Magnolia Gods (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 2) (36 page)

“Excuse me, folks,” Regal mumbled as he squeezed by them and reached outward to help Jeremy open the hatch. As he pushed against the window, it opened and the cool Long Island air rushed in. Jesse had climbed forward from the radio section and was standing behind them. As the air came in, he said, “That’s the best air I’ve ever tasted.”

Hands reached in from outside the window.

“Welcome to Lake Success,” a voice shouted.

“You outside, we got a wounded man to be helped,” Mike yelled in return.

A camera lens was inserted in the opening and began to wave back and forth over Robin’s head. Then, other hands pushed away the cameras. Soldiers dressed in military camouflage uniforms reached inside to help them. Other cockpit windows were pulled open from outside, and many arms and hands were extended.

“How do you feel?” a reporter screamed holding a microphone to Mike’s face. The newsman had a grin on his face that was too big to be ignored and Mike grinned back.

“Glad to be here,” Mike replied.

The water had stopped rising. Mike was wet up to his waist. He looked at Robin and she smiled. He reached down in the water, found the small safe that held all the papers on Captain Lawson and Aviatrice and took a firm grip on it. Then he turned to the reporter and said, “We feel just fine, thank you.

Chapter Twenty-Four

10 AM, July 5

Lake Success, New York

“So it’s all over and we’re still alive,” Mike said to Robin, smiling as he folded the newspaper he had been scanning.

They were sitting on a patio, surrounded with rose bushes and with a view of Lake Success. Behind them were large sliding glass windows of the Lake Success Country Club main building. In front of the veranda was the small lake where they had set down the Magnolia Whispers last night. To their left, behind some trees, they could see the seaplane itself, the metal of the bow crumpled slightly where it had hit the beach.

“If I had known how small that lake was, I don’t think I would have tried this stunt,” said Robin, looking out at the lake, her hand up to shade her eyes from the morning sun.

People in Lake Success had treated them with great respect and had given them a hero’s welcome. A luxury motel in the area, a short walk from the Country Club, had set aside its best rooms. A motel van, escorted by the town police, had arranged to take them to their lodging when they finally left the seaplane.

Now, gathering for coffee with the others in the morning sunshine, Mike could begin to put perspective on what the experience had accomplished. Jesse sat with him and Robin, his arm in a sling. Jeremy had telephoned that he would join them soon. The waitress, a young woman in a green dress with the country club name across her right chest pocket, was smiling at each in turn as she took their orders and served coffee.

Mike stretched back in his chair and noticed Robin’s bare feet. “What happened to your shoes?”

“With all the shooting, I lost them somewhere,” she said.

“You flew the Magnolia barefoot?” Mike asked.

“It’s not that hard,” she said, smiling. “I’ll teach you.”

She sipped her coffee. “You know, last night I think I understood how Lindbergh must have felt coming into Paris. I saw the headlights of the cars along the lake and I felt like I was opening up a new era.”

“Like the joy of pulling it off,” said Mike.

She nodded. “Then I noticed all the souvenir hunters and I started to worry about Magnolia Whispers, whether she would survive. That was what happened to Lindbergh. I think some of the wing fabric was taken. Even Regal was saying to me that he was afraid people would get inside and take the steam instruments.”

“The water came in too fast for that.” Mike said, trying to see the plane behind the trees.

“They’ve put restraining lines and large flotation balloons on her,” he said as he stood up and looked out.

“They must have been at work on her all night,” said Jesse.

“The Navy did all that,” said Mike. “They had to get permission from the United Nations before they could touch her though. The United Nations security people are in place around her. I can see some patrol boats. I don’t think any souvenir hunters can get within a hundred yards of her.”

Robin said, “The desk clerk at the motel told me this morning that the roads into Lake Success are filled with cars. People are coming in from all over, especially the city and Connecticut and New Jersey.”

Jesse smiled and added, “I got here this morning a little before you, Robin, and a reporter asked me what I thought of the Magnolia Whispers fable, the old Nanticoke legend. I guess it’s become a subject for debate, the Nanticokes and their fears.”

