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please.”
    â€œDon’t want us to fix our stories, do you?” the janitor asked.
Kracsinski
, Greg remembered.
Benny
. “Makes sense, I guess.”
    â€œPlease, just… go with the officer.”
    â€œThis way,” the uni said. Benny, Jamal, and Tonya followed. Riley had to twitch her head toward the others to get Patti to take the hint and go along.
    â€œNow, Mr. Johnston, please continue,” Greg said when the rest were out of earshot.
    â€œThere’s not much more to tell,” Stan said. “Like I told you before, Jesse landed, then his aircraft just sat there on the runway. Patti came up and we talked about it. There wasn’t likely to be any more traffic in or out tonight, but still, we were getting worried, and you never know when someone might need to make an emergency landing. I called him on the radio, you know, a few times, but he never answered me. I told him I needed the runway cleared, even though I didn’t really. Finally I sent Jamal over to check on him.”
    â€œJamal works for the airport?”
    â€œHe’s a mechanic. Private, but he mostly works here. And like he said, we all know each other and look out for each other.”
    â€œThat’s wonderful,” Riley said. Greg couldn’t tell if she meant it or not.
    â€œWell, soon as Jamal got to the airplane, he called us over. Jesse, he was just like you see him there. Dead, no question about that.”
    â€œAnd no one had approached the plane?” Riley asked. “Until Jamal did?”
    â€œNot a soul. It’s mostly quiet around here this time of night. We’re busiest onweekends, and on weekdays it’s the mornings. A few people are like Jesse, enjoy night flying, but for the most part we’re used for tourist flights over the Grand Canyon or short business trips, you know? That’s all daytime stuff.”
    Headlights speared through the night. “Coroner’s here,” Riley announced.
    â€œIt’s about time,” Greg said. “Can you open the airplane, Mr. Johnston?”
    â€œIs it okay to?”
    â€œYou mean legally? Yes, it’s fine. Just get it open and then stand back, and don’t touch anything you don’t have to.”
    â€œGot it.”
    While he opened the cockpit, Riley moved close to Greg. “If he was murdered,” she said in a low tone, “then we’ve got the ultimate locked-room mystery going here. Because not only was the victim alone in the room, but the room was five thousand feet in the air.”
    â€œGives a new meaning to the mile-high club,” Greg answered. “And not nearly as much fun as the old one.”

4
    â€œT HIS REMINDS ME OF THE time in high school when we put a pig in the girls’ locker room,” Greg said as he and Riley retrieved their field kits from the Yukon.
    â€œA pig?” Riley asked.
    â€œThere were some farms on the outskirts of Santa Gabriel. We paid a farmer a hundred bucks for one of his old pigs one night, and took him to school in the back of a pickup truck one of the guys had. We opened the locker room door and led him in. Then we bolted the door from the inside, climbed up on the lockers, and went out through the ceiling panels. When the coach opened up the gym in the morning, he had to get a custodian to cut through the bolt with an acetylene torch, which of course freaked out the pig even more than spending the night alone in a locker room had.”
    â€œThis was you and those zany kids from Chess Club?” She had heard stories about Greg’s younger days, not all of them directly from Greg.
    â€œHey, I had other friends.”
    â€œSure you did, Greg.”
    Once Jesse Dunwood’s body had been removed, they started to process the airplane like they would a car or any other vehicle. First they photographed it from a variety of angles, inside and out, then they inspected it with alternative light sources in hopes of