St Kilda Consulting 04 - Blue Smoke and Murder

planted in her satellite phone was showing the kind of positional changes that only being in the air could bring.
    Damn. Where is she getting the money to pay for all this?
    He drummed his fingers impatiently on the side of the keyboard. Where she got her money wasn’t his problem.
    Keeping up with her was.
    His fingers drummed while he waited for someone in the home office to get Breck’s new flight plan.
    When it finally came through, he cursed savagely. Then he put on his earphones and said, “We need to file a new flight plan.”
    “Where to?” The pilot’s voice managed to sound curt and bored at the same time.
    “Taos.”
    The pilot didn’t require a computer to give her client the happy news. “We have to land in Salt Lake to refuel, as per our flight plan.”
    “What about Snowbird?” Where the locater, and therefore Ms. Breck, spent some time.
    “No landing strip.”
    Figures. “Just get me to Taos the fastest way you can.”
    With a brutal motion Score yanked off the headphones and watched the blinking light of the locater slide away from him.
    It would be a distinct pleasure to get his hands on the bitch who was causing him all this trouble.

38
    CARSON CITY, NEVADA
SEPTEMBER 15
5:00 P.M.
    A s Tal Crawford stood to one side of the governor of Nevada, he approved of his wife’s unerring sense of style. Standing next to him, Caitlin was somehow relaxed and attentive at the same time, her eyes on the governor, seemingly unaware of the battery of cameras and microphones arrayed around the politician. Her hair was both sleek and casual, suggesting a woman completely at ease with herself. There was a gentle smile on her perfectly made-up mouth. The smile, like everything else about her from her stylish heels to her pastel jacket and matching skirt, was tasteful and camera-ready. Neither too fashionable nor too dated, simply classy.
    Best investment I ever made.
    The thought almost made Tal grin, but he kept his expression bland while he listened to the public theater that was so necessary to politics.
    And politics were damned necessary to wealth.
    “Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” Governor Rollins said, “it is my pleasure to announce that one of our own native sons, Mr. Talbert Crawford, will soon donate to the great state of Nevada themost valuable collection of Western landscape paintings ever made available to the public.”
    The group of cultural mavens standing behind the governor clapped enthusiastically.
    Tal tried to look like his new cowboy boots weren’t pinching him. But they were.
    Don’t know how Caitlin puts up with those fancy shoes she wears. I’d be crippled in five steps.
    “Now, I don’t know much about art,” the governor reassured the voters, “but I sure know what I like. And I really like the paintings of Thomas Dunstan, the single most important painter the West ever produced.”
    There was more applause.
    “This day is truly momentous in the cultural history of our state,” the governor continued.
    The people behind the governor nodded and smiled eagerly, like children at Christmas. The excitement they felt was real, not camera-ready.
    “With the donation of this magnificent collection, plus the Dunstans Tal plans to acquire at the upcoming Las Vegas auction, our fine state will possess fifteen of the major works of an artistic genius, clearly the most important man ever to paint our wild and beautiful state. That’s a dozen more than any public museum or private collection now owns!”
    Caitlin listened to the applause and prayed that everything would go as planned in Las Vegas.
    It will.
    It has to.
    But none of her anxiety showed in her body language. A lady in public was always calm, gracious, and modest.
    “With this collection,” the governor said, “our state now has aclaim on the cultural leadership of the West. The new state museum we’re building will be a magnet for culturally aware people from all over our great nation.”
    Caitlin joined in the spattering of applause from the people gathered on and around the steps of the capitol.
    Camera lights glared and flashed.
    The governor smiled and turned to Tal. “In the name of the people of the great state of Nevada, I want to thank you for your generosity.”
    Cameras and microphone shifted to Crawford.
    “My pleasure, Governor,” Tal drawled. “God has seen fit to bless me with the means to repay just a small part of what I owe to our great nation. In addition to Governor Rollins, I