Endangered Species by Nevada Barr Page B

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    someone with them when they go.  The passenger was the district ranger
    here?"
    " Todd Belfore."
    Alice switched her light back on and returned her focus to the
    instrument panel ." Norman said he left a widow."
    "She's in a hospital in St.  Marys.  Or was yesterday.  She's seriously
    pregnant."
    "That's a pity," Alice said, and: "Write this down." Speaking slowly,
    undoubtedly accustomed to giving dictation to people not trained in
    shorthand, she listed the readings on the instruments: "Gas valve is on
    the auxiliary tanks, landing gear is up, altimeter looks about right,
    throttles .  .  .  too damaged to tell."
    In her best Catholic school hand, Anna wrote down every word.
    "Does this tell you anything?" she asked.
    "Not much," Alice admitted ." But you never know.  We may turn up
    something."
    Shorty came over then and they cleared out, leaving him room to
    photograph the interior of the plane.
    Utterback strolled around in what appeared to be an aimless fashion.
    Hands shoved deep in her pockets, she scuffed through the duff, gazed at
    the trees, the sky, whistling soundlessly.  Finally she stopped, pinched
    her underlip in a thoughtful way, and stared intently at the ground.
    "What?" Anna asked after a minute.
    "I think I'm getting a cold sore , Alice said abstractedly ." I hate
    those doggone things." She plucked a little longer at the offending lip,
    then said: "Write this down.  Put it in parentheses so I'll know it's
    just me guestimating and not God's honest truth.
    "It looks like Hammond was flying too low and too slow.  For some reason
    the airplane rolled sharply to the left and flew nose down.  He hadn't
    left himself any maneuvering room and stacked it, inverted, nose down."
    "Got something, Alice?" Wayne called.
    "Nothing to take to the bank."
    Again Utterback wandered off.  Scribbling, Anna tagged along.
    "Inboards blew?" Alice asked ." There's two on each wing, one close in,
    one further out-inboards and outboards," she said before Anna was forced
    to expose her ignorance ." Did the ones close in explode?"
    "Yes, ma'am.  The left tank exploded on impact and the right shortly
    after we arrived."
    Alice was nodding; it tallied with what she'd seen ." Got the severed
    wingtips mapped?" she hollered at Rick and Shorty.
    " Right yes.  Left no," the Forest Service man called back.
    Alice resumed her soundless whistling and meandered toward the
    aircraft's right wing.  It lay forty yards north of the fuselage and was
    still, to some extent, intact.  The outboard tank inside the wing had
    not been ruptured.  Cables and lines snaked out to shredded ends like
    the sinews and ligaments of a severed limb.  Leaf litter, plowed up on
    impact, covered the leading edge.  The trailing edge was a foot off the
    ground, lending an aspect of movement and speed to the derelict wing.
    The sun had climbed past meridian.  Anna's stomach was beginning to
    growl tentatively for lunch.  Down in the live oaks there wasn't the
    faintest breath of air and the temperature was near a hundred degrees.
    Sweat ringed the men's armpits, staining their shirts all the way to the
    belt line.  Rivulets trickled down Anna's neck and back, doing an
    excellent job of mimicking the sensation of little tick feet burrowing
    down for a snack.
    Alice was completely untouched: her weathered skin was dry and
    powdery-looking, her white hair lying in neat waves, Twice she' circled
    the wingtip.  Anna stood aside, pen poised, trying to look intelligent
    ." Could he have run out of gas?" she ventured.
    "Could've," Alice said ." Always take a look." She crouched down by the
    trailing edge and removed the gas cap ." Hey, Shorty," she called ." I
    need to take a peek in the outboard tank.  Got a match?"
    Familiar laughter at a standard joke filtered back to them as Utterback
    poked the beam of her Maglite into the recesses of the gas tank.
    " Nearly half full.  Write that down," she said ." Right auxiliary a
    quarter full-make it a