the letter and they lead us to the animal hanger."
"My client is a very rich young woman who insists on being in on our investigation. Normally I would not tolerate that, but Rose was a friend to the missing woman, and demanded I let the daughter tag along. We have to be careful not to get her hurt."
"Inherited the drug company, I assume. Rich people. I once knew a girl in New York worth eleven million dollars and she did her laundry in the toilet bowl."
"Sunny Pfeiffer, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders."
"How does her husband figure into this?"
"She's never married."
"Then why the different name from the mother?"
"Seems the mother wanted to take back the family name after the husband died. Something about being easier to run the company. It had belonged to her family, not the husband."
"Makes sense. So what else you got?"
"Rose gave me some names of men the Welch woman was seeing around the time of her disappearance. After the death of her husband, who grew up in this part of the country, she dated some locals. I've talked to four of them, plus our old friend, Earl Sanders."
"Earl? How does he figure into this?"
"He sold her the PA-18. Taught her to fly. Seems there was a strong attraction between the two, though it was handled openly and up front, nothing ever became of it. Earl talked to Annie, and so did the Welch woman. They vowed it was platonic."
"Earl would have nothing to do with murder."
"Love makes people do strange things, Hebrone."
"Has to be somebody you talked to. Otherwise, they wouldn't have known where to torture the coyote. Tell me about the four men."
Turning off the highway onto the gravel road that led to the cottage, I said, “One's a local lawyer who came across as up front and cooperative. A banker from Decatur who exhibited some guilt, but that was about paternity, though it could be motive. Then there was a Navy flyboy, retired and living in Meridian. He's the least likely. The fourth is a retired airline pilot. He worked for Earl as a mechanic while on furlough from American. Did the maintenance on the woman's airplane, flew with her, and the two had a fling that lasted a short while. The breakup was ugly. Earl fired him and he moved to Waco, Texas. All this was around the time Welch went missing. We will look hard at this man."
"We are going to look hard at all of them. Anything else?"
"I've sent the note and letter via the local sheriff for a forensics exam. The rope used to hang the coyote is a piece of old hemp. I kept it thinking we could find more like it at a suspect's home."
"Tell me what you know about the day the woman went missing."
"She took off early one morning headed to Meridian, contacted approach control, stated her intentions, then shortly thereafter said she needed to return and land. There was no other communication and the plane dropped off the scope. The controller initiated a search. Nothing was ever found, not a trace of the woman or airplane. I've got a copy of the air traffic control transcript coming out of Atlanta, and a copy of the Accident/Missing Aircraft report from the FAA is being mailed."
"So this woman could have simply crashed into one of the heavily forested areas and never found?"
"It's a possibility, though the letter, the warning, and a dead coyote points to something a little more sinister."
"Or some whacko getting his kicks from an old airplane crash. I've seen it happen before."
"Either way, we are gonna punish this person."
Hebrone didn't say anything. He simply smiled, and it was not an expression one would take as being pleasant. He is not a man you would want as an enemy. Years ago I was with him in a place called Spider's, a watering hole for local fisherman on the Mississippi coast. Due to hurricane Katrina, it no longer exists, as is true for most of the coast. A shrimper with a reputation for meanness and womanizing tried to force himself on Hebrone's live-aboard girlfriend. The man walked into the bar that
"My client is a very rich young woman who insists on being in on our investigation. Normally I would not tolerate that, but Rose was a friend to the missing woman, and demanded I let the daughter tag along. We have to be careful not to get her hurt."
"Inherited the drug company, I assume. Rich people. I once knew a girl in New York worth eleven million dollars and she did her laundry in the toilet bowl."
"Sunny Pfeiffer, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders."
"How does her husband figure into this?"
"She's never married."
"Then why the different name from the mother?"
"Seems the mother wanted to take back the family name after the husband died. Something about being easier to run the company. It had belonged to her family, not the husband."
"Makes sense. So what else you got?"
"Rose gave me some names of men the Welch woman was seeing around the time of her disappearance. After the death of her husband, who grew up in this part of the country, she dated some locals. I've talked to four of them, plus our old friend, Earl Sanders."
"Earl? How does he figure into this?"
"He sold her the PA-18. Taught her to fly. Seems there was a strong attraction between the two, though it was handled openly and up front, nothing ever became of it. Earl talked to Annie, and so did the Welch woman. They vowed it was platonic."
"Earl would have nothing to do with murder."
"Love makes people do strange things, Hebrone."
"Has to be somebody you talked to. Otherwise, they wouldn't have known where to torture the coyote. Tell me about the four men."
Turning off the highway onto the gravel road that led to the cottage, I said, “One's a local lawyer who came across as up front and cooperative. A banker from Decatur who exhibited some guilt, but that was about paternity, though it could be motive. Then there was a Navy flyboy, retired and living in Meridian. He's the least likely. The fourth is a retired airline pilot. He worked for Earl as a mechanic while on furlough from American. Did the maintenance on the woman's airplane, flew with her, and the two had a fling that lasted a short while. The breakup was ugly. Earl fired him and he moved to Waco, Texas. All this was around the time Welch went missing. We will look hard at this man."
"We are going to look hard at all of them. Anything else?"
"I've sent the note and letter via the local sheriff for a forensics exam. The rope used to hang the coyote is a piece of old hemp. I kept it thinking we could find more like it at a suspect's home."
"Tell me what you know about the day the woman went missing."
"She took off early one morning headed to Meridian, contacted approach control, stated her intentions, then shortly thereafter said she needed to return and land. There was no other communication and the plane dropped off the scope. The controller initiated a search. Nothing was ever found, not a trace of the woman or airplane. I've got a copy of the air traffic control transcript coming out of Atlanta, and a copy of the Accident/Missing Aircraft report from the FAA is being mailed."
"So this woman could have simply crashed into one of the heavily forested areas and never found?"
"It's a possibility, though the letter, the warning, and a dead coyote points to something a little more sinister."
"Or some whacko getting his kicks from an old airplane crash. I've seen it happen before."
"Either way, we are gonna punish this person."
Hebrone didn't say anything. He simply smiled, and it was not an expression one would take as being pleasant. He is not a man you would want as an enemy. Years ago I was with him in a place called Spider's, a watering hole for local fisherman on the Mississippi coast. Due to hurricane Katrina, it no longer exists, as is true for most of the coast. A shrimper with a reputation for meanness and womanizing tried to force himself on Hebrone's live-aboard girlfriend. The man walked into the bar that
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