The Negotiator

by Dee Henderson

  “I’m about a quarter of the way through the list, and I’ve found a couple possibilities.” Ben scrolled back through the names on his terminal screen. He tapped the screen with the cap of his pen. “The most interesting is a retired federal judge. We’ve also got a VP for an oil company.”

  “Can we get bio information on them?”

  “We should be getting a fax on the oil company VP soon. But I’m having problems getting anything on the retired federal judge. His name is flagging a U.S. Marshal code.”

  Dave leaned forward in his chair. “Really?”

  “What does that mean?” Kate asked as she saw Dave lock in on the news.

  “It means his security was unusually high. They are not releasing any data through normal channels.” He looked at Ben. “Was he traveling with someone?”

  “No.”

  “Raise the urgency with Washington; we need to know why he had that kind of security.”

  The terminal Susan was using beeped. She read the latest update. “We’ve got another confirmation. A late walk-on. Nathan Young. No checked baggage.”

  Kate looked at Dave.

  “Say that again,” Dave asked quietly.

  “Nathan Young.”

  Kate closed her eyes. The world had just become a much smaller place. She looked back at Dave and felt as if she had fallen down a spiraling hole. “So much for our Wednesday meeting with him.”

  Ten

  If we are looking for a connection between me and a passenger, that is an immediate one,” Kate commented, “but who would want to kill a bank owner?”

  “Good question.” Dave looked at her, puzzled. “The only thing I found was an indication he was raising cash. Did anything else show in your search?”

  Kate shook her head, but she was running through all kinds of possible connections in her mind. “Henry Lott?”

  “He used dynamite, which is not typical for an airline bombing; he didn’t expect to be alive past Tuesday, and now he’s in jail—but it’s a very interesting question.” Dave turned to Ben. “We need a list of people who have seen him since he was arrested Tuesday.”

  Ben reached for the phone. “I’ll have it faxed here.”

  “Dave,” Susan flipped to the back of the passenger list, “we’ve got another Young on the flight. A Mr. Ashcroft Young.”

  Kate rapidly found the page. “Related?”

  “Hold on.”

  Susan worked rapidly, then nodded. “Brothers.”

  “Nathan was a walk-on?” Kate leaned across the table to view the seating diagram again. “Where were they seated?”

  “Nathan is in the last row of first class, and Ashcroft—coach, seat 22E.”

  “They weren’t traveling together?” Kate looked at Susan. “When and how did Ashcroft purchase his ticket?”

  “May 24, credit card.”

  “So he was planning to fly coach.” Kate glanced over at Dave. “Not as wealthy as his brother?”

  “From the flowers Nathan sent, I doubt he would volunteer to upgrade his brother’s seat. It would be useful to know why they were both heading to New York. Ben, does anything show on Ashcroft Young?”

  “Searching. Whoa! Ten years in jail for cocaine distribution. Released eleven months ago.”

  “Our bank president was related to a drug dealer?” Kate tried to connect the implications of that but couldn’t; it was too incredible to believe. “You’re sure?”

  Susan was already double-checking. “Yes. They’re brothers. What an interesting family. I wonder if they were even speaking to each other.”

  “Somehow I doubt it.” Dave replied, running his hand through his hair. “What a mess. We need full profiles on these two. Susan, send the information to Karen and ask her to put a rush on it. A bank president and a drug dealer certainly raise interesting questions of money laundering. Nothing appeared on the surface with the banks Nathan owned, but it’s time to check that out in detail.”

  Kate looked at the two names, now written on the white board, and shook her head. “This would be a perfect lead if they weren’t both dead.”

  Dave chuckled at the irony. “We solved the case. He’s dead.”

  Kate set down the marker. “Exactly.”

  “Run with it a minute. Suppose Ashcroft got out of jail and began pressuring Nathan to look the other way while he laundered money. Nathan resisted, and that put Ashcroft in a squeeze with his employers. Drug runners don’t like failure. What about someone setting a bomb to kill them both?”

  Kate wished she could find a scenario that made that work but finally had to shake her head. “No matter how you look at it, Nathan was a last minute walk-on. Until the last moment, it wasn’t clear he would be taking this particular flight. You don’t pull off something this complex without a lot of planning.”

  “You’re right. But they get my early votes.” The fax began to hum. Dave reached back for the page. “The oil company VP bio. Interesting. He was responsible for the company’s environmental programs, among other things.”

  Kate smiled. “Would it be against their ethics for an environmentalist to blow up a plane?”

  “I guess we’re going to find out. Let’s add him to the list as well.” Kate picked up the red marker. “That gives us four passengers on the possible list. A retired federal judge, an oil company V P, our Nathan Young, and his brother Ashcroft Young. One of them with an obvious tie to me. What other surprises are buried in this passenger list?”

  She needed to call her family. Kate leaned against the wall of the conference room and momentarily tuned out the discussion going on. How was Jennifer doing? It was coming up on the 4 P.M. meeting, and this was the first time Jennifer had crossed her mind, a fact that bothered her. She had no illusions that this disaster could be kept from her sister. By now everyone in the nation had probably heard a plane had blown up. But there was no reason to tell her about the phone call, to add that kind of stress. The others in the family, however, did need to know.

