Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

have Ed’s full attention as they headed out to the plane. He circled in behind the boat and found what he was looking for. An airplane gangplank had been rolled up beside it to allow access to its deck. Danny put one foot on the first step but then heard Sydney’s voice echo across the hangar.
    “Luke? Luke? Où vous sont ?”
    Ed was no doubt concerned about Danny’s whereabouts. Danny stepped around the side of the boat. He saw Sydney and Ed standing at the edge of the hangar’s immense mouth. He turned around and framed a picture with his outstretched hands, backing away as he did so.
    “Où vous étaient?” Sydney asked him.
    Danny could only assume that she asked where he was. Under pressure, he only remembered a few of the words that Sydney had taught him in the parking lot.
    “ Bateau papiers l’avion l’autorisation ,” Danny replied.
    Sydney turned to Ed, who had no clue what Danny said. “He said he was lost in a thought.” She rolled her eyes. “Artists.”
    Ed chuckled. “Let me show you our new baby.”
    By this time, Sydney was laying it on thick. She clung onto Ed’s arm as they strolled out past the hanger and pretended to hang onto his every word.
    Ed unfurled his arms in front of the plane. “This is the Boeing 747-400 Freighter. We just purchased five of them to help move larger freight orders.” He pointed back at the Monitor . “When we successfully put that boat in this plane and then ship it up to President Butcher himself, we will show our customers we’re ready for those orders.”
    Ed led Sydney over to the plane’s mouth. They walked up the ramp, and he flipped a switch on the plane’s interior wall. Light erupted throughout the fuselage. Danny stood at the bottom of the ramp and his jaw dropped. He wasn’t pretending. He meandered up the ramp as his eyes adjusted to the grand canyon in front of him.
    “The 747-400 can hold up to 135 tons of cargo. Its wide-mouth design allows for several different schematics when loading her.” Ed turned to Sydney. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Do you know the word ‘schematics’?”
    Danny laughed to himself. If poor Ed only knew the extent of Sydney Dumas’s knowledge.
    “It is like design or map, no?”
    “You got it.”
    Just then, Ed’s cell phone chirped.
    “Ed? You there?” a gnarled voice shot through the speaker just as Ed pulled it off his belt.
    Though he didn’t show it, panic jolted Danny as he imagined the worst-case scenario. We’re busted. His eyes raced around, as he tried to visualize their best escape route.
    Ed clicked the button on the side of his phone. “Yeah. Go ahead.”
    “One of the guys assembling the grandstands has a question, and I can’t answer it.”
    “Okay, so put him on.”
    “Actually, he backed his truck into one of the support beams and bent the sucker. You need to come see it to figure out how we can fix it real quick.”
    Ed sighed and looked at Sydney. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” She nodded politely. Ed clicked his phone. “Okay, Phil. I’ll be there in a minute.” He clipped the phone back on his belt. “Well, there goes the rest of my tour.”
    “That’s okay. I think you showed us enough for some good background to my story.” Sydney turned to Danny. “Luke, vous faire a assez pour vos coups ?”
    Danny nodded to her and framed a few shots of the plane with his hands. Sydney turned back to Ed. She shook his hand and kissed both of his cheeks.
    “Thank you for your time. If it’s okay, I’d like to stay here for a few minutes and go over some things with Luke about getting some appropriate shots of the plane.”
    A gorgeous woman was asking the bloated working stiff for a favor. There was nothing Ed could do but say yes.
    As soon as Ed was out of earshot, Sydney turned to Danny.
    “How did I do?” she asked him.
    “If they ever give an Oscar for fugitives, you’d win hands down.”
    Sydney squeezed Danny’s arm and kissed him on the cheek.
    “By the way,” Danny continued, “back in the hangar, when I answered you in French. What did I say?”
    “You said, ‘I want your body.’”
    Danny felt his cheeks flush. “I did? I’m sorry. I didn’t …”
    Sydney chuckled and squeezed his arm again. “You said ‘boat, papers, plane, authorization.’”
    “Having a little fun at my expense again, are we?”
    Sydney flashed the type of wicked grin that had been turning men into putty since the dawn of time. “Just because the fate of the