Page 35 of Final Approach (Lake City Heroes #4)

Andrew rubbed his chin and sighed while he thought. “Okay, obviously there’s some kind of connection with Leary and the hijacking. And you said yourself, it could be related to your mother’s.”

“So Leary is coming after my family now?” Kristine said. “Was he responsible for my mother’s hijacking?” She sighed. “That doesn’t seem possible. He’s not old enough. He’s what, thirty-two?”

“Yeah.”

“So it’s not him. But also, why would he be on a plane that he knew could possibly go down?

Again, that doesn’t seem likely. He didn’t seem like he was ready to end it.

And for what? Money? Then where is it?” She finished that last question on a rush of breath.

“Sorry, I just have lots of thoughts. Unfortunately, I have no answers.”

Andrew frowned. “What if we need to look at this from a different perspective?”

“Okay. Like?”

“So, from all the information gathered, it looks like we weren’t supposed to crash.

Let’s assume the plane was supposed to land somewhere safe.

Why would someone want to hijack a plane that we’re all on, most specifically you were on, if we’re going to speculate that the same person who hijacked your mom’s plane didn’t actually want it to crash as well, but something went wrong and the plane went down? ”

She went quiet. “Okay. Can you explain your reasoning?”

Andrew rubbed a hand down his face. “Could it have been a distraction from something else?”

“Like what?” Kristine asked.

“No idea. What was going down at the same time?” Andrew walked to the desk in the corner of the room and rummaged.

“I need a pen and paper.” Once he had what he needed, he returned to his seat and began writing while thinking out loud.

“Okay, since our crime board is at the station, let’s do this the old-fashioned way.

One, the person behind the hijacker chose someone who didn’t have a whole lot to lose if he failed, but a lot to gain for his family if he succeeded.

Any connection between Marcus Brown and Kristine’s mom, Rachel Duncan?

” He drew two stick figures and labeled them, then drew a line between them with a question mark over it.

“None,” Nathan said. “His background barrel has been emptied and scraped. There’s nothing there. Same with the wife, Tabitha. Nothing connects her to Kristine’s family in any way. And Jacob’s father told him where the money was the day before the hijacking.”

“But who was in their house that night?” Kristine asked. “That wasn’t Jacob, it was a man. Could it have been the person who paid Marcus, then decided to come back for the money?”

“That’s my guess,” Andrew said. “Two, the connection between the Serpentine Network and Marcus.”

“Nonexistent,” Hank said. “That tat was just a red herring. But whoever hired Marcus was either familiar with the gang or researched it so he could give Brown a picture of what to get. But that’s easy enough.”

“Right. Three, what’s the connection between Marcus Brown and Erik Leary?”

“It looks like the person who hired Brown also hired Leary,” Nathan said, “but the dots aren’t connecting as to who knows both of them.

They run—ran—in totally different circles.

Brown was barely scraping by financially and was in terrible health.

Leary was well-to-do, decent credit, no obvious need for cash or any reason to risk his life to get it. ”

“Unless he was blackmailed,” Kristine said. “Hold on a sec.” Murmured voices filtered through the line, but Andrew couldn’t catch the words. “Dad wants to go home, so I’m going to take him.”

“You need anything?”

“No thanks. Hang on once more while I get him settled.” More rustling, then the slamming of a car door. “Okay, I’ll call back when I can talk without being overheard.”

“Sounds good.”

She hung up and Andrew turned to Nathan and Cole. “We’re on pause for the moment. Anyone need something to drink? A Coke? Water?”

“Water,” Cole said.

“I’m good,” Nathan said.

Andrew grabbed the drinks from the fridge. They continued to discuss the case while they waited on Kristine’s call.

Finally, his phone rang and he grabbed it and put it on speaker. “Pick up where we left off at blackmail,” he said.

“Okay, I have a few minutes. He wanted a burger to take home for later so he’s inside McDonald’s to get it. And before you think I’m a terrible daughter, I offered to go in and get it for him, but he told me to quit treating him like he was helpless.”

“Dads,” Andrew huffed.

“Right? Anyway, I can talk while he’s in there, but I don’t want him to overhear anything so if I go quiet, you know why.”

“Got it.”

Cole waved at him.