“What did you tell him?” Robin asked, looking at Jesse.

“I said that it’s better if people figure the story out for themselves,” said Jesse.

“I have more good news,” said Mike. “Vallery called me to say that the Philadelphia police have released some more information on Lawson’s case. They were given a letter from a sailor who put the munitions on the Magnolia back in 1946.”

“That’s good police work,” said Robin.

“Apparently, the man died several years ago,” said Mike. “He left a letter with his daughter that he wrote just before he died. When the television shows began going over the story of Captain Lawson, she thought the time had come to give the letter to the authorities. I went and bought the newspaper. Here, you can read it.”

Mike handed the New York Times to Robin. Under a large photograph taken of the cockpit window of the Magnolia Whispers was the headline, “Sailor’s letter confirms Lawson diary.” The undated letter was printed in a box in the center of the page.

To my daughter, December 1970

“I had mentioned to you before that I had been involved in some shady business during the time I was in the Navy. I want to make sure that you know the real story. In 1946 I was in charge of maintaining seaplanes at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, where, as your Mom always told you, I was stationed just before I got out of the Navy.

“I was pretty good at my job and my officers gave me a lot of responsibility. Then, one day just before the Fourth of July, I was asked to check out one of the prototype seaplanes. I thought it strange that I was being asked to service the plane. Up to now, Captain Lawson, one of the special projects engineers, had done it all himself. Besides, the airplane was hard to service because most of the stuff on it was experimental and I had no up-to-date instruction manuals.

“Lieutenant Jones, who had given me the order, also advised me that I should keep secret any orders he gave me, that I should speak to no one, especially the Captain. I was also ordered to arm the ship. Arming her meant reinstalling the guns which had been taken out and loading belts of machine gun cartridges. I was to load a full complement of bombs. He told me that these bombs were for a special test. He said that the Captain wouldn’t let him fly the ship and that taking it out on his own permission was the only way he could prove how good a pilot he was. Well, I had known officers who were set in their ways, and I could understand where the young Lieutenant was coming from. He also said that I would be well rewarded for following his orders. I was new on the base myself and I didn’t owe the Captain nothing. The Lieutenant talked to me as we put the bombs on the wing supports. He said he was going to fly out to the target range and turn in a good score to prove that he was a top pilot. He said that his pilot rating was important to getting a good job when he got out of the Navy. He said he just wanted to show that he could fly her as well as the Captain.

“Then the Captain stole the ship and blew up the lab.”

“The next day, the Lieutenant came to me and told me that communists were watching everything that happened on the base. He said that I had to be careful and keep shut. He said the Navy would think I loaded the bombs for the Captain, that I might be arrested, that no one would believe me, and that I would be considered an accomplice of the Captain. He said he was going to keep quiet too and not mention that he ever had any plans to fly the plane.

“I did what I was told and when the Navy investigators came around, I didn’t say anything about the ship having bombs on it. Then in a few days the papers reported that the Navy considered the Captain a spy. I did not think that Captain Lawson was any spy. Him being a spy did not fit with what I knew of his personality. On top of that I couldn’t figure out why he would have taken off with all those bombs on board. Knowing him, he would have ordered me to come over and take all those guns and bombs back off again. I remember that he told me once he didn’t like any weapons on the ship when he was testing it. Besides, if the Navy was right about him being a spy, why did he take all them bombs out to that Russian ship?

“I called the Lieutenant and told him that I thought we should clear the Captain’s name, that we should admit we had put them bombs on the plane. I said maybe the Captain was upset after he found out somebody had been touching his plane, got angry and flew it off. Maybe, I said, he just went off his rocker, you know, went crazy.

“The Lieutenant said not to worry about it, that it would all get straightened out and that I should keep my mouth shut. So I did.

“Pretty soon a letter came to my house from the Aviatrice Corporation. It was an offer of a very nice job with a real big salary. My wife saw the letter, and she had an expression on her face like she was already spending the money. I took the job. It wasn’t a long time that went by, before I began to realize that I could never talk about those bombs. I came to realize that by taking this job, I had been bribed in a way. I had accepted the equivalent of money to keep quiet. I realized that it was too late and that I would be in jail if I ever opened up.

