Wings in the Dark (22 page)
Authors: Michael Murphy
“Hank paid me five hundred!”
“That money and the fifteen hundred came from Kitsune, or maybe you knew her as Mikayla Sato.”
“That's not what happened!”
“Are you suggesting Kitsune didn't shoot Kalua?” Billy let go of Fanny's hand and began to wheeze.
“Oh, no, Kitsune shot Hank Kalua, but someone told her when Amelia would be alone in the hangar. More important, who but Fanny could lure Kalua to the hangar at the exact time Amelia would be going over the last-minute checklist?”
Fanny's lower lip trembled. She took Billy's hand. “Gumdrop, Jake's been trying to frame me since he came to my apartment.”
Billy pulled his hand away.
I stepped toward Fanny as my anger surged. “You might not have shot Hank Kalua, but Kitsune couldn't have pulled the trigger if you hadn't set the whole thing up, including making it look like Amelia shot him. Do you really hate her that much?”
“Iâ¦I⦔
I retrieved Tanaka's note from my pocket. “Kalua never gave you a dime. Detective Tanaka, if you get back to the bank, I think you'll find even more funds deposited in Fanny's account, much earlier. This whole plot started in the States. Kitsune contacted Fanny and set up the deal. All Fanny had to do was talk herself into a job with Putnam. She came to Honolulu with the express purpose of meeting Hank Kalua and stopping Amelia's flight across the Pacific.”
“No! That's not true.”
I glared at her. “Kalua didn't seduce you, Fanny. You seduced him.”
Laura, Tanaka, and the rest stood in stunned silence. The only sound was Billy wheezing.
I handed the kid a stick of gum.
Fanny's protests of innocence vanished. “I did what I had to do to get what I deserved out of life.”
I hadn't expected an admission. “You sabotaged Amelia's plane, planning to kill her. When that didn't work, you helped your Japanese assassin friend kill a prominent businessman.”
“I had no idea she was a Japanese spy.”
As if that justified her deal to murder Amelia or Kalua.
A single tear slid down her face as Fanny gazed at Billy as if they were the only two people in the room and she wanted him to understand. “All I ever wanted was to become a pilot, a really good one, like Amelia.”
Billy wasn't buying that any more than I was. Fanny's aviation career ended when she decided to go along with Kitsune's plot to stop Amelia's flight across the Pacific.
Tanaka shook his head and handcuffed Fanny. He led her out the back door.
Billy looked dazed. He appeared more shocked by the revelations than anyone, but his wheezing stopped.
“I'm sorry, Billy.”
“Don't be.” Billy wiped his face with a handkerchief. “If it wasn't for you, I would have forgiven Fanny and she would have gotten away with it.”
Laura tugged on my arm. “How long have you known all this?”
I chuckled. “Not long. I couldn't sleep last night, wondering who lured Kalua to Amelia's hangar. It had to be Fanny. Then I thought about the money. Early this morning I went to the lobby and called Tanaka and asked if he ever found out the information about the money deposited to Fanny's account. He hadn't heard but promised to make a call. He brought this.” I showed her the note with the deposit dates and amounts.
A murmur rose from the crowd that surged from the hangar onto the grass runway as Amelia climbed inside the plane.
Laura and I stood beside Reggie and Stoddard at the edge of the hangar.
With heavy gray clouds hanging over the field, the engine turned over and the propeller swept rain from the rear of the plane. Amelia Earhart waved then closed the cockpit door. The plane soon began to taxi toward the runway.
Laura held my hand as the plane picked up speed. The propeller blew clumps of mud onto the red fuselage. When the heavy plane lifted off and cleared the end of the runway, Laura prayed aloud for a safe journey.
A successful flight would energize the nation. A shot in the arm for a country in need of one. Times were tough. Patton was right, war with Germany and Japan seemed possible, if not inevitable. The Depression still had no end in sight. People were hurting.
Yet, not all the news was bad. Laura and I had wounds to heal, but our honeymoon was back on track. At the
Honolulu Daily
, Conway was typing a front-page story that would be exposed as a collection of lies, Fanny was in a car on her way to jail, and Amelia Earhart was on her way to California.
This novel is dedicated to five wonderful kids: Brian, Alex, Jack, Joseph, and Skye
Y
M
ICHAEL
M
URPHY
Jake & Laura Mysteries
The Yankee Club
All That Glitters
Wings in the Dark
Goodbye Emily
PHOTO: © KIMBERLY DENHAM DP PHOTOGRAPHY
MICHAEL MURPHY is a full-time writer and part-time urban chicken rancher. He lives in Arizona with his wife of more than forty years, and the five children they've adopted. He's active in several local writers' groups and conducts novel-writing workshops at bookstores and libraries.
Every great mystery needs an Alibi
eOriginal mystery and suspense from Random House
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