In Plane Sight (14 page)

“There's only one place they can be,” Frank said. “We need to get back to Scott Field before someone in the gang does.”

“The Jeep may not be fast enough,” Joe said. “Which plane should we take?”

“Grissom's is our best bet,” Frank said. “It hasn't been here long enough for them to chop it up too badly. Open the barn doors while I start it up.”

He hurried over to the Grissom plane and
jumped in. Joe opened the big doors out onto the lake and then climbed into the copilot's seat.

“They've ripped out the radio,” Frank said, “but the rest of the control panel is still good. I think we can fly it.”

Joe nodded. “Let's roll!”

Frank taxied the slightly beaten-up Sullivan plane out onto the lake and, following the tracks laid down in the thin snow by the planes that had been stolen and hidden, executed a perfect takeoff.

“Whew!” he said. “Don't ask me to do that again.”

“All you have to worry about now,” Joe replied, “is getting us to Scott Field before the other thieves get away.”

They headed south southeast toward the air show.

“Hey,” Joe said, picking something out the ashtray near the center of the control panel, “Here's the picture from that newspaper article Grissom was using as blackmail. He must have stashed it here for safe keeping.”

“Are the remaining members of the gang who we think they are?” Frank asked.

“Yep,” Joe replied.

“Too bad you smashed our cell phone,” Frank said, “or we could call ahead and alert the cops.”

“Which would you rather have, a smashed cell phone or a shot in the head?” Joe asked.

“You made the right choice,” Frank said with a smile.

As they arrived back at Scott Field, they saw another plane on the tarmac that was heading for the runway.

“The last scratched-up Sullivan custom,” Joe said, “straight from the consignment block. Any bets who's in the pilot seat?”

“Hang on,” Frank said. “I'm going to bring us in low and fast.”

Frank banked their borrowed aircraft low over the control tower, just to get the authorities' attention. Then he made a sharp turn and brought the plane on the runway. He taxied to a stop right in front of the final Sullivan custom plane, blocking its takeoff.

He and Joe hopped out onto the tarmac as police sirens wailed, toward them. Flaubert and other air officials ran out onto the field with Jamal in tow.

A very angry man climbed out of the blocked plane's cockpit and raised his hands up in irritation. “What right do you have to do this?” he asked. “We could have been hurt!”

“Not half the menace you are, Mr. Manetti,” Joe said. “You've stolen planes and sabotaged this whole air show.”

“That's absurd,” Manetti said. “I've just bought this plane! Now get out of my way. I've had enough shenanigans at this convention.”

“You had to buy it,” Frank said. “With Mitchum and Jose tied up in Kendall State Park, you had no chance of stealing a fourth plane.”

“You and the rest of Carl Denny's gang are behind all the trouble at the Fly By & Buy,” Joe said, “and we've got the picture to prove it.”

As the police, airport security, the NTSB agent, Elise Flaubert, and Jamal closed in, Joe held out the picture of the Denny gang from the newspaper article.

“I think you'll recognize four of those people, Ms. Flaubert,” Joe said. “After all, two of them worked for you.”

“You might as well come out too, Ms. Davenport—or should I say Mrs. Beth Denny,” Frank said to a figure still lurking in the cockpit of the final Sullivan plane. “Seems you're
grounded
!”

By the following morning, the police and aviation officials had rounded up the rest of the Denny gang and locked them all in jail. The local authorities took credit for capturing the criminals, and this was fine with the Hardys. The brothers were used to being left out of the spotlight, and frankly, they preferred it that way.

Just before noon Amy Chow took the brothers and Jamal out to brunch, to thank them for catching the criminals who had sabotaged her plane.

“So, the old Carl Denny gang was behind all of the trouble at the Fly By & Buy?” Amy asked.

“Yep,” Joe replied. “They got caught during the big coin robbery, but Denny got away. He stashed
the loot in an airplane at Sullivan Brothers when he worked there. But when the police nearly caught him, he took off in the wrong plane.”

