Mile High Murder
Pamela Kenney
Copyright © Pamela Kenney, 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
Artwork credit: Pamela Kenney 2019
Table of Contents
Mile High Murder
Preview of “Victim in Victoria”
More Books by Pamela Kenney
Mile High Murder
There was only one way to describe how I felt when I opened the door and saw a dead body inside the airplane bathroom. I was pissed off.
Retired from the Toronto police department for a measly 48 hours and I’d already found a dead body? My coworkers had teased me this would happen.
“You’ll be a regular Miss Marple,” Judy had said, laughing, at the retirement party, where she’d gifted me with a clown sized magnifying glass.
“No town will be safe from you, Meg Spencer,” Ron had added, handing over a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs.
I’d smiled and nodded, saying through gritted teeth, “No effing way. I’m through with murder and mayhem.”
“Effing?” Ron had peered at me over his bifocals.
“Yeah, I gotta clean up my act. No more swearing. People don’t swear in Victoria. Lots of things don’t happen in Victoria. Like murder, for example.”
“You figure?” he’d snorted.
“I hope,” I’d muttered.
And yet here it was happening already and I hadn’t even reached Victoria. I’d barely even left Toronto airspace, for crying out loud. Yeah, maybe that was the problem, I was still vaguely in the Toronto area. That’s the reason this was happening to me.
I was cursed. All I’d wanted was to retire early while I was still healthy and relatively young so I could finally enjoy my life. No more close calls. No more dodging bullets. A crime-free life with only fun from now on. Kayaking. Mountain biking. Travelling. Hell, maybe I could even find someone special to spend my life with. No one ever wanted to share their life with a cop. But now I’d retired, everything would change. I could see great things in my future.
Not quite yet, of course. Now, all I could see was another dead body. My instincts from thirty years on the job kicked in as I recognized the dead man as the big wig who’d been sitting across the aisle from me in first class.
In the short time we’d been in the air, it became clear that I was the only one in first class who wasn’t a top executive at Threncorp, the biggest fortune 500 company in existence. Just by overhearing their conversations since getting on board, I’d figured out they were all on route to meet a major potential client on the west coast. Must be a really big name to have the top four executives of Threncorp flying out in person. Unfortunately the meeting had hit a snag since I was presently looking at the head honcho himself, Robert Thren, deader than a doornail.
Looking a lot less vigorous now, he’d been making the news for a while as the miracle man, the CEO who could turn any company into a money making proposition. He had the Midas touch, the papers said.
Not anymore, I thought, assessing the choked look on his blood infused face while his red hands clawed at his throat, his moment of death frozen in time. Everything suggested poison.
And it must have been fairly fast acting too because I remembered the CEO getting up from his seat only a short time ago and walking down the aisle, chatting up all the other employees as he walked along, with one of those arrogant, booming voices that most top executives like to cultivate.
Before he stood up, he’d been having an argument with the pretty, bespectacled brunette sitting next to him. I replayed the scene in my mind.
“We have to talk about this, Bob. I’ve gone over the numbers again and again. I know that I’m right. This is a large enough sum that it can’t be swept under the rug,” the brunette said. “There will be legal ramifications.”
“All right, Janet.” Robert Thren stood abruptly. He threw his sheaf of papers down on his empty seat. “Let’s talk about this when we land.”
His fixed smile was quick to fade as he turned his back on her but when he saw I was looking at them both, his used car salesman smirk returned and he rolled his eyes saying, “Work, am I right?”
I nodded then watched with interest as he walked away down the aisle, talking to everyone as he went along.
His first stop was the stunning blonde in the seat directly behind his.
“Honey, is everything all right? You seem upset,” she said, wrapping her manicured hands around his, like a loving wife would do. But her gesture of kindness seemed to surprise the CEO and he pulled his hands away with a jerk. He patted her patronizingly on the shoulder then continued down the aisle.
Two steps further along, a fresh faced young man with large glasses sprang out of his seat and stopped the CEO in his tracks.
“Thank you again, sir, for bringing me along to this meet and greet, Mr. Thren. It’s such an honour and I won’t let you down again, sir.” He blushed, tentatively putting out his hand for the big man to shake or ignore as he saw fit.
“You’re welcome, Aaron. You better make me proud or you’ll be walking all the way back to Toronto.” The CEO laughed at his own joke, although it seemed like perhaps he really meant it. His words were harsh but the CEO still shook the young man’s hand.
Aaron laughed nervously at the mixed messages and quickly dropped back into his seat.
After that the boss almost made it to the bathroom before he was interrupted one last time by a no-nonsense looking woman in a navy suit. They were too far away for me to hear what was being said but just by observing their body language, I could tell it wasn’t a happy conversation. The woman stuck an index finger in the CEO’s face in an accusatory fashion at which point the boss looked around quickly to see if anyone else noticed. Then he put up a hand to stop the flow of angry words coming from her mouth, which made the woman grab his hand and glare at him imploringly. He pushed her slightly out of the way before going into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
The same bathroom I was looking at now. One dead boss and so many suspects, all in a small first class section. Why me?
