Page 105 of Final Approach

“She tried to talk to me before she headed to the airport, and I refused to come out of my room. It was a Saturday. She was supposed to be back Wednesday. We’d had our fair share of arguments before, but with this one I was particularly cruel.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to go out with a boy and my dad said no. I wanted her to convince him to say yes. And she refused. She said this time she agreed with my father.” She shot him a wry look. “I was stunned because they never agreed on anything. Turns out mydad had arrested him the week before for drunk driving. He didn’t want to tell me that, because that boy’s daddy had managed to do some fancy talking, paid a hefty fine, and got the charges dropped. Dad told Mom, of course, but Dad knew I was going to see this kid at school and didn’t want it known that he was the one who told me. I found out through the high school rumor mill.”

“That’s tough.”

“Unfortunately, I never got a chance to tell her I understood. I found out Wednesday at school and she died that day on the flight home.”

His hand rubbed her back. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“There aren’t any words, so you don’t have to try to find them. But here’s the kicker. My mom wrote my dad a note and told him to tell me that she knew I didn’t mean what I said and she forgave me. Turns out she took that flight to givethemsome space, not because of what I said. He didn’t tell me. And she left me a letter. One that he was supposed to give me and didn’t.” She threw her hands in the air. “How could he not tell me? How could he keep that from me?”

“I agree, that’s awful. Why would he do that?”

She sighed. “This is going to sound terrible, but I suspect it’s because a kid who’s racked with guilt is easier to control than one who knows her mom didn’t die hating her. I haven’t asked him yet, though. That’s on the agenda for later today. When I can do it without screaming at him—or killing him.” She shook her head and bit her lip. “I thought all these years that she died thinking I hated her. But she didn’t.” She passed him the phone. “Here. Read it.”

He did, then passed the device back to her. “Wow.”

“She didn’t hate me, Andrew. She really didn’t.”

“Of course not. All parents know that they’re going to argue with their bratty teens and the teens are going to say things they don’t mean. It’s in the parenting handbook.”

She gave a low laugh and swiped a stray tear. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He waved a hand at the mess of papers spread across her kitchen table, on the floor, and over her coffee table. “What’s all this?”

“Stuff my dad had in his attic. I was hoping he had something on my mom’s hijacking case but haven’t come across anything.” She reached for a stack of papers and handed them to him. “Found these, though.”

He read the top of the first page. “Divorce papers.”

“Yeah.”

“Ouch.”

“Very much ouch.”

“They’re not signed.”

“No. She said basically that she was going to come home, give him one last chance, and if he didn’t agree to go to counseling, she must have had these ready.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kristine.”

“I am too.” She pushed her phone toward him again. “Take a look at this picture. The map is too zoomed in to get a good location visually, but I think these are coordinates.” She swiped to another picture. “These are blueprints. It looks like it’s a house, but the longitude and latitude don’t show anything but ocean. I may just not be able to blow it up big enough on my phone. It’s somewhere off the coast of the Outer Banks, though. I tried googling it and didn’t get much with that. And Google Earth just shows something that looks like an island.”

“Weird.”

“I thought so.” She sighed. “And there’s more.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to make any accusations until I know for sure.”

“Accusations about what?”

“It ... I ... I’ll tell you soon. For now, I need to go see him and ask him about everything, because I’m just not sure.” She shook her head. “I have no idea who this man I’ve called Dad is. Like no idea.”

“Want some company?”