“I told you to quit calling me!” Hooter snapped over the line before Andy had a chance to say a word.
“I haven’t called you recently, ” Andy replied. “Let me guess, you think this is Trooper Macovich. ”
“Well, you don’t sound like him, ” Hooter said, calming down.
“This is Trooper Truth, ” Andy boldly said.
“Naw… You pulling my leg, ” Hooter replied with suspicion. She didn’t recognize Andy’s voice because
most white folk sounded the same to her. “Ain’t no way Trooper Truth be calling me. ”
“Well, I am, ” Andy said with confidence. “And the reason is because I need your help. It has come to my attention that you had drinks with Macovich at Freckles the other night. ”
“Yeah. That was the night from hell, I tell you. ”
“Did he take the check?”
“I didn’t see no check, ” Hooter replied. ” ‘Cause I left to get me some air in the alleyway, then this crazy man started trying to shoot his privates off… ”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, ” Andy politely interrupted her. “But I’m wondering if you ever saw Macovich pull out his wallet?”
“Uh huh. He paid for each round, ’cause we was the only Afric-Americans in there, and I’m assuming they didn’t trust us enough to start a tab. ”
“I sincerely doubt that was the case, ” Andy reassured her. “The people in Freckles aren’t like that, and it’s easy to assume the worst if you’ve ever been treated unfairly. Maybe Macovich didn’t ask for them to run a tab because he likes to flash his money, especially if he was trying to impress you. ”
There was a pause on the line as Hooter pondered this.
“Well, ” she finally conceded, “I guess you must be right, ’cause he sure was flashing his money, which I didn’t like a bit ’cause money’s just full of germs and he knew how I felt about it and then kept trying to grab at my legs under the table when we was drinking in the booth. But now that I think of it, I don’t remember his asking for a tab, so maybe you right and I was jumping to ‘clusions. You know; I got people at the tollbooth who never say ‘Thank you’ or ‘Have a nice day, ‘ even after I say it first. And I just always assumed it’s ’cause of my non-white status. ”
“Many people are simply rude and consumed with themselves, ” Andy pointed out.
“Yeah, I guess that’s so, ” Hooter said. She had softened considerably and seemed wide awake now. “But he did have money he was flashing around, ” she added, returning to the subject of Macovich. “Now you gotta understand there was a lot of smoke in there, but he was flashing away and I caught a lot of twenties and at one point, what I could swear was a hundred-dollar bill, which I never seen in the Exact Change lane and ain’t never had in my entire life. ”
So Macovich was giving Cat helicopter lessons and possibly being paid a hundred dollars in cash for each one. Macovich was probably doing this at night or off hours when he knew no one else would be at the state police hangar. Andy walked into the kitchen to check the time. It was a little past 1: 00 A. M. He dressed in civilian clothes, took his gun and portable radio, and went out to his car.
It was just as he’d suspected when he arrived at the airport. The Bell 430 was not inside the hangar, and there were what appeared to be fresh Salem Light cigarette butts all over the tarmac, even near the fuel truck. Andy switched his radio over to the state police aviation frequency.
“Four-three-zero-Sierra-Papa, ” Andy said over the air.
Macovich was startled and unnerved when Andy’s voice tilled his headset, as Cat, dressed in NASCAR colors, tried to fly the helicopter level and steady in a pattern around the nearby Chesterfield airport.
“Thirty-Sierra-Papa, ” Macovich replied, trying to sound innocent and busy.
“Who’s calling us?” Cat demanded to know.
“Stand by, ” Macovich transmitted to Andy. “It’s the tower, ” Macovich told Cat over the intercom because he didn’t want to make the same mistake of broadcasting what he was saying in private.