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Fiona nodded…and then frowned. “Wait… You said the plane exploded in the air. Does that mean mechanical failure or…?”
“There is a team from NTSB on-site. They’ll begin their investigation tomorrow. We’ll know more later. Here’s my card. If you have further questions, feel free to call this number.”
Fiona’s hand was shaking as she reached for the card, then summoned the housekeeper.
“Dee, would you show the men out? I need to make some calls.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dee said, and walked the men back through the house and saw them out, then came hurrying back. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I’m so sorry. Can I get you anything? Should I call your doctor? What can I do to help?”
“Bring me a whiskey on ice, and make it a double. This is a nightmare. A fucking nightmare. I can’t believe he’s gone.”
As soon as Dee brought her drink, Fiona took it up to her room, downed it with a sleeping pill, then called Wolf’s office, as well as Arnie Walters, the company lawyer, then took herself to bed.
The crash site investigators from the NTSB arrived in Jubilee just before dark, notified the local authoritiesthey would be at the crash site by daybreak, and checked in at Hotel Devon.
Chief Warren, in turn, notified the officers he had assigned to guard duty that the investigators would be on scene early and to keep the school and crash site cordoned off.
As far as Amalie Lincoln was concerned, today had been a day of progress and revelations. Her office and security systems were in place. Life had brought her full circle to a childhood friend she thought she’d never see again, and he’d promised her dinner.
But by the time she locked up the office and headed to her car, she was exhausted from the emotional turmoil. She’d been neglecting her own comforts to get the office in shape, and now there weren’t enough groceries in her house to have breakfast tomorrow. Instead of going straight home, she headed for the supermarket.
She pulled into the parking lot with a mental note of things she needed, and went inside. It was crowded, but it quickly became apparent that the chopper crash and the damage and trauma at the elementary school were the topics of conversation.
People were huddled in little groups down every aisle she went, talking about the disaster. Some were parents, reassuring their friends that their children were okay. Others were friends or families of teachers and firemen,or the police. And that’s when Amalie realized that beneath this huge tourist attraction, there was a small-town vibe of the people who lived here. One day, she hoped to be one of those people, looked upon as a resident of Jubilee.
She maneuvered her way up and down the aisles, ignoring curious glances and the double takes when they saw the ghost streak in her hair and then the scars. All she wanted tonight was food in the house.
Cameron and Rusty Pope were unusually quiet at the supper table. Their two-year-old toddler, Eric Michael, a.k.a. Mikey, was making enough noise for all of them. He was at theI do it myselfstage and was banging his spoon on the tray of his high chair, rhythmically beating his green beans to a pulp.
Ghost, their white oversized German shepherd, was wearing the flying pulp that hadn’t fallen on the floor and giving Cameron pitiful, imploring looks. Ghost was Mikey’s sidekick in all things, and food slinging was the cross the dog stoically bore.
Cameron sighed. He knew what was bothering Rusty. The same thing that had given him a kick in the gut when he heard. But for the grace of God, that chopper would have crashed into the school.
Lili Glass was his niece. Rachel was his sister. She had called them from the ER to tell them what had happened,and how Dani had sounded the warning that saved them all, and then the officers who went in to help lead out the ones who’d been trapped were his friends and his people. But for them, Lili might have died today. One day, their son would be going to school, and they would have to trust other people to keep him safe.
Rusty’s years of undercover service in the FBI made her immediately suspicious when she heard the news. Planes don’t just blow up in midair. Neither do helicopters. They can catch on fire. And the engines can fail, and the plane can begin to lose altitude. But in midair, when something explodes, the first thing they look for is a bomb.
She leaned over to wipe green beans off Mikey’s fingers before he shoved them in his hair, and then looked up at Cameron.
“I’m going to be curious as to who was onboard that chopper,” she said.
“You think it’s a bomb, don’t you?”
“Short of a missile shooting it down in midair, you know it was. Somebody in that chopper was the target. If there was something onboard they wanted, they wouldn’t have blown it up. That was an annihilation, and it almost took the whole damn school with it.”
Then Mikey wailed when the spoon slipped out of his grubby little fingers and flew across the room.
Ghost crawled beneath the dining table.
Rusty sighed.
Cameron laughed.
“I’ll clean up the dog and the floor. You get the kid and the high chair.”
Rusty sighed. “Thank you.”
Cameron cupped the side of her face. “We made him together. We’ll raise him together.”
