Chapter III

~III~


The return flight to Kansas City was uneventful. It went quickly for Trey, whose mind was pre-occupied with the business card and the phone number. Marjorie confirmed during the flight that Sarah had given her explicit instructions to give the card to Trey.

“Sounds like she likes you,” Marjorie had teased. She was the grandmotherly type, right down to the reading glasses that dangled from a beaded chain around her neck, and the tone suited her perfectly.

“Trey!”

“What?”

“Descend to Flight Level 240 and contact Kansas City Center on 135.5.”

“Oh yeah. Sorry Tom, didn’t hear it. I guess my mind was elsewhere.”

Trey had twice missed the radio call from Kansas City. Tom had been forced to answer the call although it was Trey’s turn to answer the radios while Tom flew.
The remainder of the flight went more routinely, until Trey taxied the aircraft up to the gate in Kansas City and the operations agent stepped into the cockpit.

“Captain West, telephone call for you in the jetway.”

“Don’t tell me. Scheduling? That’s all I need, to be rerouted—”

“No sir, it’s not scheduling.”

Trey went and picked up the phone.

“Trey, Ben Nichols. We’ve had a situation, and I’m activating you as part of the Critical Incident Response Team.”

“Aircraft accident? I’m ready to copy the details.”

“It’s not an accident, Trey. Not an aircraft accident, that is.”

“What’s up?’

There was a pause on the line.

“There’s been a murder.”

“A murder? I don’t understand.”

“Trey, a flight attendant was murdered. Her name was Mandy White. She failed to show up for her hotel lobby time and they found her in her room. It’s pretty grisly. I’m assembling a CIRT team to head to the scene.”

“Tell me where and I’ll be on the next plane.”

“That’s the funny thing. You’re already there.”

“It happened here? In Kansas City?”

“Yeah. At the Radisson Airport Hotel.”

“Oh, man, I was just there last night.”

“I know.”

Captain Nichols explained the plan. “Angela Washington is already headed from the airport to the hotel to secure the flight attendants. I need you to secure the pilot crew, Captain Bob Hargrove and First Officer Anne Bateman. We’ve retained an attorney who is headed to the hotel, too. Call me after you’ve taken care of the pilots.”

Trey hung up and went back to the cockpit and told Tom that something had come up and he had been pulled to assist as part of the CIRT, the Critical Incident Response Team.

“I can’t say anymore right now, but you’ll hear about it soon enough.”

Trey grabbed his bags and deplaned and told the ops agent as they walked together up the jetway that a captain off of another flight would be arriving soon to take over. Trey winced as he dragged his bags. He could hear the second ops agent, who had just arrived, telling Marjorie in the forward galley that a flight attendant had been murdered. News traveled fast in the airline business. Word would be out all across the system before Trey even made it back to the hotel.