indicated the exterior lighting. "Exterior storage?"
"Some in the underwing radome and another in the tail, but I don't need it. Take a look at this." Erick opened a clamshell door and motioned for him to enter. He used the stairs Erik retrieved from the cab and entered the aircraft. Tan leather seats, cream carpeting, and bonus points, the seats were adjustable.
"She's a sweetheart, isn't she?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely. Did you modify the seats?" Brody could actually sit up straight in them, which at six-foot-five was unusual. Most seats in these smaller planes were manufactured for a shorter person.
"You know your stuff. Yeah, I did. There is a modification kit for this baby, otherwise I wouldn't have bought her. I can't fly her if I can't sit down comfortably."
He admired the interior of the plane. "What is your maximum?"
Erik smiled even wider, if it was possible. "I can go thirteen hundred nautical miles if I have no passengers and full tanks, but I've never had to stretch it. It's a good jaunt from here to Jacksonville or Atlanta, but she handles it fine."
"You work in both cities?"
"Yeah, mostly Jacksonville now. The boss has a special project he's trying to get off the ground and I'm his conduit. Shit the man comes up with." The last words were mumbled as Erik pointed to the multi-function display. "Instrument approach, which is invaluable. I don't ever want to fly a fixed-card ADF approach again. Not after this little beauty."
Brody laughed with Erik. "She's gorgeous. Do you put plastic down when you bring Clare the plants?"
"You bet. I know she loves those things, but I'm not going to let anything dirty touch my plane."
"Erik! Brody! Dinner!" Clare's voice from the doorway swung both their heads.
Erik raised a hand in acknowledgement. "Let's get going. Clare makes the best grilled fajitas."
Brody disembarked and waited for Erik to close up his aircraft before accompanying him through the yard and back to the patio.
"So, what do you fly?" Erik handed him a plate.
Brody grabbed a couple of tortillas and answered, "I have a SF50 Vision."
Erik stopped with a tong full of grilled chicken halfway to his plate. "A Vision is a two million-dollar jet."
"I got a good deal on it, and it was used." Brody shrugged and nodded to the chicken. "You going to eat that or suspend it in mid-air."
Erik blinked at him but dropped the chicken on his plate and then likewise dropped the tongs. "Why are you living here?"
Amber snorted. "Because he has a million-dollar plane."
Clare's laugh was contagious, and thank God, Amber kept the conversation rolling. The FBI's little gift of a jet could have put a serious rift in the new 'friendship'. Some people can't see their way past money. Thankfully, Erik and Clare didn't seem to be that type.
Brody sat down and handed the coffee around the table. The meeting was the second one they'd had with their team as others monitored the neighbors from the van. The last twenty-one days had been productive, but the productivity wasn't on their case. Together he and Amber had been going through information the JDET personnel had mined from the streets, interviews, and testimony in court cases involving their collars. They'd carefully pieced together two viable leads, and Terrell and the rest of the team had moved forward on them. At least they were advancing the team's objectives while playing house, but their case was going nowhere.
"It's been three weeks." Captain Terrell spoke as he reached for the cream. "We have nothing on the Dawes couple. They do pro bono work, but it would seem they have taken a hiatus there as well. They bought a puppy and are walking it twenty times a day." He snorted and stirred his coffee. "They are vying for the most boring couple on the face of the earth."
Rayburn grabbed one of the scones he'd bought. "Edelman flies all the time."
Amber took a sip of her coffee and glanced at him. He passed her the biscotti he'd bought for her before Rayburn or Watson could grab it. A quicksilver flash of a smile was his reward. He internalized their secret connection as he turned to Rayburn.
"He does. Mainly to Jacksonville. So far, our contact in Jax hasn't been able to validate where he's landing. We only have two more airfields. We knew it would be a process of elimination."
"Did digging into their background show anything?" Amber asked.
Terrell shook his head. "Not much. Clare Edelman was Clare Washburn. She was raised by