“He probably spent the rest of his life searching for the coins,” Frank said. “If we check some old news stories, we might even find a trail of Sullivan plane vandalism leading back to him.”

“But he died of cancer before he found the stolen coins,” Jamal said. “Man, is that ironic!”

Joe nodded. “As the fax Phil sent last night confirmed,” he said, “the rest of the gang was in prison until a few months ago. When they got out, Denny's wife tracked him down. He was dying at that point, but he managed to tell Rita, or should I say Beth, that he'd stashed the coins in one of the Sullivan Brothers planes that were in the shop the night he escaped.”

“He couldn't tell her which one, though,” Frank continued. “The planes have all changed hands and been repainted a couple of times since. The one that looked closest to the plane Denny stole—eight-seven-eight—was Jamal's plane. That's why the gang stole Jamal's plane first.”

“Lucky me!” Jamal said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“It was lucky for the thieves that all those Sullivan planes were here at the show together,” Chow said.

“Not lucky at all,” Frank replied. “Scott Field was in bad financial shape. Flaubert was grasping at
straws to keep the airport afloat. She told us that Tony Manetti suggested that she bring the planes to the show. Remembering that tipped us off to Manetti's ties with the criminals behind the trouble.”

“So Manetti set this whole scheme up?” Jamal said.

“With Davenport,” Joe said, nodding. “They were the brains behind the operation, though Manetti brought plenty of brawn too.”

“It was Manetti who broke into the administration office and the control tower,” Frank said. “The gang needed the show registration papers to figure out which of the Sullivan planes were from the group Denny worked on. Jose helped Manetti escape us that time. He misdirected us so that we wouldn't catch his boss.”

“Rita Davenport covered up for Manetti during the control tower break-in,” added Joe. “That time they were trying to use the tower computer to cover up the flight paths they'd taken when stealing the planes. Davenport screamed that night to keep us from catching Manetti.”

“So the attack on her was completely fake?” Jamal asked.

“Exactly,” Joe replied. “The thieves had their scheme well coordinated; they made sure they could cover for one another. Mitchum was the pilot who flew Brooks's stolen plane out to Kendall State Park. He'd put in a long shift the day before, and
no one at the airport expected him back that day. Jose overpowered Brooks, then went with Mitchum to help strip the plane down once they reached the old barn.”

“But neither of them counted on your pulling Jose out of that plane,” Jamal said.

“No, but my interference didn't slow them down very much,” Joe said. “Jose hooked up with Mitchum at the barn, and they came after Frank and me. They only managed to chase us into the river.”

“Having Mitchum as the field's main security guard and Jose working as a janitor was a huge help to this operation,” Frank said. “The gang had been planning this for a long time—long enough to get two people working inside the airport.”

Amy shook her head. “They played Elise Flaubert like a violin.”

“I feel bad for her,” Jamal said. “This might end her career.”

“Let's hope not,” Frank said.

“She doesn't deserve it,” Joe added. “This was a very slick operation.”

“No wonder this case was so hard to solve,” Jamal said. “Every time we thought we had one of the thieves pegged another would appear.”

“Well, no matter what the media say, I'll still know who saved the day,” Amy said. She raised her glass of orange juice in a toast. “I heard they recovered the stolen coins from that last plane this morning.”

“It was just bad luck that the thieves chose the right plane last,” Frank said. “If they'd discovered the coins earlier, we might never have caught them. They would have probably taken their money and run.”

“I hope the reward from the recovery will pay for the damages to Jamal's plane and the other victims' losses,” Joe said.

“If it doesn't,” Amy said, “maybe I'll set up a charitable fund to cover the difference.”

Jamal smiled at Amy. “I
knew
there was a reason I liked you,” he said.

She laughed. “And if there's anything I can do for you, Frank and Joe,” she said, “just let me know. Without you the criminals might have flown the coop.”

“Yeah,” Joe replied. “Good thing their wings are now clipped!”