Falling(50)

“All right, I gotta go. I’ll see you down there, baby.”

“Jo!” he choked out before she could hang up the phone.

She’d known Big Daddy for many years. But as she listened to him struggling for words, she realized this was the first time she’d heard him tongue-tied. Looking to the back, she watched him wipe his cheek.

“Jo,” he whispered. “I don’t have anyone to call right now.” He covered his face with his free hand, and repeated himself, breaking into tears.

Jo’s voice shook as she said, “Well, you just called me. And I answered.”

A stifled sob filled her ear, though she could feel him try to catch it as it slipped out. Her own eyes misted in spite of her best efforts. Jo watched Kellie grab a tissue from the bathroom and pass it to Big Daddy. He accepted, pointing a finger at her.

“If you tell anyone about this, young lady, I’ll tell the FBI you were working with the terrorist.”

Jo heard Kellie laugh and she smiled. “Don’t worry, Daddy,” Jo said. “Your secret’s safe with us.”

Hanging up the interphone, Jo pulled out her cell phone, opened the text thread with Theo, and began typing.



* * *



Bill pulled the canister of poison out of his messenger bag, setting it carefully on the dash. The smaller vial lay at the bottom of his bag.

“What about the powder I was supposed to use to kill you?” he asked Ben.

Sam and Ben both laughed.

“Put it on French toast?” Ben said. “It’s powdered sugar.”

Bill felt the crown on his back tooth crack under the pressure of his clenched jaw.

“But that,” Ben said as he indicated the silver canister in front of the captain, “is definitely not sugar. Look, I couldn’t die. Someone had to be here to make sure you made your choice. If you hadn’t broken the rules, I never would have revealed myself. You’d have poisoned me and I’d have faked my own death. But I had to be alive to make sure you went through with the crash.”

Bill shook his head, trying to understand. “But what if I chose the plane? And I didn’t poison you, and we landed just fine and my family…” He couldn’t finish the thought.

“Then that would have been your choice,” Ben said. “We’d have landed without incident and I’d have shot myself in the head later tonight.”

Ben bowed to Sam, saying something that wasn’t in English. Sam bowed his head as well, repeating the phrase.

“You see, we will die today. Sam and I both. It’s been decided. But now, in our deaths, our lives will have purpose.”

Bill shook his head in disgust. “Martyrdom is a coward’s death.”

Sam brought the phone right up to his face, his cheeks quivering as he tried to maintain composure.

“This has nothing to do with religion,” he said. “The only cowards are people like you who are too scared to face the truth of how you keep your peace and privilege and at what cost.”

Bill didn’t hear a word he said.

Eyes narrowed at the computer, Bill focused on what was over Sam’s shoulder. The new camera angle had brought the light closer behind them, illuminating… wood beams?

It clicked. Bill almost gasped.

Years ago, when Carrie moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, they rented a U-Haul for the drive. She didn’t need anything huge since she’d sold most of her stuff, so the seatless sixteen-seater the moving company offered was perfect. Bill had had to get in and out of it probably a hundred times. He had a splinter in his hand for a week from the wooden beams he used to hoist himself up.

The family was in a moving van.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


THEO LOOKED UP AT THE sound of a helicopter’s propellors droning above the strip mall as its searchlight illuminated the streets of southwest LA. Back and forth, it searched for a needle in a haystack.

“Three-mile radius?”

The agent pulled up a map, the screens inside the comms van brightening. Aerial and street views of the area surrounding Los Angeles International Airport popped up.

“No, let’s start with two,” Liu said.

Theo stood with his arms crossed next to Liu outside the van as they looked over the other agent’s shoulder, images on the map narrowing and refocusing in response to the buttons he pushed. Even with only a two-mile radius, the vantage points for spotting LAX traffic could take days to search. Neighborhoods, hotels, shopping centers, parking garages. The range of possibilities for where the family could be was overwhelming. The one bright spot was the fact that they only had to search three sides. The entire west end of the airport butted up against the ocean.

“I want our units north, east, and south of LAX,” said Liu. “Start as close to the perimeter as possible. Sweep every street and continue out. Have airport police search the garages and review their tapes.”

Theo and the other agents nodded and began talking into radios, tapping on their phones.

Liu glanced up at the helicopter. “Air cav will get the bird’s-eye view,” she said. “And we’re going to hang back and try to put the puzzle together.”

Across the lot the bomb squad was still working over the Hoffmans’ SUV.

“You guys got anything for me?” Liu said into her radio.