Page 61 of Fire on the Moon

He and Francesca watched as the men opened the trunks of both cars, taking out equipment and going to work on the exteriors with some kind of cleaning solution. The white paint came off the top halves of the cars. The insignia and words “State Police” came off the bottom. The light bars on the top were also removed. When they were finished, two ordinary looking black cars sat at the side of the runway. All the equipment and cleaning supplies went into large plastic garbage bags which Jonah carried to the plane.

Francesca turned to the Decorah agents. “That was so real,” she breathed. “For a few minutes I thought you really were cops.”

“Didn’t my brother tell you what was going to happen?” Knox said.

“Yes, but I couldn’t picture it. And I couldn’t help reacting.”

“Well, that made it look real to the onlookers.

“How did you manage everything?” she asked, sounding like she still couldn’t believe they’d actually pulled it off.

“Planning,” Knox answered.

“Isn’t all of this illegal? I mean impersonating cops. Taking away murder suspects.”

“Yes. But we’ll straighten it out later.”

“You’re sure nobody back at the marina is going to figure out you weren’t the real thing?”

“If they do, we’ll already be gone.”

Luke Garner and Brand Marshall came over from the other car, and Zane introduced them.

Luke turned to Zane. “Why did you come in a small boat?”

“Because the Lady Slipper couldn’t get through the channel. She’s hung up a couple of miles from here.”

“Okay. We’ll tell the owner where to find it, and make sure he gets a bonus for retrieving it.”

“Zane has a recording of his conversation with Tuckerman,” Francesca said. “And you can hear the gunplay and his friend coming in.”

“And accusing me of murder,” Zane supplied.

“So the tape might be problematic,” Jonah said.

“Then what are we going to do?” Francesca pressed.

“Hopefully, get enough evidence to figure out what’s really going on. Luke’s going to stay down here investigating.”

“And I’m going to see if I can get any information from my father,” Francesca added.

Zane nodded in agreement, then looked at Knox. “We’re going directly to Newton?”

“Yeah.”

His brother took off his uniform shirt. He was wearing a dark tee underneath. Stepping to the other side of the car, he changed from the trooper pants to jeans. The rest of the fake cops did the same, stuffing the uniform tops into another garbage bag.

While they waited for Brand to finish his preflight check, the men put the garbage bags in the cargo compartment. Then Zane, Francesca, Knox, and Jonah climbed into the passenger area. The plane was surprisingly roomy, with a dozen seats arranged in groupings facing each other across low tables.

When they had taken off, Francesca breathed out a sigh. “I can hardly believe we’re really out of there. I know Florida is supposed to be a nice place to visit, but I’m never going back.”

“Maybe in a few years,” Zane said, then gave Francesca a concerned look. “You haven’t had much to eat in the past few days.”

“You either.”

The other agents had brought steak for Zane, which he wolfed down raw, pardon the pun. Francesca sipped on a mug of beef and vegetable soup.

“Try to get some sleep,” he told her.

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