The Beginning (Whispering Pines Book 1) Read online

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  The 28-foot charter fishing boat, “Barber Ann” was sailing north at 16 knots when the skipper first heard the sounds of an approaching aircraft. The sounds were odd, low and deep, which could only mean the bird, was skimming the wave tops. In moments, it appeared as a looming black bird on the horizon and grew quickly into a huge aircraft moving at a dangerously high speed for such lack of altitude.

  The thunder of the four turboprop engines shook his small boat when the plane swished past forward of their position. The second mate cried aloud, “God all mighty. I could have reached out and touched the wings of that thing. Why are they flying like that?”

  The skipper picked up the marine radio mike, turned to his second in command and said, “Drug runners. No other reason for all that dangerous flying.”

  The mate nodded and watched the aircraft grow smaller as it moved away into the western sky. At the last possible moment, he saw something drop away from the rear of the plane and then fall to the water below. “Did you see that, Skipper?”

  “I saw it.” Into the radio mike he said, “New Orleans Coast Guard Radio? This is 9-4-4-6. Do you copy over?”

  A scratchy voice spilled back over the boat’s speaker and replied, “Roger 9446. We copy you solid S5. What can we do for you?”