We land and as soon as I’m off the chopper, I’m dialing Tic Tac. By the time I’m inside the airport, he answers. “You were supposed to call me before I took off.”
“I thought waiting until you landed was better.”
My heart is back to pounding a hole in my chest. “What does that mean?”
“The last ping was somewhere over the ocean between the Hamptons and New York City.”
I suddenly cannot feel my face. It’s an insane reaction for someone who walks through crime scenes all the time. And yet somehow, even with my world falling apart, I calmly say, “And of course a phone won’t ping under water.”
“That’s right. Lilah, I checked and—”
One of the aviation crew I know walks by and I hang up on Tic Tac to grab the man, quite literally by the arm. He turns to face me, an older man with salt and pepper hair. “Lilah,” he says, and it’s in his face.
“Kane—”
“I’m not supposed to talk to you.”
“You will talk to me.”
His eyes bore into mine, and I don’t know what he sees, but he says, “Yes. Kane has tipped me enough over the years to put my kid through college. I’ll tell you what I know. And unfortunately, that isn’t much. We just plain don’t know anything yet.”
“Bullshit,” I snap, ready to explode on him.
“Hold up.” He holds up his hands to drive home that statement. “I mean beyond the basics. They made an emergency landing in the water and a landing is not a crash. We’re expecting to hear from the crew anytime now.”
“It’s been hours since he was supposed to take off.”
“I know, and we’re not sure why our team hasn’t checked back in, but I’ll go see if there’s more news now.”
“Yes. Go now.”
He hurries away. Jay steps to my side. “What’s going on?”
“Wait for that man to return. Find me when he’s back. I’m going to the bathroom. I need a minute.”
“Lilah—”
I turn to him. “They emergency landed. The crew that went to get them is MIA.” I try to turn away and he grabs my arm.
I lift a finger. “I need a fucking minute.”
“Listen to me. If Kane suspected an attack, he’d keep the rescue crew off radar to protect himself and them. He’s smart. He’s resourceful. He knows what he’s doing. Kit probably went to get him. His men, our people, went to get him, I’m sure of it. They didn’t tell me because I would have never been able to keep it from you. I believe that.” He releases me. “Now with that in mind, go take your minute.”
I do that. I walk away and hurry to the one-stall bathroom of the tiny airport and shut the door. Suddenly, I’m back in the past, living the hellish moment I found out my mother died.
I’m in the law school library, studying for a debate tomorrow morning, when an official-looking man in a suit suddenly appears, standing over me. “Come with me please, Ms. Love,” he says.
“Why? What’s happened?”
He’s tall and stone-faced. “You need to come with me.”
I shut my books and shove them in my backpack, and I can almost feel part of my heart bleeding. Something is wrong. Very wrong. My knees are wobbling and I think someone calls my name as I follow the man through the hallway, but I don’t hear them. I barely remember how I end up in an office of some sort. “Call your father,” the man directs and shuts me inside.
I dial the number, my hand trembling. “Dad?” I say.
“Your mother’s helicopter has gone down.”
“What? When?”
“An hour ago. There are search-and-rescue teams.”
And then the tears had come.
My memory shifts to being at the secret cove where my mother had gone to be alone, the cliffs, the ocean, the wind, her escape. I knew of that place and Andrew hadn’t. I’d gone alone. I swore I’d never take anyone there. And then I’d met Kane not long after Mom’s death. He’d been my escape, and my mother’s cove had become our cove. It became our escape, the place he told me things he would tell no one else—his fears, his judgements of himself. His truth.
I inhale a deep breath and Pocher is on my mind. He ordered my mother’s murder. There is no doubt this is him again and he’s not even trying to hide it. He wants me to know he did this.
I grab my phone and I dial Tic Tac. “Lilah?”
“Get me the exact location of Pocher right now.”