When the two of them walked back into the main cabin, the others were gathered around several tables and seats, discussing the information they had so far.
“So, we’ve got the flight attendant killed in his car at the airport, her original piece of luggage that’s in her locker in the employee lounge, a boss who is about as suspicious as anyone I’ve met this year, and a man who was attempting to kidnap her,” said Patrick. He looked up to see Quinn and April hand-in-hand.
“You two good?” he smirked.
“We’re good, Dad. What do we know?”
“That’s what we were just talking about,” said Major. “April, we strongly suspect that your flight partner was smuggling drugs into the country.”
“I know that’s what it looks like but I just don’t see how it’s possible,” she said shaking her head. “We go through the same screening processes as all of you. TSA, drug dogs, all of it. They don’t give us a break on that at all.”
“You said that you two had dinner the last time in Cancun. Did he go out afterwards or perhaps see someone early the next morning?” asked Adam.
“I’m not sure. Our rooms were always on different floors. I like staying on high floors, he always wanted low floors. He said he had a fear of a fire and not being able to get down the steps fast enough.”
“April, we know that this is all a terrible shock for you but Jerry lived in a high-rise penthouse apartment. It was not something he could afford on a flight attendant’s salary,” said Patrick.
“He said it was an uncle’s place who traveled a lot,” she whispered, shaking her head.
“It’s in his name, honey,” said Elena.
“Is anything real? Is anything anyone told me actually the truth?” she said staring at the faces of those around her.
“Everything we’ve told you,” said Quinn. “Everything we’ve said, everything we’ve done has been truthful.”
April let that sink in. It would have been something easy to lie about, except that what she knew of them so far told her it was the truth. She wasn’t even sure why she believed it.
“Honey, did your boss, Mr. Harvey, did he ever speak to you like that before?” April stared at Fiona a moment. “I mean, he was incredibly rude and inappropriate for a human resources manager. Especially with you having a good work record. Were he and Jerry friends?”
“I’ll answer that part first,” said April. “I guess I should have thought of that sooner. Jerry and Daniel were friends. Daniel Harvey, that’s his full name. they would often have lunch or go out for drinks when we were in town. I even had an issue once with getting new uniforms and Jerry said he’d fix it with Daniel.”
“He didn’t seem upset by his friend being dead,” said Major. April turned to face the man and realized he was right. One more hint she’d missed.
“No, he definitely didn’t. As for the behavior on the phone, it wasn’t foreign for me. I never heard him speak to Jerry that way but he definitely was short with me on more than one occasion. If for some reason my grandfather was involved, he was incredibly protective of me and maybe he’d angered Daniel about something.”
“Did you ever carry cargo on your flights?” asked River.
“Sure. I mean, commercial airliners can’t carry huge cargo loads like a UPS, FedEx, DHL, or even the regular postal service. Anything considered hazardous materials wouldn’t be allowed on a commercial flight.
“But we did carry things like blankets, water, food for areas hit by natural disaster. We sometimes carried U.S. mail. I didn’t always know what the cargo was but the pilots did.”
“Were the pilots the same on your flights?” asked Finnegan.
“No. They rotated more frequently than the flight crew. Sometimes they would take the short flights to get to a long flight they were doing. I’d certainly see familiar pilots often but they weren’t consistent partners like Jerry and I.”
“On other short flights like yours was the crew the same?” asked Quinn. She looked at him, frowning in thought. “I mean, if you and Jerry were partnered together were there others that were partnered as well?”
“I-I didn’t really make that connection I guess. No. I mean, sometimes they flew one route together, like Pensacola to Miami to New Orleans and then back to Pensacola. But then they would go home, have a few days off and be called to a different flight route with different crews.”
“But you weren’t?” asked Patrick.
“No. Always me and Jerry. Occasionally a few other flight attendants if we had fuller or larger flights.”
“Something made them pair the two of you together. Like Jerry was watching you,” said Adam.
“What do you know about this conglomerate?” asked Major.
“They’re private investors who go out and seek opportunities to invest and then meet, vote, and decide whether it’s a good investment. Coastal Airways was nearing bankruptcy and they got them for a steal. The board completely revamped everything but I know they were arguing about details for the future.”
