
Roz pushed down a bubble of worry and decided to trust his skills and take advantage of the opportunity.
She took a few photos, but mostly she enjoyed the spectacle—Comet Cove, breathtakingly small from up here, like a toy village, vulnerable and beautiful with the inlet bisecting it.
The ocean on one side seemed greener than the dusky blue of the lagoon on the other.
The strip of sand marking the beach almost made a straight line; the shore of the river side undulated with curves and points.
The red-and-white stripes of the lighthouse stood out, and greenery softened the hard lines of neighborhoods.
She moved to the seat behind Alden, then again to the one behind Sebastian, taking photos from as many angles as she could. As she snapped, the engine sputtered …
“Um,” Alden said.
… and then it died.
And time compressed.
Sebastian muttered a curse under his breath. “Harness on,” he snapped as he worked the controls.
Inwardly, Roz cursed, too. She dropped back into the seat behind him and wrangled herself into the belts as Sebastian turned in a hard arc.
Before she even realized she’d broken out in a cold sweat, Sebastian was calling on the radio, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. November one seven niner Bravo Romeo. We’ve lost the engine. Three people on board. Heading back toward Comet Cove airfield.”
We’ve lost the engine?
He’d dropped the cutesy coda to the tail number, a sure sign that fun time was over.
“There’s no control tower at the airport, is there?” Roz asked.
“No,” Alden said grimly.
“I’m alerting emergency services and any aircraft in the area.” Sebastian’s voice was shockingly cool as he addressed them. “We’re going to try to reach the runway.”
“Try?” Roz squeaked.
“I can’t restart the engine,” the pilot said. “I don’t think we’re going to make it.”