  “Kate.”

  She blinked and looked over at Dave.

  “Ready to head downstairs to the update meeting?”

  She pushed away from the wall. “Yes.”

  They had made good progress on the names, and though they were far from done, they had carefully selected a list of seventeen people to check out in more detail. Nathan was the only apparent passenger linked to her, but with the fax from the city jail confirming Henry Lott had spoken only to his lawyer, the obvious connection to last Thursday’s incident dwindled.

  The east conference room was crowded with the influx of people from Washington. Kate settled into a chair next to Dave at the back of the room as Bob called the meeting to order. Others were running the investigation now, but Bob remained the information coordinator. “This is the T+5 hour update. Where are we on the passenger list?”

  The airline representative was better prepared to be the focus of attention now. “It has been 90 percent confirmed; working copies are in front of you. Two hundred and fourteen, nine of them crew.”

  “Released to the media, when?”

  “Tomorrow noon, assuming full confirmation and the notification of the victims’ families.”

  Who is being notified of Nathan and Ashcroft Young’s death?

  Dave’s written question made Kate realize they had missed an interesting avenue of speculation. Good question. Nathan’s wife, obviously. Who else?

  We need to find out.

  “What’s the status with the victim recovery?”

  Elliot leaned back to confer with the pathologist behind him, then answered. “It should be complete by sunset.”

  “Are we set up to work through the night?”

  “Flood lights are being brought in now.”

  “Good. Have the black boxes been found?”

  The National Transportation Safety Board coordinator nodded. “Voice and data recorders from the cockpit have been recovered. Four of the fifteen airframe data boxes have been located.”

&n
bsp; “Do we have physical evidence to confirm a bomb or its location?”

  “From the debris damage pulled into the engines we are focusing on the forward section of the aircraft. We may have the first structural evidence when the cranes are able to lift sections of the fuselage.”

  Does the luggage area go the length of the plane? Kate wrote down the question, not certain of the answer. Dave was the pilot.

  Typically.

  Could the bomb have been inside the passenger cabin, not in the luggage compartment?

  Suicidal passenger? Dave wrote. Doubtful. Maybe an airline employee would plant a bomb inside.

  “When will we be able to begin moving wreckage?” Bob asked.

  “Another couple hours. Hangars sixteen and seventeen have been set aside for the physical reconstruction.”

  “Where are we with the phone call?”

  “We’ve confirmed two facts. It was made from a cellular phone, and whoever placed the call clicked on and played a prerecorded tape. That’s how they got the voice distortion.”

  Why? Kate scrawled. Hide his voice, or allow someone else to place the call?

  He accomplished both. But we’re now looking for two people.

  Or one trying to confuse the issue. This was another indication he wanted control. Taping what he wanted to say meant he didn’t want any unintended words or noise to be heard. He had likely taped the message several times until it was exactly what he wanted. That meant the reference to her had been deliberate, not a spur of the moment opportunity.

  Her past cases. When this meeting broke up, that would be their next focus. Debbie and Graham were on their way with the files.

  The meeting lasted over an hour, and when it was done, the next meeting was set for 9 P.M. Kate closed the pad in front of her, feeling the weight of everything that had happened. “Dave, give me a few minutes. I need to call the family. I’ll meet you back at the conference room.”

  He hesitated beside her, looking like he wanted to object, then nodded. “Sure. I’ll see you upstairs.”

  Kate watched him leave, relieved. If Dave thought he was hanging around while she made private phone calls, they were going to have an angry heart-to-heart. If this kept up, she was going to be tossing a few figu-rative elbows. She had to search to find a quiet place in the administration building. She found an empty employee break room and settled at the table with her cellular phone. She hoped Jennifer had been too busy to see a television but suspected that was unlikely. She dialed the hospital. “Jennifer, it’s Kate.”

  “I’ve been following the news. Where are you?”

  She didn’t want to give her the full story. “At the airport. I was doing a security review here when the incident happened.”

  “You’ve been at the crash site.”

  “All day. Stephen and Jack are here somewhere. And Lisa.”

  “It must be horrible.”

  “There are no survivors. I just wanted to let you know I would be working here the next few days.”

  “Thanks. I know it must be intense there. Don’t forget to get some sleep.”

  “I’ll manage. How did the tests go today?”

  “They have run several, but they haven’t told me many results yet.”

  “You’re comfortable? They are treating you okay?”

  “They are making this as pleasant as they can. Is there anything I can do for you, Kate? Call others in the family? Anything?”

  “Give Stephen and Jack a call later and make sure they’re okay. Lisa if you can track her down. They have really seen a horrific sight. I’m okay for now; I’m working with Dave.”

  “I’ll call them. I’m glad Dave is there for you.”

  “He’s stuck like glue at the moment.” Jennifer laughed, and Kate forced herself to relax. “Do you know what time the tests start tomorrow?”

  “Eight o’clock.”

  “I’ll call you first thing in the morning to see how your evening went.”

  “Thanks. Take care, Kate.”

