Page 67 of Final Approach

“Sure. James, Cole, Kenzie, and others from the SWAT team do it occasionally when they come across a family or someone in need. No reason we can’t do the same. They could use it.”

He nodded, a look in his eyes she couldn’t fully interpret but thought it looked a whole lot like respect. “All right. Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“I have another idea.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m thinking about the hijacking.” She shrugged. “I know you guys are still investigating.”

“Mostly waiting for reports to come back, but yeah. What are you thinking?”

“Have you looked at past hijackings to see if there’s anything similar to this one? You know, like someone being forced to carry out a hijacking or someone who was forced to get a tattoo beforehand, or ... whatever. And I don’t mean just in Lake City, because I think my mother’s was the only one. Like ever.”

“That’s right. And yes, we’ve looked into them nationwide. Why?”

“Any hits?” she asked.

“Not really. We’re still looking at them, but do you have something else on your mind?”

“Maybe. I want to look at something first. Something I’ve never looked at before.”

“What’s that?”

“The hijacking that killed my mother.”

ANDREWBLINKED.“You’ve never looked at it before?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because my dad discouraged it, mostly. He was adamant that looking at it would just cause pain and heartache. He even refused to let us turn the television on because he didn’t want the constant reminder blaring in our home. And while I don’t agree with him about much, that one I kind of did. I just didn’t want to relive it. It was horrible enough when it happened. That was as a teen. Later, as an adult, when I could look at it, I was afraid to.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid I’d become even more obsessed. I mean, I became an air marshal because of her. In honor of her. To possibly help other families not lose loved ones to hijackings.” She shook her head. “Her hijacker went down with the plane. No one’s really sure what happened. The black box was never found, so no answers there, and I was just secretly concerned that if I started looking for answers that might not be ‘findable,’ for lack of a better word, I’d never be able to be at peace.”

“But?”

She gave a short laugh. “But Jesslyn. Seeing how finding answers about her family’s deaths, finding the person responsible for them, helped her so much, I wonder if I shouldn’t try to do the same. It could backfire, of course, but then again, it could end well too.”

“Makes sense.”

She studied him. “Does it?”

“Yeah. It does. I can get the report for you if you want.”

“I have access to it.”

“I know. Just thought it might be easier if I did it.”

A slight smile curved her lips. “It might be at that.” Her eyes flickered with something else. Something she wasn’t sharing. Then it faded and she said, “Sure. You can get it for me. Thanks.”

A young man walked out of the kitchen area and into the dining room, sweeper in hand. “That’s Trevor,” Andrew said.

“Who?”

“The guy who waited on Nathan and me last time. Hey, Trevor.”