Page 71 of Final Approach
Kristine flinched at her own thoughts. The problem was the last time she saw her mother was after she’d told her she hated her.
ANDREW WASIN A HOTELfor the night. Hank was with James and Lainie. Hopefully they’d all get some rest.
Thankfully, this hotel room was a suite with a full kitchen, separate bedroom, and a workspace. Most importantly, it had a full-sized coffee maker. Its decanter was now closing in on empty. He, Nathan, and Kristine sat at the table with laptops open and the two case files in the middle.
Andrew hadn’t really been hungry, but Nathan had claimed starvation, so he and Kristine ordered and consumed most of a pizza. They’d just finished going through the first case from three years ago. A young man had gotten angry at one of the flight attendants and used her uniform scarf to practically strangle her. Then he demanded that the plane be flown to a different location. There’d been no marshal on that flight, but an off-duty police officer had taken the man down and held him until the plane landed.
Nathan leaned back. “That wasn’t a premeditated hijacking like ours was. I don’t see any similarities here. What made this one stand out?”
“The fact that he wanted the plane to go to a certain place but didn’t know what he’d do when he landed. Brown said something real similar. Could be just a coincidence. What about you, Kristine? Anything you want to add?”
“No.” Her gaze was on the other unopened file.
The one that was patiently waiting for review.
The one that held all the information she said she hadn’t looked at.
He had a hard time understanding that one. If it had been him, he would have been reading as soon as he had access to the information.
But not her.
Andrew eyed her. She looked a little pale, but the firm set of her jaw said she was ready to get down to business. He passed her the file, and she pulled in a breath and flipped it open. He watched her read. She was still, with only her hand moving to flip to the next page. She read to the end without stopping, then turned the stack of papers upright so page one was facing her once more.
Finally, she looked up, eyes wide, face even more pale than when she started.
“Kristine?”
“Did you read this?”
“I glanced at it, but no, not in depth or detail. Why?”
Nathan leaned forward and frowned. “What do you see in there?”
She blew out a low breath. “I think the guy who hired Marcus Brown was behind my mother’s hijacking as well.”
Nathan blinked and jerked back. “What?”
Andrew raised both brows. “Huh?” He shook himself. “What makes you say that?”
“Look.” She flipped the file around. “Look at the details. Mom’s hijacking was sixteen years ago. I was sixteen at the time. It says here that passengers who called 911 reported a man with ‘some kind of homemade knife’ was threatening to start killing people.” She went quiet, then said in a low voice, “He said he had to or they would kill his family.” She looked up. “Who does that sound like?”
Andrew shot a look at Nathan, then back to Kristine. The three of them blinked at one another for a full five seconds. “I have to say, you’ve got my interest,” Nathan said.
Andrew nodded. “Same.”
“I don’t believe this,” she muttered. “How could I not have ever looked at this?”
“Don’t beat yourself up too bad,” Andrew said. “Who wants to read a blow-by-blow recap of a loved one’s death?”
She sat back and rubbed her face. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to know what her last moments were like. Filled with terror and probably replaying—” She blew out a sigh and blinked away a few tears, then shook her head.
“Replaying what?” Nathan asked.
“Nothing.” She stood and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “What kind of daughter does that make me? I defied my father at every turn and yet, on this ... I just let him have his way. I caved. I didn’t know these details. That the hijacker who went downwith the plane wasn’t the only person responsible. I didn’t know that he was threatened just like Marcus Brown. I didn’t know any of that. Not until this very moment. How could I not know that?”
Andrew leaned forward. “Maybe you weren’t ready to hear the details. Not that anyone is everreadyfor that, but you know what I mean. I can understand a father wanting to protect his children from that kind of thing.”
“That’s probably part of it, I’m sure. But the truth was, it was easier to try to forget. To block it and not have to think about it because thinking about it would have driven me mad.” She tossed up her hands, then planted them on her hips. “It still might.” She returned to her seat at the table and snagged another piece of pizza. “Who was the hijacker’s family?”