“And Cole has his hand raised. Yes, Cole? You have something for the class?” The bit of humor brought a snicker through the line from her, and he smiled.

“I do,” Cole said. “Say someone blackmailed him. But with what? You just said there’s nothing in his past.”

“Nothing that showed up.”

“True. But again. Who?”

Andrew drew a big question mark on Leary’s face, then another one on the word blackmail. “We have a lot of question marks on here.”

“And why did he attack your dad in the hospital?” Cole asked Kristine. “He said Leary wanted his wallet. What would he need that for?”

Kristine gave a sigh and Andrew heard the frustration loud and clear. She wanted to talk. “None of this makes any sense,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t,” he said. “Look, we have a whole force still working the hijacking. We’ll figure it out soon.

” They had to. “We can keep thinking on that, but for the moment, until new information comes in, we’re kind of at a dead end.

” He blew out a low breath. “What do you say we pivot to focus on catching who’s trying to kill Hank? ”

“Do you think this guy knows where the safe house is?” she asked.

Andrew turned the speaker off and waved to the others that the conversation with them was over.

Nathan grunted and headed for the kitchen, pulling his phone out probably to call Jesslyn.

Cole and Kenzie headed to their stations, where they would be watching from various windows.

Outside the perimeter, the rest of the Lake City SWAT team and more officers were backing them up.

“It’s hard to say. We made an effort to cover our tracks so as to throw off suspicion that we’re luring him into a trap, but not so careful that he couldn’t find us.

All that to say, if he knows we’re here, he doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to do anything about it. ”

“Just be careful. Please?”

“Definitely.”

“Okay, Dad’s coming. Gotta run. I’ll let you go. I’ll figure out how to get home later. Keep me updated, will you?”

He didn’t like her not having a plan to get home, but he didn’t get a say. “Of course.”

They said their goodbyes, and Andrew hung up, wishing he could keep her on the phone longer or do something to help her, but for now, they were in different places with different things to do. He paused. There was one thing he could do. “Hey, Nathan, what’s Jesslyn doing?”

“Working, why?”

“Think she could take a couple of hours off?”

“Probably. Again, why?”

He explained the situation and Nathan called Jesslyn. She told him she had time to go pick up Kristine.

With that settled, he rose and walked to the window. At their elevation, a light snow had started to fall, but the Weather Channel didn’t predict anything more than a couple of inches. Although if the temperature kept dropping, it could make the roads treacherous.

But for now, with all the security, it was the safest place Hank could be.

He thought about asking Kristine to come too, but if the Serpentine Network decided to strike harder than they anticipated, the safe house might not be quite so safe.

Though she was a trained federal agent—she knew how to fight back.

Time ticked by while they went back to their speculation and tossing out ideas for which way the hijacking investigation should go. About an hour later his phone buzzed with an incoming call. His father. He swiped the screen. “Hey, Dad, what’s up?”

“We’ve been robbed.”

“You’ve been what?” Surely he’d misheard.

“We’ve been robbed, Andrew.”

He stood, heart thudding. “Are you all right?”

Cole and the others stopped talking and looked at him, brows raised, silent questions in their eyes.

“I think so,” his father said. “I walked in and he shoved me as he rushed out. I hit my head on the doorframe, but I’m okay. Can you come?”

He wanted to say he’d be there as fast as possible, but...

No, his father was hurt. And he’d asked Andrew to come. He needed to go.

“Hold on one sec, Dad.” He told the others what had happened, and they voiced their concern.

“Go, man,” Cole said.

“Thanks. He wants me to come, but I feel like I should stay here.” So torn.

Cole shook his head. “Go. We’ll be right behind you as soon as we make sure the coverage here is taken care of.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Into the phone, he said, “I’ll be there as fast as I can, but I’m about an hour away.” It would take him at least forty-five minutes to wind down the mountain and another fifteen to twenty to get to the bookstore.

“It’s fine,” his father said. “The police are here and we’ll be okay, but I wanted to let you know. Take your time, please. Don’t rush.” A pause. “But I really am glad you’re coming. I think your mother needs to see you.”

“Right. Not rushing. I’ll be there soon.”

The others offered support and love as he hurried out of the house, and he waved his thanks.

His parents had been traumatized and he needed to find out why. And who needed to pay for it.