Legends Can Be Murder

Legends
Can Be Murder

Charlie
Parker Mystery #15

by
Connie Shelton

Chapter
1

It makes no sense to finish a
journey from New Mexico to Alaska by driving south, but that’s the way it is.
Or at least the way it happened for me as I reached the outskirts of Skagway,
scanning the unfamiliar scene—seaport, mountains, ocean vessels—looking for a
heliport where my husband should be awaiting my arrival. There it was, a flat
stretch of tarmac with a half-dozen helicopters sitting like inactive insects
resting on bright yellow H’s on the ground. I pulled over near them, spotting
our JetRanger’s familiar blue and white paint scheme among the others, and
looked at the pickup truck’s trip odometer before shutting off the engine.
Three thousand and ten miles from home. It felt so good to get out of that
vehicle.

The dog apparently agreed. Freckles
hopped to the ground and ran circles around me. Drake had been sitting around
the FBO awhile; I saw him walking toward me across the airstrip from the tiny
fixed base operator’s office with a shorter male figure beside him. We’d made
the journey more or less together, switching off between who drove and who flew
every couple of days. I will make note here that he cheated near the end, by
cutting off the final big loop into the Yukon and flying straight west from
Morley Lake while I drove the paved two-lane the rest of the way.

Alone with his aircraft he
could have done the journey cross-country in half the time, I felt sure, but
we’d plotted a course that would take us through towns where he could get jet
fuel and I could count on a comfy hotel bed each night. We managed it in eight
semi-grueling days, although I certainly couldn’t whine about the spectacular
scenery. You really can’t believe this place until you’ve seen it.

“Hey, babe,â€