Page 107 of Final Approach
She looked at the park across the street. The one her dad used totake her, Emily, and Ethan to when they were little. When he and her mom got along and loved each other. When they’d laughed and planned and looked at one another with love instead of the sadness and disappointment she’d come to recognize in her mother’s eyes. The anger and ... madness? ... in her father’s.
Years in the past that seemed like yesterday. The park was empty today thanks to the cold and the gray clouds that threatened rain, but those sunny spring days were forever etched in her memory as some of her favorite times. She should tell Andrew to come, be here. But she couldn’t tell anyone her suspicions, because there was that small percentage she might be wrong.
She opened the car door, then shut it. Then grabbed the files from the passenger seat, opened the door again, and stepped out. She had to do this.Oh please,God,tell meI’m doing the right thing. Give me the rightwords. Don’t let me say something I’ll regret.
With that prayer whispering from her lips on repeat, she walked through the two-car garage, past her father’s pickup truck and his car, up to the back door of her childhood home, and twisted the knob to step inside the kitchen. She inhaled. Sometimes she imagined she could still smell her mom and the light flowery perfume she used to wear.
This was dumb. She turned to leave and her shoes squeaked on the floor.
“Who’s there?” her father called from down the hall.
Too late to change her mind now. “It’s just me, Dad.”
She hesitated, then pulled her phone from her pocket.
“Krissy? I’m in my office.”
“Coming.”
She sent a text to Andrew.
If what I suspect is true, it might be better if you’re here.
What do you suspect?
That my dad was behind both hijackings.
She waited.
I’m on the way. Don’t do anything until I get there.
Don’t call anyone or tell anyone. Not yet. I could be wrong.
K, it’s too dangerous if you’re right. It’s not safe to confront him.
It’s too late. He knows I’m here.
“Krissy? What are you waiting on?”
From the tone of his voice, he hadn’t discovered she’d taken the boxes from the attic. She walked through the kitchen to the back of the house where his office was and found him sitting at his big oak desk, laptop open, camera next to him. He looked up. “What are you doing here?”
Kristine swallowed. “It was you, wasn’t it?”Please look like you don’t know what I’masking.
He stilled and his face lost all expression. “What are you talking about?”
He knew.
“I said some things to Mom before her last flight, which makes me hesitant to ask what I feel like I need to ask.”
“Quit talking in riddles. Spit it out.”
“Fine. You paid someone to hijack Mom’s plane, didn’t you? You paid Marcus Brown to hijack mine but bought off Erik Leary to make sure the plane didn’t actually crash, because in some weird way, you do love me and don’t really want to see me dead, you just want to control me. It was you.” She tossed the files on his desk. “You came across these men in your cases. Tabitha Brown thought her husband was cheating because of all of his doctor appointments that he was hiding from her. Erik Leary’s boss was considering promoting him,but someone he worked with reported the man had a gambling problem and you proved he did, then paid him to make suremyplanedidn’tcrash. If it looked like it was going to, he was to rush in and save the day. Be a hero. That’s what you put in your notes. And Mom’s plane. You hired her hijacker to throw a scare into her, but one of the flight attendants panicked when he held a makeshift knife to her throat and she punched in the code to the cockpit. That’s the story all of the text messages and phone calls from the passengers managed to put together. No one knows what happened after that because they never found the black box.”
He simply watched her.
“Well?” She threw her hands in the air. “Don’t just sit there. Tell me I’m wrong. Deny it and explain all this away. Please,” she whispered. “Tell me I’ve got it all wrong.”
“But you don’t,” he said. “I’m actually impressed you figured it all out.”
