Cooper found himself with Rosedale in a small clearing, surrounded by trees. He could see the small pieces of wreckage from the plane scattered about the area.
‘How far do you reckon the debris is spread out?’
Rosedale yawned. ‘Not too far. The problem is getting to it. The main site will be over there. Across those trees. Most of what you see here is what I collected from nearer where the plane went down.’
‘Do you think the crash was suspicious?’
‘No, I doubt it. The larger parts of the wreckage which I managed to find, I’ve already examined them, and nothing leaps out to me. It’s in line with a low flying crash. See the trees over there? Well apparently the plane was first skimming the tops of them, then apparently minutes later the woman who saw it said she remembered it actually hitting the trees. Kind of bouncing off them, she said.’
Cooper squinted. ‘Which trees?’
‘Those ones there. Told me it damaged the tail. She said something broke off. Which is consistent with this debris. Then… see over there, near the foot of those mountains? That’s where she said it went down. The other thing she told me was the weather was bad. The fog gets pretty thick around here so I’m guessing our pilot wasn’t experienced in instrument-only flying. Because what other reason is there for flying so low other than to have better visibility? He couldn’t have been preparing to land, because there is nowhere. Only trees, rivers and mountains. He hadn’t run out of fuel, because the woman heard the engines. So it has to be a pilot error due to bad weather. That’s what my money’s on. But I guess we’ll never know that, nor who was actually piloting the plane.’
‘It’s strange to be flying that low, though, to hit the trees.’
‘Like I say, I reckon he came down because of the fog, but didn’t realize how low he was until it was too late, or maybe he was already out of control by then.’
Cooper gazed out at the sea of trees. Tried to picture the scene. ‘And you’re certain we can’t get over there to see it.’
‘Not a hope in hell. Dense forest and mountains, no chance. I did have a look around, but just past those banana trees, there’s a deep gorge. Impossible to go down, plus the further back the forest goes the more impenetrable it gets. It’d be crazy even to try. At least, though, we found it. Who bank-rolled the plane, we’ll probably never find out. Where Emmanuel is, who knows?’ Rosedale stopped and chuckled to himself. ‘Apart from all those unanswered questions, Thomas. Job done.’
Cooper gave Rosedale a quick glance, but decided not to say anything about it. Not yet, anyway. ‘We need to let Granger know, so he can inform the bank and deal with the paperwork, insurance, and all that admin stuff he loves to do.’
‘I let Maddie know already,’ said Rosedale, ‘but I left her to deal with Granger. But now he knows he’ll be wanting us to pull out. The plane was the main priority, not Emmanuel, so he’ll see it as there’s no reason for us to stay. And I second him on that.’
Cooper didn’t look at Rosedale. ‘I need a couple more days. Can you give me that?’
Rosedale pushed his cowboy hat off his forehead. Wiped the back of his neck with his hand. ‘Why?’
‘Don’t ask me. I just want you to trust me on this.’
‘I won’t ask you, but as for trusting you? Thomas, that’s a different ball game. But I’ll give you two days… tops.’
Grateful, but not quite knowing how to say it, Cooper walked over to the trees. Called over his shoulder. ‘Do you think there’s a chance Emmanuel was piloting?’
Rosedale answered adamantly. ‘No way. We obviously don’t know where he is but both Zola and his aunt gave the impression he was safe. Go figure. But, if that writing is definitely Emmanuel’s in the visitors’ book in the Lemon water plant, then factually we can rule him out as being the pilot. The woman who told me about the plane said she was certain of the date of the crash. Apparently it was Liberation Day here in the DRC, which is May 17th. And the date Emmanuel visited was May 22nd.’
‘And you don’t think she could’ve got it wrong.’
‘No, I don’t. Because apart from it being Liberation Day, it’s also a public holiday, and the woman spent part of the day with her family in Buziba. That’s why she remembers it so well.’
Cooper pointed to some of the smaller debris. ‘Is this what you collected?’
Rosedale, who was leaning against a tree and trying to get his cellphone to work, called back. ‘No, that’s from the tail of the plane.’
Continuing to inspect the ground, Cooper examined what seemed to be hundreds of tiny dead insects. ‘Hey Rosedale, you got a collecting pot on you by any chance?’
Rosedale tried to be funny. He missed by a long shot. ‘Oh, don’t tell me you haven’t got one of your bags on you? I feel the world is less of a safe place now.’
Cooper snapped in irritation. ‘Have you or not?’
And Rosedale pulled out his metal cigar tube. ‘This any good to you?’
‘Yeah, perfect.’ Cooper took it and scooped up a sample of the insects. ‘Okay, all done here. I’m ready to go.’
‘Great. Actually, Thomas, before we decide anything else, I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet. His name’s Father O’Malley. I think you’ll be very interested to speak to him.’