I was damned if this was going to derail the start of my retirement. I’d finally got away from Toronto. I wasn’t going back. In a situation like this, there were three options. One, turn the plane around and go back to Toronto. Two, land the plane at the nearest airport, which would probably be in some frozen hellhole like Regina, where we’d have to stay for weeks and weeks until the case was solved. Or, three, I could solve it myself. None of those scenarios appealed to me. But the least objectionable was the last one.
While I was standing there, gazing into space, my thoughts were interrupted by a sharp intake of breath right behind me.
Having been at countless murder scenes I was familiar with that noise and knew it would be followed almost immediately by a very loud scream. I whirled around and slapped my hand over the flight attendant’s mouth.
He stared at the corpse, bug eyed, his ginger buzz cut quivering like a tuning fork as his entire body quaked. After a short time and much blinking, his gaze finally left the body and looked at me but I wasn’t taking any chances. I kept my hand firmly over his mouth.
“My name is Meg Spencer. I’m a homicide detective from Toronto. Whatever you do, don’t scream. We don’t want to start a panic,” I said.
He nodded, but I continued to hold my hand over his mouth. I can tell a screamer when I see one.
He nodded.
“When you tell the pilot, will he land the plane?”
He nodded.
“Are we somewhere over Regina?”
The flight attendant lifted his arm over the top of my hand and looked at his watch, then nodded.
“What is the temperature in Regina today?”
The flight attendant held up four fingers on one hand. I shuddered.
“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to take my hand away,” I said. “Then you’re going to calmly radio the pilot and ask him to come out for a talk.”
As I took my hand away, I could see that his name tag read “Clyde” so I patted him on the shoulder and made reassuring noises.
“Everything’s going to be all right, Clyde.”
He nodded, but I could see his hand shake as he lifted up the intercom to talk to the pilot.
I knew dealing with the pilot wouldn’t be a thrill. And he pretty much reacted like I thought he would. Hugely offended that someone would disrupt his flight and cause him an inconvenience.
He couldn’t be persuaded to continue on to Victoria, and he didn’t have enough fuel to return to Toronto, but the thought of freezing his butt off in Regina made him see sense about my trying to solve the case.
“You have half an hour,” he said, looking at me sternly. “Then I have to start the descent into Regina. For god’s sake, do something to sort it out by then, or we’ll be stuck there forever.”
I shivered and said, “I’ll try my best.”
After instructing Clyde to stand guard in front of the curtain and not let anyone past to get near the bathroom, the pilot sent us both back to first class. Clyde took up his post with his sternest look on his face and arms crossed over his chest, while I continued down the aisle.
I was happy to see the whole Threncorp crew gathered together at the far end of the cabin, talking in hushed tones, clearly relieved to be airing their problems with each other before the boss returned.
I slowed my pace and listened in as I walked closer to the group.
“This presentation has GOT to work,” said the woman in the navy suit.
“That’s for sure,” muttered the brunette who’d been seated next to the CEO.
“What does that mean, Janet?” the woman in blue snapped.
“N-Nothing, Sheryl. Sorry, Sheryl,” Janet said, withering under the older woman’s fury.
“Everything will be all right, Sheryl. Don’t worry,” the young guy with the glasses said, looking up at Sheryl with puppy dog eyes overflowing with love and admiration. Or was he just sucking up?
Sheryl forced a smile at the younger man then said, “That’s good to hear, Aaron. So everything’s all set for the presentation? There won’t be any issues with the computer like there was last time?”
Aaron turned beet red and stammered, “That was just a simple mistake.”
“So it won’t happen again?”
“No.”
Janet smiled at Aaron, trying to reassure him, but he was too lost in his misery to notice.
The only person not contributing to the conversation was the stunning blonde, who concentrated on filing her nails, content to listen in to what everyone else was saying. Although whenever Sheryl opened her mouth, a look of distaste often passed across the blonde’s face.
At which point, the group became aware of my presence. Some jumped almost out of their skins while others put their hands to their chests as if they were in the throes of a heart attack.
“Oh my goodness.” Janet clutched her pearls. “I thought you were Bob. Robert Thren, my boss.”
“Your boss scares you that much?” I asked the group in general, as they all looked in various stages of distress.
Nervous laughter rang out as some smiled at that comment while others stared into space and nodded a little.
“No, not at all,” Sheryl said, smiling her professional smile. “We’re just on a big business trip. We all work for Threncorp. Well, except for Cindy. She’s Bob’s wife.”
Sheryl indicated the blonde still seated in her chair, who managed a very icy smile in Sheryl’s direction, barely acknowledging my presence.
