“I do remember seeing one like that,” she said. “I thought it was just some pilot curious about all of the commotion.”

22

LUCY AND I lifted off from Ward’s Island in a hot wind and low barometric pressure that made the Bell JetRanger sluggish. We followed the East River and continued to fly through the Class B airspace of La Guardia, where we landed long enough to refuel and buy cheese crackers and sodas from vending machines, and for me to call the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. This time I was connected to the director of student counseling. I took that as a good sign.

“I understand your need to protect yourself,” I said to her from behind the shut door of a pay phone booth inside Signatures terminal. “But please reconsider. Two more people have been murdered since Claire Rawley was.”

There was a long silence.

Then Dr. Chris Booth said, “Can you come in person?”

“I was planning to,” I told her.

“All right then.”

I called Teun McGovern next to tell her what was going on.

“I think Carrie escaped from Kirby in the same white Schweizer we saw flying over Kenneth Sparkes’s farm when we were working the scene,” I said.

“Does she fly?” McGovern’s confused voice came back.

“No, no. I can’t imagine that.”

“Oh.”

“Whoever she’s with,” I said. “That’s the pilot. Whoever helped her escape and is doing all this. The first two cases were warm-ups. Baltimore and Venice Beach. We might never have known about them, Teun. I believe Carrie waited to drag us in. She waited until Warrenton.”

“Then you’re thinking Sparkes was the intended target,” she thoughtfully stated.

“To get our attention. To make sure we came. Yes,” I said.

“Then Claire Rawley figures in how?”

“That’s what I’m going to Wilmington to find out, Teun. I believe she’s somehow the key to all of this. She’s the connection to him. Whoever he is. And I also believe that Carrie knows I will think this, and that she’s expecting me.”

“You think she’s there.”

“Oh yes. I’m betting on it. She expected Benton to come to Philadelphia, and he did. She expects Lucy and me to come to Wilmington. She knows how we think, how we work, at least as much about us as we know about her.”

“You’re saying that you’re her next hits.”

The thought was cold water in my stomach.

“Intended ones.”

“Not a chance we can take, Kay. We’ll be there when you land. The university must have a playing field. We’ll get that arranged very discreetly. Whenever you land to refuel or whatever, page me and we’ll keep up with each other.”

“You can’t let her know you’re there,” I said. “That will ruin it.”

“Trust me. She won’t,” McGovern said.