Cy shook his head. “Not to my daughter. Her flight crew is impeccable. She would never make such a basic mistake.”
Luke didn’t look convinced but didn’t argue. “Given her altitude and speed, she wasn’t able to glide to a larger airport. This was the only one she could make it to. It looks like she landed the best she could. The copilot and flight engineer are on their way to a Chattanooga hospital. They hit their heads during landing. They were already awake when I arrived, but a quick cognitive test showed indications of suffering from concussions so I sent them to get checked out further. The flight mechanic is in my cruiser. I’m holding him until the NTSB and other feds get here. This isn’t my jurisdiction. Moonshine is actually thirty miles away. I’m just the closest to this area. For what it’s worth, the mechanic said the plane was correctly fueled as well and said the man on board was a murderer. That’s why I called in the FBI.”
Cy gave him an I told you so look before Deputy Tanner continued. “Suzanne Bristol and Diego Castillo were pronounced DOA.” Luke paused, looking thoughtful as Kenna and Will made a strangled sound of grief. “I wouldn’t mind your opinion of the crime scene. It seemed off to me. The mechanic told me everyone was buckled in. The pilot had given them advanced warning of the crash landing.”
Cy turned to Gemma, Will, and Kenna and held up his hand. “Stay here; you don’t need to see this.” Gemma nodded as Kenna wrapped her arm around Cy’s wife and nodded her agreement through tear-filled eyes.
A procession led by Deputy Tanner filed to the plane. Cy sucked in a breath and trampled down the fear he knew Reagan must have felt as she attempted to land.
“Where’s the horse?” Ahmed asked as they climbed the back steps of the plane.
“Took off. The mechanic said a passenger, Carter Ashton, and the deceased handler prepared the horse for landing. The mechanic was back here and couldn’t see up front. He said he strapped in back here when he couldn’t fix the problem.” The deputy pointed to a chair. “He said the plane hit hard and the horse freaked out. When he and the owner of the airfield opened the cargo door, the horse had escaped her stall and scrambled over the row of stalls and was about to kill herself. He said the horse was crazed. The mechanic caught her and then heard Carter scream. He said he heard some sort of fight, but the horse was so panicked he took off his shirt and wrapped it around her head. With the help of the airstrip owner, he managed to get the horse down the back steps. As soon as he took off the shirt, the horse jerked her head free and took off. He said there was blood, and she was so hyped up he couldn’t tell what injuries she had.”
“Her trail shouldn’t be hard to find,” Marshall said as Cade nodded. “We can track her down.”
“Then what happened?” Cy asked as they moved toward the front of the plane.
“The mechanic says right after the horse ran off, he and the owner came back to help, but Reagan and Carter yelled at them to run. Thinking there could be a leak, the two men exited the plane when Reagan and Carter came running out of the plane screaming that the man identified as Mick Connors had a gun. Reagan and Carter went behind the wing touching the ground while the mechanic went to the opposite side. The owner of the airstrip ran for the main office, and the mechanic saw him get shot. The mechanic crawled up the landing gear and hid. He said he heard this Mick guy calling out to Reagan and Carter, and then silence. He doesn’t know where they are. He didn’t climb down until I got here. But this is what I want you to see.”
Cy looked at the two bodies and frowned; the others crammed around him doing the same. Matt pushed forward and crouched down in front of the man strapped to the chair Cy knew to be Diego. He moved his head this way and that to get a better look at Diego’s body before standing up.
“Diego was murdered,” Matt said. Marshall examined the body as well and nodded his agreement. “Blunt force trauma to the head,” Matt told them.
“That’s what I thought too,” Deputy Tanner said as he shook his head. “Being strapped in during the crash, there wasn’t any way to hit that part of his head.”
“There you go,” Cy said after combing the area. “There’s a crowbar up against the wall.”
Deputy Tanner pulled out his gloves and went to look at it. “But I didn’t see any corresponding marks on the woman. I agree it looks as if Diego was murdered, but I couldn’t figure her out.”
“How did she get out of her seat?” Ryan wondered out loud. “Paul said everyone knew the crash was coming. There’s no reason for her to be unbuckled.”
“See, that’s what I found strange,” Deputy Tanner said when he stood up. “There’s blood on the crowbar. That’s the murder weapon.”
“But it’s not Mrs. Bristol’s murder weapon,” Ryan said, after examining her body. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. “It doesn’t make sense. I looked into Mick Connors, and he doesn’t have a record. He seems exactly as he is—a horse owner. Spent some time on Wall Street making money and retired early to follow his love of horse racing. Now, his business partner, Sam, is a different story. He has a long history of animal abuse charges and some smaller financial issues like bouncing checks and bankruptcy.”
“Whoever they are, we know Mick is dangerous, and he’s after Reagan and Carter. We need to find them before he does,” Cy stated as he pushed through his brothers to get back outside.
“What is it?” Gemma asked as soon as he emerged from the plane.
“Murder,” Cy responded as he turned to find Ahmed. “You need to get moving. Now.”
Ahmed slung the backpack he was wearing off his shoulder and opened it up. Inside were two blaze orange tracking leashes. One was close to fifty feet, but Ahmed pulled out the twenty-foot leash. Robyn instantly stopped wiggling when she saw the tracking leash. This was her job; she was on alert and ready to go.
Ahmed strapped a blaze orange vest on her so she’d be easy to spot in the woods and no hunters would confuse her with a small deer. Then he attached a GPS tracker to her pink glitter collar. He pulled the bag containing Reagan’s fleece out and opened it. “Search,” Ahmed ordered. Robyn’s short tail stood at attention as she sniffed the fleece. Instantly, her nose was in the air as she drew in deep breaths. With a sure trot, she headed straight for the steps of the plane.
“Here,” Ahmed said, showing her the wing of the plane instead of going inside. Robyn trotted toward the wing and sniffed as she trotted. Cy watched as she headed straight into the woods.
“Marshall and Cade will try to recover Miss Mambo or put her down if she’s in pain. Ryan and DeAndre will stay here to coordinate search-and-rescue,” Cy told his wife and Kenna. “The rest of us will comb through the woods. We’re going to break off and search for Carter and Reagan, but also for Mick. I’ll call with updates.”
Cy leaned forward, kissed his wife, and took off with his friends and family. He would find his daughter if it were the last thing he ever did. And the second to last thing he’d do is make sure Mick Connors paid for what he did. Fanning out fifty yards behind Ahmed and Robyn, Cy and the others entered the woods.
19
“Let’s take a break,” Carter called out as he noticed the stream picking up speed ahead. Even with the water temperature being somewhat warm, being in the stream for the past couple hours was chilling him. And he could see Reagan shiver every once in a while too. “Do you think you can pull yourself up and onto that tree ahead of us?”