“I wondered what the occasion was,” I said. “I seemed to be the only one in first class who wasn’t part of the company. What is the business trip all about anyway?”
“We’re doing a presentation for … ,” Aaron started to say until a sharp glance from Sheryl cut him off quickly.
“That information is on a need to know basis.” Sheryl smiled her dead eyed smile at me. “You understand, of course?”
“Of course,” I said. “No problem.”
I smiled and watched the crowd disperse back to their seats then walked with the pretty brunette named Janet back toward ours.
“Everyone seems kind of tense. Is everything all right?” I asked.
Janet looked around nervously to see if anyone could overhear her, then said, “Yes, this is such a big contract, coming just at the right time. If we don’t get this, I don’t know what we’ll … ,” she petered out before finishing her thought.
“Is it as bad as all that?”
“No. No, everything is fine. Just fine,” Janet said, a forced smile spreading across her face when she realized that Sheryl was approaching fast down the aisle.
“Janet, we were going to talk numbers, weren’t we?” Sheryl asked, joining the two of us.
“Yes.” Janet nodded at Sheryl then turned to me. “Sheryl is the vice president.”
Turning an icy glare toward me, Sheryl nodded hello then turned her back on me, blocking my view of everything. So, I took my seat and concentrated on eavesdropping instead.
“As I was telling Bob, we need to sit down and go over the numbers in the overhead budget,” Janet said.
“Okay, stop. Let’s table that until we get back to Toronto,” Sheryl interrupted then barged ahead with another topic. “We need to talk about what kind of a deal we can offer this client in order to get his business.”
“Well, we have a couple of strategies we can try.”
“Let’s look at the figures.”
As soon as the first line item was tabled, I abandoned my seat and went in search of Aaron. He was a weak link if I ever saw one.
His seat was empty. I couldn’t see him anywhere else in first class and Clyde was still guarding the curtain to prevent anyone going that way. So, I walked back towards the curtain that led to coach.
Before I could reach it, however, I heard some voices talking in hushed tones on the other side of the drapery.
“Don’t worry, darling. We’ll be together soon. Nothing can stop us anymore.”
“What do you mean? What’s changed?”
“Everything’s changed, darling. We can have it all. I think we should just stay in Victoria and start a new life together. What do you think?”
“Oh sweetie, you know what I think.”
Pushing the curtain aside, I startled Aaron who was in the process of kissing Cindy, the CEO’s wife. Pulling the curtain back into place behind me, I waited for the two to get over their shock of being discovered.
“OMG I thought you were Bob,” Cindy said, her hand clapped over her heart with surprise.
“I wish it was Bob,” Aaron sneered. “I hate all this sneaking around.”
“Aaron, I can’t do that to Bob,” Cindy protested.
“Cindy, he’s screwing around on you with Sheryl. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“He swears he’ll stop.”
“How long has this been going on?” I asked, waving a finger from Aaron to Cindy and back again.
“It isn’t what you think.” Aaron looked at me with defiance. “I love Cindy. I’ve loved Cindy forever. She used to work at the company as Bob’s assistant until they got married three years ago.”
Aaron lifted up Cindy’s hand and they both
stared sadly at the large diamond ring.
“He could provide a better life for her. More than I could,” Aaron said, as the two of them gazed into each other’s eyes. “But when I found out he was screwing around on her, I couldn’t take it anymore. Cindy doesn’t deserve that. She deserves to be happy.”
“And you’re just the man to do it, are you?” I asked with more sarcasm than usual, needling him. I was running out of time.
“Yes, I am, dammit.” he glared at me with fury, the anger burning in his eyes. I’d found his sore point.
“C’mon, what can YOU possibly offer her? I mean he’s Robert Thren. No man can top that. Especially not you.” I looked him up and down like he was nothing.
“You don’t know anything about it,” he said, anger flaring up in his eyes as he stepped towards me, only being restrained by Cindy’s hand on his arm.
He had rage all right. Possibly even murderous rage. Just a few more well phrased questions and he was going to confess. I’d seen more than one criminal confess in the throes of a rage fuelled rant and I figured this was going to be another one of those times.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. We’re making an unscheduled stop in Regina,” the pilot’s disembodied voice said mechanically over the intercom.
Crap! Of all the shitty timing in all the shitty world. Why the hell did he have to pick that moment to make the announcement? I’m going to give that pilot a piece of my mind, I thought, as I watched Aaron’s rage turn into confusion. He put a protective arm around Cindy, escorting her back toward the forward cabin.
Back in first class, everyone had perplexed looks on their faces, trying to understand why the plane was landing. But Sheryl was beyond perplexed. She’d moved on to livid.
“What the hell is going on?” Sheryl demanded, charging at Clyde who was still guarding the curtain with all his might. He looked like he was prepared to deck her with as much force as his delicate freckled hands could muster, if the situation called for it.
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