Wolf in the Shadows - Marcia Muller [131]
Hy put his hand on my shoulder. “No, McCone. Today you’re the pilot.”
“Really?” I felt like a little kid does when the training wheels finally come off her bicycle.
“Really. You earned it.”
He got in back, and then I climbed in front. Put on the seat belt and headset, fiddled with switches—fingers eager and slightly a-fumble.
Through the earphones Hy said, “So are you going to stay there?”
Confidently I flicked a switch; it did what it was supposed to. “At All Souls? I don’t know. I told them I’d have to consider it.”
“Thought you’d have jumped at the chance.”
“Maybe, like you, I’m due for a change.” My mind was more on the mechanics of takeoff than on my future career. I started the engine. The propeller jerked, then whirred into silver motion.
Hy said, “You haven’t turned RKI down yet, either.”
“How’d you know?”
“I talked with Gage this morning.”
“You’re not going in with them, are you?”
“Nope. After these past couple of weeks, I’ve decided there’s too much crap going down on this planet for me to spend the rest of my life doing the kinds of things Gage and Dan want me to. It’s time for me to kick some butt, and the Spaulding Foundation’s the perfect apparatus for that.”
“Sounds as if you’re gearing up for a fight. Just what is it you plan to do?”
“Things you wouldn’t believe, McCone. Things you flat-out wouldn’t believe.”
“I’ll watch with interest.” Smiling, I thumbed the switch on the mike and said, “Oakland Ground, this is Citabria seven-seven-two-eight-niner….”
Air traffic was light that afternoon. In a very few minutes I was cleared for takeoff, VFR eastbound for Tufa Lake. Runway 27R stretched before me like a long-awaited promise. When the little plane lifted off the tarmac, I felt an intense thrill of freedom—breaking loose into a world that had no bounds.
Sometimes, I thought, the worth of freedom can be measured only by the cost of what you give up to achieve it. If I chose a free path when I returned to the city, it would be valuable beyond reckoning.
I looked back at Hy, gave him a thumbs-up sign, and tipped the plane’s left wing into a soaring arc above San Francisco Bay.
ACROSS AMERICA EVERYONE’S SINGING THE PRAISES OF MARCIA MULLER AND SHARON McCONE
New York Times Book Review:
“[Sharon McCone is] the new breed of American woman detective… redefining the mystery genre by applying different sensibilities and values to it.”
Los Angeles Times Book Review:
“Muller is a good reporter and an eloquent writer…McCone is a character who deserves a wide readership.”
Kansas City Star:
“Fans of Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton unfamiliar with Sharon McCone are in for a treat.”
Atlanta Constitution:
“Ms. Muller’s pace and plotting are very strong, but it’s her characters—especially McCone—who will lure you back.”
Houston Chronicle:
“One of the most likable of the new generation of women investigators… McCone combines a personal interest in the people with whom she works with a hard-boiled wit about her life and times.”