Emily Locke 01 - Final Approach

waited for answers we couldn’t phrase.
    “Why aren’t you at work today?” Jeannie asked David. I’d nearly forgotten she was there.
    David looked at her, irritated. “What?”
    “Why aren’t you at work today?”
    He scoffed. “Took a day off. Things to do.” He gave Jeannie a final glance and turned back to Vince. “What’s going on, man?”
    Jeannie sighed an exaggerated, impatient sigh that indicated she’d crossed over into loose cannon mode.
    “I thought,” she said to David, “that you were sick.”
    Richard pursed his lips and shot her a stare.
    “How do you know I called in sick?” David looked from Jeannie to Richard. “I don’t even know you. Who are you people?”
    “I’m sorry for the ambush,” I said. “The truth is, Richard knows you called in sick today because he’s in touch with CPS.”
    David ran his hands through his blond hair and clasped his fingers behind his head, elbows to the sides. When he took his seat again, he let his hands fall into his lap.
    “Why are you in touch with CPS?” he asked Richard. “Why so interested in me?”
    “Who you are, and where you work, matters to me because you live with Trish Dalton.”
    Vince raised his head.
    “I don’t know the right way to say this…” I said. “Trish is…involved with—”
    “Your girlfriend’s a felon,” Jeannie said.
    I scowled at her.
    “A felon?” Vince asked.
    “The boy I’m looking for,” Richard said, “It looks like Trish was involved in his kidnapping, and a long line of kidnappings before his.”
    “That’s nuts,” David said. “What makes you think—”
    Richard continued. “Trish flew for the company this boy’s father worked for. She had access to information that would facilitate his abduction. We have evidence linking the kidnapper to Gulf Coast Skydiving. And the boy’s mother recognized a photo of Trish.”
    “
Worked
for?” Vince asked.
    “Dead,” Jeannie announced. “Shot in the chest, dumped in a river.”
    Vince looked stricken.
    David shook his head. “Trish would never—”
    “Before you get too deep into defending her,” Jeannie added, “you should know she has another man.”
    I marveled at her utter lack of tact.
    David looked at me. “What’s she talking about?”
    “Jeannie,” I said, “could you please not…”
    David didn’t seem to hear. “That’s crazy,” he said. “You’re not making sense.”
    His ignorance was painful. But, I decided he’d have to hear the facts now and nurse his wounds later.
    “She’s using you,” I said. “She’s involved with another man, probably has been since way before she met you. They run this scam together.” I looked at Vince. “They sell babies on the black market.”
    Vince’s face grew paler. He looked away, incredulous.
    I continued. “I found a computer file. The baby Richard’s looking for is being sold today, to somebody in Tempe, Arizona.”
    Vince’s head snapped up. “That’s why she took the plane.”
    His candor jarred me. “What do you know about the plane?”
    “I know it’s not
here
,” he said. “I was supposed to fly it back to Oklahoma this morning. An FBI agent gets shot at our airport last night. The plane is gone. My cousin’s missing. It’s not too hard to figure she’s had a hand in this.”
    “Why would you conclude that?” David asked.
    Vince glared at him, “She’s not the woman you think she is.”
    “You didn’t mention the FBI agent earlier,” David said. “What do you mean she’s not who I think?”
    I wondered what Vince and David were discussing before we got there.
    Vince checked his watch. “She took the kid to Tempe in the Otter. They must be there by now.”
    I shook my head. “She didn’t take him to Tempe. Somebody else took him, or he’s still in Houston.”
    Vince cocked his head.
    I wasn’t sure how much to say. Vince’s role in this wasn’t clear. Just because he looked surprised didn’t mean he actually was.
    “Emily was on the plane,” Jeannie said. “No Casey.”
    “You were on the plane?”
    I looked for help from Richard, but he shrugged. If Vince was part of the operation, he already knew, or would soon find out, what happened on the plane anyway. And if he had no part in it, there was no harm in telling him what happened. I explained about the night before.
    When I came to the part about Scud, Vince sat down. He seemed more shocked at Scud’s involvement than Trish’s. I told him about our struggle in the