An Absence of Light

“Who is it?” a man said from inside, his voice approaching.

“It’s for Eddie… Jay Deer-den?” she said, emphasizing again the apparent peculiarity of the name to her.

Like her, the man was suddenly in front of them, frowning into the light of the porch, standing partially behind the girl and wearing only a pair of jogging shorts with the word “Athletic” on the front of the right leg.

Neuman immediately recognized him.

This was the best they could hope for.

“Hey, Rick,” Neuman said in a long-time-no-see tone of voice, using his name so Graver would know they were talking to Richard Ledet. Then he jerked open the screen door.

Ledet hit the girl in the small of her back with both open hands, popping her head back and shoving her into Neuman who just as violently flung her aside as he lunged at Ledet. But the pilot’s bare feet had better traction on the wood floor, and he was three steps ahead of Neuman on a straight course through the kitchen toward the back porch to the bay. Luckily the screen door that led out of the kitchen to the porch was latched, and when Ledet hit it with his arms outstretched to shove it open ahead of him, his arms went through the screen. The cross brace of wood midway down the door caught him in the stomach, and the momentum of his weight took him crashing through it, but slowed him enough for Neuman to tackle him. The two men hit the floor of the porch with a whump and loud grunts.

Graver was on top of Ledet almost as soon as he hit the floor, jamming the muzzle of his Sig-Sauer against Ledet’s temple so that the pain of it alone would keep him there even without the threat of what it could do to him if Graver pulled the trigger.

Ledet froze.

Neuman was up instantly, running back into the main room where he found the girl just getting up off the floor. She started to scream, and he clamped his hand over her mouth.

Suddenly everything stopped.

“Anybody else here?” Graver snapped at Ledet.

The pilot hesitated and then said, “No.”

Graver shoved the muzzle of the Sig-Sauer tighter against Ledet’s temple.

“Swear to God,” Ledet said.

“Put your hands behind your back.” Graver kept his knee in the small of Ledet’s bare back and cuffed his hands. Then he got up. “Okay, get up,” he said, but he didn’t help the pilot who took a moment to get to his knees, an awkward maneuver with his hands bound behind his back. When he was up, they walked back into the main room.

“If you scream when I take my hand down, I’ll knock you out,” Neuman told the girl. She nodded, and he cuffed her hands behind her as well and sat her on the sofa.

“He says there’s no one else here,” Graver said.

There was a sturdy rattan table and matching chairs to one side of the main room. A deck of cards was sitting on the table with a couple of empty beer bottles. Graver pulled out one of the chairs, turned it around, and told Ledet to sit down. Using another pair of handcuffs, Graver fastened one of Ledet’s ankles to the leg of the rattan table. It would at least keep him from bolting.

“Watch them,” he said, and walked through the house, three bedrooms, three baths, kitchen, dining room, wide hallways, all the windows opened to the bay breeze. When he got back to the main room everyone was in the same position as he had left them.

Graver pulled out another chair from the table where Ledet was sitting and sat down a few feet from him. The pilot was about Graver’s height, well built, no fat, and good muscle definition. He had black hair, a couple of days’ growth of beard, a straight narrow nose, and a suntan over an already swarthy complexion. He wore a very neat but full mustache. Graver studied him a minute. Ledet looked at him unflinchingly, but without belligerence. He was trying to figure it out.

“Where’s Eddie?” Graver asked.

“What’s the deal here?” Ledet ventured. “Who are you guys?”

“The deal is we want to talk to Eddie,” Graver said. He crossed his legs and crossed his forearms in his lap as he leaned forward slightly, the Sig-Sauer still in his hand.

“He’s on a trip.”

“Where?”

“Mexico, a charter job.”

“What’s he flying?”

“His little twin Beech.”

“You know that for sure.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Well, we drove by the hangar,” Graver said. “The Beechcraft’s still there.”

Ledet swallowed. “Well, that’s what he told me he was taking.”

“Did he tell you where he was going?”

“You mean where in Mexico? No, just a charter he said.”

“When will he get back?”

Ledet swallowed again. “He was supposed to be back today.”

“Supposed to be?”

“Yeah. I haven’t heard from him.”

“We checked with the Gulf Airport office. The Beechcraft hasn’t been flown in three days.”

Ledet shrugged quizzically.

Graver looked at the girl. “Is this his girl you were in bed with?”

Ledet frowned. “Eddie’s? Hell no.”

“Who is she?” Graver asked, as if the girl weren’t there.

“What, you mean her name?”

“That would be good to know, yeah.”

“Alice.”

“Just Alice?”

Ledet cut his eyes at her. “Uh… Alice…”

“Gifford,” the girl said.

“Oh, yeah,” Ledet said, remembering. “We just met last night… I didn’t remember…”