Final Approach by Nance John J

Author:Nance, John J. [Nance, John J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Adventure, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781504027915
Goodreads: 28101782
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery Thriller
Published: 1990-08-22T07:00:00+00:00

14

Monday, October 22

Dr. Mark Weiss sat fulminating in a window seat aboard the 6 A.M. nonstop from Dallas to Washington National, his eyes narrowed and hard, his attention riveted on two passengers in the first-class cabin ahead whose conversation he had overheard in the boarding lounge. He didn’t know their names, but their words had told the story: they were defense attorneys for North America’s insurance carrier, carelessly discussing their efforts to fight the growing number of damage suits being filed against North America, efforts that would involve investigations into the lives of any surviving family who became a plaintiff. Mark had not thought of filing a lawsuit as yet. It had seemed obscene. But ten minutes of listening to the two lawyers changed his mind.

The weekend had been an exercise in stress and emotional upheaval following the Friday funeral. Friday night the enormity of losing his family had crashed in on him, leaving him in the deepest well of gloom and despair of his life, and only the need to know what had killed them seemed to justify going on. The night had crawled by, a slow-motion agony.

Saturday morning he pulled himself together and headed toward North America’s terminal at DFW Airport, intent on asking quiet questions about Captain Timson. He was within a mile of the terminal when he heard a radio report of the Wilkins news conference and the charges of military sabotage by electronic interference. Mark pulled to the side of the road in deep thought, the idea of questioning pilots about Timson suddenly pointless. If radio interference had killed Kim and the boys, what was the point of digging into Dick Timson’s background?

Yet, those were only allegations, and he needed to keep busy. Mark put the car back in gear and continued toward the airport.

As a psychologist and a skilled interviewer, he gained the confidence of four separate pilots during the day, one a personal friend of Timson’s, another a former copilot. By midafternoon he had an emerging portrait of the captain as a hunted, frightened personality masquerading as a firm disciplinarian in full and confident control, though he was a skillful pilot in the cockpit. From his work with other airlines, Mark knew the danger signals which prefaced human error in the cockpit, and Timson was beginning to fit the profile.

Mark spent Sunday with Kim’s family, a desultory day of quiet talks and occasional tears. He had already made his reservation to fly to Washington on Monday morning, determined to press Joe Wallingford of the NTSB to let him get closer to the investigation. With what he had learned Saturday, there were things Wallingford needed to know—even if it turned out the Air Force had caused the crash.

Barbara Rawlson had made the long-awaited call from Kansas City to Joe’s home late Saturday morning. “Joe, you were right. We found it!”

“Where I figured?”

“Just about. It took a lot of digging around in the junkyard to find where the burned luggage had been dumped. They’d already

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.