They both said hello.
‘Fine, upstanding Americans, by the sound of it.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hardy said.
‘Southern manners,’ she laughed. ‘What’s up?’
‘Have you heard about the crash over in Denver?’ Logan asked.
‘Of course. Awful, isn’t it?’
There was no tell-tale change in her tone.
‘We had a call from someone who thinks that her husband was on the flight…’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘… but the airline has no record of his name on the passenger manifest.’
‘Okay. I’m not sure what this has to do with DHS.’
‘Well, Alex called the airline and they put him on hold and when they came back on it was someone from law enforcement.’
‘FBI, I think,’ Cahill said.
Jones was silent, though they could hear the sound of her fingers tapping on a keyboard.
Cahill hit the mute button.
‘She’s going to cut us off,’ he said to Logan. ‘More cover-up bullshit.’
Logan held up a hand and re-activated the phone.
‘Susan, is there anything you can tell us about that flight?’ Logan asked.
‘I’m checking our systems. Hold on.’
Tap-tap-tap
‘No alerts at our end that I can see. What’s your friend’s name?’
‘Tim Stark,’ Cahill said. ‘Used to be FBI and then Secret Service.’
‘Oh my. Let me check the name and see what I can find. Call you back in five.’
Five stretched to ten, stretched to twenty.
The phone rang. Logan pressed the button to answer and activate the speaker.
‘Logan, it’s Susan.’
‘That was a long five minutes.’ He tried to keep his voice light.
‘I know. There’s a flag on your man Stark.’
Cahill frowned. ‘Why?’ he asked.
‘I can’t tell you that. In fact, I shouldn’t really tell you anything else.’
‘He’s just about the most patriotic guy I know,’ Cahill said. ‘Bleeds red, white and blue. And he has a wife at home who’s tearing her hair out in a panic because nobody will tell her anything about what’s going on.’
‘I’m sorry. I can’t say any more.’
‘Can you tell us if he was on the flight?’ Logan asked.
‘At least that,’ Cahill said. ‘Please.’
She was quiet.
‘Susan…’ Logan said.
‘Tim Stark wasn’t listed on the flight,’ she said. ‘But the manifest shows that John Reece was on it.’
Cahill leaned back in his chair, looked at Hardy and shook his head.
‘Thanks, Susan,’ Cahill said. ‘I appreciate it.’
‘No problem. And I’m sorry.’
She ended the call.
Logan looked from Cahill to Hardy and back again. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
‘She just told us that Tim was on the flight.’
‘That’s not what she said.’
‘What she said was, he was on the flight using an assumed name.’
‘Which means what?’
Cahill didn’t reply.
‘It means that he’s dead,’ Hardy said.
11
Cahill stood and stretched.
‘Is that it?’ Logan asked.
‘It’s as much as she can tell us, and she shouldn’t even have said that. We can’t push it with her any further.’
‘So what are you going to do now?’
‘I’m going to make a very difficult phone call to Melanie Stark to tell her that her husband is dead. I need to do it alone.’
Cahill left Logan and Hardy in the War Room and walked to his office at the south-west corner of the building. It was bigger than Logan’s office, but not ostentatious. He had a couch as well as a similar desk and shelving unit. His desk was covered with photographs of his wife and two girls.
He sat at the desk and lifted his phone. After a moment, he dialled Melanie Stark’s number. A man answered.
‘I’m looking for Melanie Stark,’ Cahill said.
‘This is her son. Can I help?’
Cahill thought: your mother will need your help shortly.
‘No, thanks. I need to speak to Melanie.’
‘What’s this about?’ He started to sound tense.
Cahill heard a woman’s voice in the background asking who was on the phone.
‘My name is Alex Cahill and I’m a friend of your dad. Your mom will want to speak to me, son.’
‘Hold on.’
The phone clattered down on a hard surface. Cahill pulled his own phone away from his ear at the noise. He couldn’t blame the boy for being upset — angry even. Cahill felt some of that himself.
‘Alex,’ Melanie Stark said, picking up the phone. ‘What have you heard?’
‘Does the name John Reece mean anything to you?’
Pause. ‘No. I mean, I don’t think so. I never heard it before.’
‘Never seen that name written down anywhere in the house?’
‘Alex, what’s this about? Does this man Reece have anything to do with what Tim’s caught up in?’
‘Sort of.’
‘Alex…’ She knew that he was stalling.
‘Melanie…’
Always the bad news is preceded by the name, spoken softly. Like it helps.
‘No…’
‘I can’t be totally certain, but the information I have makes me believe that Tim was on that flight out of Denver.’
No sound this time.
‘I’m so sorry, Melanie. I really am.’
He could hear the scream starting way down inside her, rising up from a place so deep inside that no person should ever have to know the pain it brought as it burst up and out. Cahill had heard it before. Too many times.
‘If it helps,’ Cahill said, ‘I can’t believe that Tim was involved in something illegal. That’s not the Tim I knew.’
He knew he’d said it already today, but what else was there to say?
‘Are… you… sure?’ She was barely able to get the word out between sobs.
‘As sure as I can be. He was on that plane when it went down.’
