THE MAN NOW known as Thomas Sutherland refueled his airplane at a small airport in South Carolina, then continued northeast. Shortly after two in the morning, he checked his GPS, picked up his microphone and pressed the talk button rapidly fi ve times. Dead ahead, the runway lights at Johnnycake Airport came on. He landed and taxied to the fueling area. As his airport reference book had told him, there was a self-operated fueling station. He inserted a credit card into the slot, just as at a gas station, and fi lled his wing tanks, then he taxied to a remote area of the airport, shut down the engine and went to sleep, curled up in the rear seat.

HE SLEPT UNTIL nearly noon, then he walked up to the highway and found a diner, where he had a large breakfast. Back at the airfield, he found it pretty much deserted. An occasional airplane would take off or land, but there was no tower, not even an offi ce, just a bunch of airplanes tied down, waiting for the weekend and their owners.

As he stood there a Mercedes station wagon drove up, and a man and a woman got out.

“Good morning,” the man said, “or is it afternoon?”

“Barely,” Sutherland said. “You off to somewhere?”

“Yeah, we’re visiting some family in Maine for a couple of days.”

He opened the trunk to reveal four suitcases.

“Let me give you a hand,” Sutherland said, taking one of the bags out of the trunk. “Which airplane?”

“The Bonanza over there,” the man said, nodding. “Thanks.”

Sutherland followed him to the airplane and watched him unlock the right-side front door. “Give me your keys, and I’ll unlock back here,” Sutherland said.

The man tossed him a heavy bunch of keys. As Sutherland opened the door, he managed to free the car’s ignition key from the bunch, then he set the suitcase in the luggage compartment, leaving the keys in the lock.

After a preflight inspection, the man and his wife got into the Bonanza, and ten minutes later they were rolling down the runway. Sutherland waited until the airplane had disappeared to the north, then he got his duffel and a tool kit out of his airplane, put them into the rear of the Mercedes, started the car and drove away.