  Kate hesitated before making the next call. Marcus. What did she want to tell him? Ask him? She paged him and did something she rarely did. She added her personal emergency code.

  He returned the call within a minute. She could hear muffled noise and realized with some surprise that he was calling from an aircraft. “Kate? Are you at the airport?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m twenty minutes out of Midway.”

  “You heard about the tape?”

  “I heard a plane went down with a federal judge I once protected. And I’ve got a page I’ve been trying to return to Dave. What tape?”

  “Hold it. You protected retired judge Michael Succalta?”

  “Three years ago. A drug money case out of New York.”

  Marcus O’Malley had a connection to this flight as well.

  “Kate, what tape?”

  “There were two bomb threats called in. The first one was five words. ‘Get ready for a bomb.’ The second came at 11 A.M.; we’ve got it on tape. Marcus, the exact words of that second phone call were: ‘The bomb goes off at eleven-fifteen. The plane is talking to the tower. Tell Kate O’Malley I haven’t forgotten the past.’”

  “Your name? Why didn’t you page me immediately?”

  Kate took his anger for what it was, fear. “I was crawling inside the wreckage for the first couple hours. I’ve been in meetings and deep in researching the passenger list since then.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Where are you working in O’Hare?”

  “Second floor of the administration building. Bob Roberts in the command center can give you directions. Dave and I are working on the passenger list.”

  “Stay with him.”

  She was puzzled at the intensity in the order. “Why? What are you assuming?”

  “The politics of the situation are going to be dicey. There are reasons Judge Succalta might have been the target, classified reasons. You don’t want to be in the middle of this any more than you already are.”

  “Wonderful. That gives us two real problems. That bank incident last Thursday? The owner, Nathan Young, sent me flowers at the hospital; I had an appointment with him for Wednesday. He was on the plane, as was his brother.”

  “The gunman—Henry Lott?”

  “He’s only spoken with his lawyer since Tuesday.” She had a fullblown headache setting in. She so desperately wanted to tell him about Jennifer and couldn’t—she had given her word, but it was all coming down on her like a tidal wave. “Hurry, Marcus. I’m in over my head.”

  “As soon as I can.”

  She got no answer at Rachel’s. Rather than leave a message, she decided to call back later. She wasn’t up to another surprise.

  Kate took her time walking back to the conference room, trying to sort out this latest wrinkle. Marcus had a tie to a retired judge on the flight. She had a tie to a bank president on the flight. “Tell Kate O’Malley I haven’t forgotten the past.” Could it mean a tie to the O’Malley family past? How many threads were they going to have to chase?

  It felt like everything in her life was coming apart at the same time: Jennifer’s cancer, her black rose suitor coming back, and now someone determined to drag her through a nightmare. She either needed half a day on a basketball court or somewhere private to cry.

  She reached the conference room and took a deep breath before stepping inside. “Dave, we’ve got another wrinkle.”

  “Kate, I thought I taught you to duck.” Marcus tossed another case file onto the stack of suspects, his annoyance clear.

  She looked at the case number and winced. She hadn’t told him about that one. At his insistence, they were going through her old cases while others dug into his link with the retired judge. As he had put it quietly when she protested—if someone was targeting her, he wanted to know it sooner versus later. It was classic Marcus, determined to protect her. Dave could give him lessons. She hadn’t been able to move today without Dave shadowing her. She let Marcus
get away with it because peace in the family often meant accepting a bit of smothering. Dave was a different matter entirely.

  It was almost 10 P.M. They had sent Ben to attend the evening update meeting so they could stay here and work. Debbie and Graham from her office had joined them. Even with the extra help, it was slow going. The first pass through her cases had turned up almost sixty of interest. Twenty-three men with violent pasts released in the last two years. Three cases involving airlines. Thirty-two cases where explosives had been used. It felt like they were being dragged into a quagmire with no end in sight.

  “Holding up?”

  She looked up at Dave’s quiet question, then nodded. He obviously didn’t agree because he closed the file he was reading and dropped it back on the stack. “Let’s take a short break and see about getting something to eat. Ben may have something from the update meeting that will help us focus this search.”

  When no one objected, Kate accepted the suggestion gratefully. She walked downstairs with Dave and Marcus. After arranging for dinner to take back, they found a corner of the break room where cold drinks had been set up. Leaning against the counter, Kate opened a soda, needing the sugar and caffeine. Just walking away from the problem was giving her a different perspective on it. “Why didn’t he call back?”

  Dave looked over. “What?”

  “He blew up a plane, and he doesn’t want to comment on it? Why not a call back to the tower, the media? Somebody?”

  “It may not be a true terrorist incident,” Dave replied.

  Kate nodded. “That’s my point. We have been assuming one person was the target. But if one person was the target, this was overkill.”

  Marcus frowned. “Enormous overkill.”

  “Is your retired judge worth this kind of collateral damage?”

  Marcus thought about it. “He has some intense enemies, but I would have expected them to hire a hit man, not a bomber.”

  “Exactly. The same with our bank president. If someone wanted him out of the way, why not take a shot at him? The bomber has put himself at the top of every most wanted list.”