“There’s a sump they can check, but some pilots don’t. Snake Knox knows everything there is to know about small planes. If he wanted to use water and be sure it wouldn’t be picked up in the sump, he could have filled a few condoms with it and dropped them into the tank. It would take the fuel a while to eat through the rubbers, but once it did, that plane was coming down. And remember—Dr. Robb’s plane had already taken off, then unexpectedly returned to land, which caused the accident. Nobody ever explained why that plane came back so fast. Robb’s pilot had thousands of hours of experience. I think he felt his power going and tried like hell to make it back. He almost did, too.”

Henry is making this murder sound plausible, but as an assistant DA, I learned that you can almost always construct a scenario to fit a preconceived result. “Do you have anything else to make this case? Do you have your source on tape?”

“No.” Henry looks embarrassed. “He wouldn’t let me record him during our first session. But goddamn it, Penn. First principles, right? Cui bono? Who benefited from the crash? Dr. Robb’s death didn’t simply remove the threat of exposure from Brody’s life. Six months after the plane went down, Brody Royal married Dr. Robb’s widow.”

And the circle closes. Gooseflesh has risen on my arms. “Royal had a double motive for wanting Robb dead.”

Henry gives me a silent nod, knowing that this last piece of information has convinced me. “She was a stunning redhead. I wanted to interview her, but she died of a stroke before I could get her to agree to talk.”

“Have you talked to Congressman Dixon?”

“Same story. Dixon died two years ago, abdominal aneurysm. But I don’t think Robb ever told him anything. Dixon wouldn’t have sat on that.”

Again the heat rises to my face. “But my father did? Damn it, Henry, you want me to believe that the most ethical man I’ve ever known withheld critical murder evidence for forty years?”

Henry nods slowly. “I’m not saying I blame him. There’s a lot you don’t know about Brody Royal. What could your father have gained by revealing what he knew? A clean conscience? The moral high ground? That doesn’t mean anything if you’re dead.”

I’ve made this point myself before, specifically to my fiancée. But even so, it’s hard for me to see my father making that choice.