“I got so that I knew people were watching me at Aviatrice. Hiram made sure that I shut up tight. I worried about my family and what might happen. I saw the lieutenant a few more times. He went to work at Aviatrice too. I guess he was bribed to keep quiet too about Captain Lawson’ s seaplane, but I don’t know why. During the times I saw him at Aviatrice, though, he made it plain to me that if I looked out for Lieutenant Hiram Jones, then Hiram would look out for me.

“That’s all I know. I don’t to this day know whether I did anything wrong. I do know that Aviatrice took care of me pretty good, and the Lieutenant too. If it ever turns out that I did something wrong, well, you tell the authorities what I wrote in this letter and see if that helps them figure out about Captain Lawson and his seaplane.

“Signed, your Dad”

Robin asked, “Where is the little metal box with the papers?”

Mike replied, “Vallery arranged for a good law firm to take them last night. He gave them what he had and Jesse and I provided them with everything else in the box.”

“I made sure they got only copies. The originals are in my vault at my New York bank,” said Jesse.

“I don’t think we have to worry,” said Mike. “Vallery said the law firm is trustworthy enough, that its members have defended Presidents and have a tradition of remaining loyal to their clients.”

“I hope they’re better than Drexel,” said Jesse.

Mike added, “The law firm is one of the biggest and oldest in New York. They were in on the formation of the United Nations too. That’s why they agreed to take the case when Vallery called on them.”

Mike went on, “Tim telephoned me this morning. He and Jeremy’s friend, Jenni, are going to be part of an employee group at Aviatrice working on correcting the image of the company. I guess the company has some pretty good people. Wall and his friends were the bad ones there, not the other employees.”

He smiled, “Also, Tim says he’s sure my little museum will get its funding back.”

“You’ll get some of my money in that museum, too,” said Jesse. “Things have really changed. I called my mother this morning. I asked her if she would consider coming home, or at least visiting again, her and Riley.”

“She’s going to?” asked Robin.

Jesse nodded. “My mother wants to fix the gravestones.”

“Move your grandfather’s grave from the Tabernacle?”

“No. Not that. He belongs there. She wants to set up a monument near the grave of my grandmother. Something for her and my father.”

Robin said, “We owe a visit to Rebecca, Mike.”

“Yeah. Without her we never would have found the plane.”

“The Fourth of July will never be the same,” said Jesse. “Some of the reporters are talking of a fly in to New York next year made up of vintage aircraft. It’s to honor the flight of the Magnolia Whispers.”

Robin said, “On television they’re calling it a warplane on a mission of peace.”

“What are they saying about Captain Lawson?” asked Mike.

“The sad thing,” said Jesse, “is that a lot of people in this country still side with Wall. Wall had counted on the support of the communist haters back in 1946. A lot of the same people or their descendants are still vocal today. We’ll hear from them. Also, Wall and his lawyers have made sure that not many records exist to corroborate the documents we found.”

“What a snake,” said Robin. “He even got his daughter to do his dirty work so he could keep his own hands clean.”

Mike stirred his coffee. “People believed your grandfather was guilty and they believed it for fifty years without questions. Now they are asked to believe that it was a hoax, that the real traitor was this industrial giant. It will make them think about themselves. I’m not sure how it will come out. You may find resentment just because people don’t like to be wrong. Besides that, Wall is an old man. He will probably die before he has to go to prison.”

“What about the damage to Hobble’s village?” asked Robin.

Jesse spoke up. “Regal said they don’t want any help.”

“How will they rebuild?” asked Robin.

“Same way they built,” said Jesse. “Of course, I’ll be there to help, if Hobble will let me. I’m afraid the locals around that farm are not going to fear the village now that this story has broken. The fear is gone. People know that the village is just regular people like themselves. Like the old Nanticokes, the village will need protection. I’ll help with that.”