Airboard – Mentioned throughout the In Death series, beginning in Naked in Death (as two words: “air board”).[1] May be similar to a skateboard that hovers above the ground, though few details are given on exact properties. It is an item that can be ridden by a user for fun, to do tricks, or as transportation.[2] Barry in Glory in Death,[3] Dingo in Portrait in Death,[4] Tiko Johnson in Memory in Death and Strangers in Death,[5] Michael Yardley in Reunion in Death[6], and Mitch Inez in Salvation in Death[7] each ride airboards in the series. Some airboards can be ridden tandem[8] and may have similar properties to the glide-board and the Flyer 6000 airskate – information unknown.[9]
May be similar to the image shown in this article (also shown here).
Before Purity in Death, Louis K. Cogburn’s “most violent act to date had been to kick a delinquent client off his airboard,” but the Purity virus that infected him caused him to kill his neighbor, Ralph Wooster, and injure Wooster’s cohab, Suzanne Cohen.[10]
when Eve and Feeney were discussing John Blue's hiking boots in Visions in Death, and the possibility of his shoplifting them (and therefore not leaving a trail), Eve said, “Not a snap to slip a pair of shoes the size of airboards out of a store.”[11]
In Memory in Death, Eve remembered that, at the age of nine, she had ridden the board owned by a boy across the street from Trudy Lombard. The boys did tricks on theirs – loops and wheelies and spins. One boy invited her to try it and, when she shot off, she thought it was the happiest, most liberating moment of her life at that time. He said she had balls and was a natural.[12]
In Kindred in Death, Marta Delroy remembered seeing Deena MacMasters and “David” hop on an airboard and take off together.[13]
In New York to Dallas, Eve borrowed one and went into the underground garage for the building where Isaac McQueen was living in Dallas from the front, riding it and dressed like a teenager, while Roarke borrowed Ben Clipper’s pickup truck to access it from the rear.[14]
in Celebrity in Death, McNab’s cube in EDD had been recently decorated with a poster of a monkey in a tutu riding an airboard with a PPC in one hand, a sandwich in the other while its earpiece flashed green. A smaller monkey rode in a pack on her back and it was titled “MULTITASKING MAMA.”[15]
Linh Carol Penbroke had a bad fall whilst airboarding in the park when she was eleven, breaking her arm just above the elbow; that was one of the things that helped identify her remains in Concealed in Death[16]
Jenkinson and Reineke caught a double homicide in Obsession in Death: a couple of teenagers were sliced up for the airboards they’d gotten for Christmas.[17] They were identified from the Transit feed on the subway stop where the kids got off: “Stupid fucks were riding the airboards.” One of the thieves/murderers was twelve: “Big for his age and mean as a rattler.” Eve said he wouldn’t flip - he liked being there, thought it made him a man and thought he’d cruise through juvie with a bad-ass rep.[18]
Nate Jarvits was airboarding with five friends in Times Square on his seventeenth birthday when the sniper attack began - he was the second kill. He was on an airboard in a small pack of kids on airboards and went flying, taking out a trio of pedestrians like bowling pins. Officer Kevin Russo saw him go down and blood bloom on the back of his bright blue jacket. Russo yelled for people to get down and take cover and went to cover the boy’s body to shield him from another attack, and was hit in the center of his forehead, a scant inch below the brim of his cap.[19]
Eve used the epithet “Jesus Christ on an airboard” in Golden in Death when Peabody was describing McNab’s reaction to her new hairdo, courtesy of Trina.[20]
In Encore in Death, Luce was filling in on the desk at the West End Hotel for her sister, Adele, whose son fell off his airboard and busted up his face so she had to take him to the ER.[21] He broke his nose, rattled his teeth, and scared the crap out of his mother.[22]
In Random in Death, Harve Greenbaum used the epithet “Jesus on an airboard Christ” in reference to the killing taking place at Club Rock It.[23] Later, Kiki Rosenburg was saved from death by the massive bruise she got whilst airboarding earlier that day.[24]
See also Street Sport and Go-Scoot. Other mentions of airboards in the series.[25]
References:
- ↑ Naked in Death, Chapter 6
- ↑ Ritual in Death (ISBN 978-0-425-22444-1), p. 36
- ↑ Glory in Death (ISBN 0-425-15098-4), p. 183
- ↑ Portrait in Death, Chapter 8
- ↑ Memory in Death (ISBN 0-425-21073-1), pp. 7-8; Strangers in Death (ISBN 978-0-399-15470-6), pp. 115-116, 118
- ↑ Reunion in Death (ISBN 0-425-18397-1), pp. 238-239, 244, 257
- ↑ Salvation in Death, Chapter 14
- ↑ Vengeance in Death, Chapter 12; Divided in Death, Chapter 20; Strangers in Death (ISBN 978-0-399-15470-6), p. 256
- ↑ Holiday in Death (ISBN 0-425-16371-7), p. 35
- ↑ Purity in Death, Prologue
- ↑ Visions in Death, Chapter 17
- ↑ Memory in Death (ISBN 0-425-21073-1), pp. 185-186
- ↑ Kindred in Death (ISBN 978-0-399-15595-6), pp. 130-131
- ↑ New York to Dallas, Chapter 16
- ↑ Celebrity in Death, Chapter 11
- ↑ Concealed in Death, Chapter 4
- ↑ Obsession in Death, Chapter 8
- ↑ Obsession in Death, Chapter 10
- ↑ Apprentice in Death, Chapter 6
- ↑ Golden in Death, Chapter 8
- ↑ Encore in Death, Chapter 15
- ↑ Encore in Death, Chapter 16
- ↑ Random in Death, Chapter 2
- ↑ Random in Death, Chapter 13
- ↑ Seduction in Death, Chapters 3 and 7; Reunion in Death, Chapter 7; Survivor in Death, Chapter 21; Origin in Death, Chapter 19; Strangers in Death, Chapter 8; Promises in Death (ISBN 978-0-399-15548-2), pp. 44, 228; Eternity in Death, Chapter 3; Ritual in Death, Chapter 5; Indulgence in Death, Chapter 15; Possession in Death, Chapter 8; Obsession in Death, Chapter 14; Connections in Death, Chapter 11; Shadows in Death, Chapter 10; Abandoned in Death, Chapter 9; Encore in Death, Chapter 13; Payback in Death, Chapter 9; Passions in Death, Chapter 9