e Shenandoah Valley changing as the farmers crossed and recrossed their perfect rows.

sed himself (and his insurance company) that he would not fly at night and would not venture into clouds. Ninety-five percent of all small plane crashes happened either in weather or in darkness,

no haze to dim the horizon and get him lost, no threat of storms or moisture. Clear skies during his jog usually determined the rest of his day. He could mo

ed the place and had trained most of the private aviators in the area. They held court each day in the Cockpit, a row of old theater chairs in the front office of the flight school, and from there they drank coffee

awyer jokes, none of which were particularly fu

e any students," Ray sai

going?" dem

g a few holes

t air traff

ch too bus

na that would take him a mile above the earth, away from people, phones, traffic, students, research, and, on

rented Cessna was a Beech Bonanza, a single-engine, two-hundred-horsepower beauty that Ray could handle in a month with a little training. It flew almost seventy knots faster than the Cessna, with enough gadgets and avionics to

ew pilots, he carefully inspected his plane with a checklist. Fog Newton, his instructor, had begun ea

smoothly, the radios sparked to life. He finished a pre-takeoff list and called the tower. A commuter flight was ahead of him, and t

ver the farmlands, the air became still and quiet. Visibility was officially twenty miles, though at this altitude he could see much farther. No ceiling, not a cloud anywhere. At five thousand feet, the

l he switched to the Roanoke tower, forty miles to the south.

hobby, and quickly. He was seeing the fellow because he had to see someone. Exactly a month after the former Mrs. Atlee filed for divorce, quit her job, and walked out of their townhouse with only her clothes and jewelry, all done w

ears now he had crossed the clear, solitary skies of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley, soothing his ange

thers leave with such boldness they never look back. Vicki's departure from his life was so well planne

d it was a van with her things. Twenty minutes later, she walked into her new place, a mansion on a horse farm east of town where Lew the Liquidator was waiting with open arms and a prenuptial agreement. Lew was a corporat

r pregnant with the children Ray was supposed to father, and now with a troph

He talked loudly at five thous

d. After twenty years of rehab and relapse, it was doubtful if his brother would ever overcome his addictions. And Ray was certain that Forr

excommunicated Forrest from their father-son relationship. For thirty-two years he had terminated marriages, taken children away from parents, given children to foster homes, sent mentally ill people away forever, ordered delinquent fathers to jail

l a son, it was Chan

n in nine years. He had visited the Judge once in the hospital, after a heart attack when the doctors rounded up the family. Surprisingly, he'd been s

n more surprised than Forrest. But with the chance that money or assets were a

g. If he won the lottery, he would buy the Bonanza and fly everywhere. He was due a sabbatical in a couple of years, a respite from the rigors of academic life. He'd be expected

l approach, with the runway a mile away and fifteen hundred feet down, and Ray and his lit-de Cessna gliding at a perfect descent, another pilot came on the radio. He chec

long enough to make a textbook landing, then tur

ll fly from New York to Paris, nonstop, in splendid style, with its own flight attendant serving drinks and mea

d. Ray watched it land behind him, and for a second he hoped it would crash and burn right there on the runway, so he could

ow, not with him in a twenty-year-old Cessna while she bounded down the stairway of her gold-plat

as the Challenger moved closer to him he began

arrived in Charlottesville. Two young men in matching green shirts and khaki shorts jumped out, ready to receive the Liquidator and whoever else might be on board. The Challenger's door o

nd probably didn't care what they were called. They were boys, Ray knew that much for sure because he'd watched the vitals in the local paper - births, deaths, burglaries, etc. They were born at Martha Jefferson Hospital seven w

gs that had become noticeably thinner since she had joined the jet set. In fact, Vicki appeared to be superbly starved - bone-thin arms, small flat ass, gau

o little of what he said in print turned out to be true. He was stocky, with a thick belly. Half his hair was gone and the other half was gray

oaded and reloaded luggage and large bags from Saks and Bergdorf. Just a quic

the show was over, and

, he would have sat there a lo

ts, no change in temperature. She'd

realized his collar was wet with sweat. He

mory, he wished he'd sta