Page 108 of Final Approach
For a moment, she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. He was so calm about it all. Too calm. So she would have to be as well. “I have questions.”
“Ask them.”
“How did Tabitha Brown pay for your services? She didn’t know it, but they had medical bills and not a penny extra to their name. Where did she get the money?”
“She was a charity case. She came to me and asked me what I charged, told me her story. I did a little investigating, planning to blackmail Brown with his cheating, only to find out he was dying. I promised her he wasn’t cheating and that he would tell her everything in due time.”
“Only you made him an offer he couldn’t refuse instead.”
“Yep.”
“And Erik Leary? How did you meet him?”
Her father actually rolled his eyes. “We became acquainted when I had to buddy up to him to prove he had a gambling problem. Caught him on video. His boss wasn’t happy and Leary was nose-divingtoward broke. He was only there to keep the plane from crashing. He wasn’t supposed to intervene unless the cockpit was breached.”
“And how was he supposed to intervene? He’s not law enforcement or trained to stop a hijacker.”
“He’s a martial arts expert. He assured me he could take care of any situation that arose. I had to believe him because I couldn’t have the plane crash. That couldn’t happen again. I made that clear.”
“Wait a minute. Nothing came back on his credit report. No huge debts, he had money in his account, and so on. Nothing was flagged.”
Her father snorted. “Of course not. The people he was gambling with don’t exactly leave records for the police to find. Nevertheless, he was getting to the point that he was going to have to sell his house. He couldn’t clean out his bank account without his wife catching on. He came to me for work. Asking for a job. He’d been in the military and could do surveillance. He needed a big payout. And he needed it fast. I realized he’d be perfect for what I needed. Again, just took a phone call.”
“I ... I...” She pulled in a ragged breath and tried to form her thoughts. “So why did he attack you at the hospital? I assume you lied and he wasn’t after your wallet.”
“Not a complete lie. He did want money. I just didn’t have it in my wallet. I’d already paid him some, but he wanted more. I was in the middle of promising I’d get him some just to get him to leave when you showed up. Not that I was actually going to pay the man, but I was trying to buy some time. I would have gotten rid of him later, the thief.”
Gotten rid of him? As inkillhim? She had a sick feeling that’s exactly what he meant. She wasn’t about to ask, but he’d already killed her mother and a plane full of people, so what would one more dead person matter? “How did he know it was you?”
He rubbed his chin. “He recognized me from when I buddied up to him during the investigation I was conducting for his boss. The one that lost him the promotion. In the end, he was happy to take my money for a seat on the plane and try to provide a distraction soyou’d mess up—be accused of negligence or something—and lose your job. But Leary didn’t really hold up his end of the bargain with that, did he? No, I had to go and convince that woman’s family she should sue you because she got hurt.”
She gaped. Her brain was going to short-circuit any moment now. “Wait a minute. You’re behind my suspension? What good does me being suspended do?”
“Hopefully give you time to see I was right. That you needed to find something safe, something that kept you at home. On the ground.” He rubbed a hand down his cheek. “I was just doing this for you, Kristine. I only have your best interests at heart.”
“You have no heart,” she whispered.
He scowled and she bit down hard on the words she wanted to fling at him. “One more question. Why did you kill my mother?” The words came out on a choked sob, but she refused to let the tears fall. She could cry later.
“I didn’t want to kill her. That wasn’t the plan. But ...” He stopped and breathed deeply through his nose. “She was going to leave me.” His voice was surprisingly neutral. Soft. Deadly? “She was going to take you kids away from me.”
“No. She wouldn’t have. Not if you would have agreed to counseling.”
He almost looked taken aback, then realization dawned. “You found the letter.”
“Yeah.”
He nodded and stood. “You took me by surprise when you came back in after leaving the other day. I overreacted.” He frowned. “I don’t do that very often. Nevertheless, I should have hidden it better, but I didn’t take you for a snoop.”
“I learned from one of the best.”
He ignored her dig. “How long have you had it?”
“For just about a day.”
“Ah. You came in when I was working a case.”
“Yes. I also found all the boxes of Mom’s that you said you tossed.Made me wonder what else I’ll find once I finish going through those. I did find something interesting. You have some property off the Outer Banks?”
