Page 70 of Final Approach

“If you know where he is and don’t tell the authorities,” Kristine said, her voice soft, “you’re obstructing an investigation and could go to jail. Then where would your kids be?”

Tears welled and she swiped them away. “Right. Well, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t know where he is, isn’t it?”

Loud voices once more from the table sent a flash of desperation across the mother’s face. She walked back into the kitchen, and they followed her. “Brian, Ella, if you don’t stop arguing, you can go to bed without any dessert.” The kids hushed and Tabitha walked to the cabinet, pulled down a canister, and opened it.

Kristine tensed. “Tabitha?”

“Some of the money is in here. Jacob left it in the mailbox. I haven’t spent a dime of it.” She pulled out a pile of cash encased in a Ziploc bag and held it out to Kristine, who sidestepped and motioned for Andrew to take over. This was potential evidence that might be needed for a trial, should they ever catch the person behind it all.

“Do you have another bag you can drop it into?” Andrew asked.

Without a word, Tabitha went to the pantry and pulled out a grocery bag, dropped the money into it, and once again held it out. “I couldn’t spend it,” she said. “I just couldn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”

Andrew took it. “Thank you. And I’m glad you couldn’t spend it. It shows a lot about your character.”

“But not Jacob’s.”

“He’s a kid,” Kristine said. “This will be a learning experience for him.” Hopefully.

Tabitha motioned them outside. Once they were on the porch, she asked, “Is Jacob going to be in trouble?”

“I think if you could convince him to stop spending the money and turn it in,” Andrew said, “the DA can probably be persuaded to go easy on him.”

“I don’t see him. I never see him. He never comes inside if he even comes here at all. He always has the things delivered.”

“Okay, well, if you can help us find him, that’s the best thing you can do for him. Convince the other kids that if they see him, they need to tell you. No matter what Jacob tells them to do.” Andrew gave her a card. “Please.”

She nodded and a crash came from inside. She swiped a tear and yanked the door open to tend to her kids.

“That poor woman,” Kristine said.

“Yeah. Come on. Nothing else we can do here. I’ll get someone to sit on the house and see if Jacob shows. He might be coming by and she just doesn’t know it.”

Kristine followed Andrew to the car and climbed in while he made the call. She checked her phone and had a message from her aunt Wendy.

Everything is fine here. Ethan finally left to get some rest. Emily is sleeping. Your father is nowhere to be found. Naomi is a godsend. All is good.

Kristine hearted the message and rubbed her eyes.

Andrew looked at her after he hung up. “I’ve got some news for you.”

“What’s that?”

“You know those hijacking cases we pulled to see if there are any similarities to Brown’s circumstances?”

“Yes.”

“We went beyond hijacking. We looked at criminal incidents from airports in Asheville, Lake City, Raleigh-Durham, Greenville, Spartanburg, Charlotte, and Atlanta over the last thirty years. Your mother’s was one of them, of course.”

Kristine stilled, wondering why she wasn’t surprised that her mother’s hijacked plane had something in common with Marcus Brown. “Well, it makes sense. There haven’t exactly been that many hijackings. What? Two or three actual attempts? A small handful that were stopped before anyone even knew what was planned?”

“Yeah.”

“So, what did you find?”

“There were two that we wanted to look at. Your mother’s and one that involved a disgruntled FedEx worker in 1994. I gave them a cursory scan, but we want to take a harder look at them. You want to join us and look at your mother’s?”

“I guess I do.” She pulled in a deep breath. She could do this, right? Her father’s voice filled her head.“Leave it alone. Don’t go there. Don’tput those images in your head. You need to rememberyour mother the way she was the last time yousaw her.”