Page 10 (1/2)
"Okay"
"This is no time to take chances"
"I understand"
"Now" He shifted in his chair "What&039;s this about a reporter?"
"Jack Rogers is working on a story that ations we&039;re sending the wing offshore Leaked docu And he&039;s relating the leaks to, ah, friction in the executive suite"
"Friction?" Marder said "What friction?"
"He&039;s been told that you and Edgarton are at loggerheads He asked if I thought ement conflicts would affect the sale"
"Oh, Christ," Marder said He sounded annoyed "That&039;s ridiculous I&039;m behind Hal one hundred percent on this It&039;s essential for the co What did you tell him?"
"I stalled him," Casey said "But if ant to kill the story, we have to give hiarton, or an exclusive on the China sale It&039;s the only way to do it"
"That&039;s fine," Marder said "But Hal won&039;t do any press I can ask him, but I knoon&039;t do it"
"Well, somebody needs to," Casey said "Maybe you should"
"That could be difficult," Marder said "Hal has instructed me to avoid the media until the sale is finalized I have to be careful here Is this guy trustworthy?"
"In round, he&039;ll cover ht Then I&039;ll talk to hi else?"
"No, that&039;s all"
She turned to leave
"By the way, how&039;s Rich out?"
"Fine," she said "He&039;s just inexperienced"
"He see to do"
"All right," Casey said
"That was the proble to do"
"Okay," she said
Marder stood "See you toone, a side door opened Richot hurt in 64 this afternoon Where the hell were you?&039;
"Well, I was - "
"Get this straight," Marder said "I don&039;t want anything to happen to Singleton, you understand me? We need her in one piece She can&039;t do this job from a hospital bed"
"Got it, John"
"You better, pal I want you next to her at all ti"
QA
6:20 PM
She went back down to her fourth floor offices Nor fro for you"
"Okay"
"Richer to leave, anyway But I talked to Evelyn in Accounting"
"And?"
"Rich was billed to custoram office That&039;s a slush fund they use for baksheesh And the kid spent a fortune"
"How hty-four thousand dollars"
"Wow," Casey said "In three ht"
"That&039;s a lot of ski trips," Casey said "Hoere the charges billed?"
"Entertaines?"
"It&039;s a production account," Norma said "Which means it&039;s controlled by Marder"
"Marder approved these charges?"
"Apparently Evelyn&039;s checking for et more later" Norma shuffled papers on her desk "Notto be late with the transcript of the CVR There&039;s a lot of Chinese spoken, and their translators are fighting about thetheir own translation, so"
Casey sighed "What else is new," she said In incidents like this one, the cockpit voice recorders were sent to the FAA, which generated a written transcript of the cockpit conversation, since the pilots&039; voices were owned by the carrier But disputes over the translation were the rule on foreign flights It always happened
"Did Allison call?"
"No, honey The only personal call you got was frohed "Never mind"
"That&039;d be h the files on her desk Most of it was paper on Transpacific 545 The first sheet summarized the stack that followed:
FAA FORM 8020-9, ACCIDENT/INCIDENT PRELIMINARY NOTICE
FAA FORM 8020-6, REPORT OF AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT
FAA FORM 8020-6-1, REPORT OF AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT (CONTINUATION)
FAA FORM 7230-10, POSITION Loos
HONOLULU ARINC
Los ANGELES ARTCC
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ATAC
AUTOMATIC SIGN-IN/SIGN-OFF LOG
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ATAC
FAA FORM 7230-4, DAILY RECORD OF FACILITY OPERATION
Los ANGELES ARTCC
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ATAC
FAA FORM 7230-8, FLIGHT PROGRESS STRIP
Los ANGELES ARTCC
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ATAC
FLIGHT PLAN, ICAO
She saw a dozen pages of flight path charts; transcriptions of air traffic control voice recordings; anda sheaf of fault record data - so far the only hard data they had to ith
She decided to take it home She was tired; she could look at it at home
GLENDALE
10:45 PM
He sat up in bed abruptly, turned, put his feet on the floor "So Listen babe," he said, not looking at her
She stared at thelines of his shoulders
"This was great," he said "It&039;s great to see you"
"Uh-huh," she said
"But you know, big day tomorrow"
She would have preferred he stay The truth was, she felt better having hio He always did She said, "I understand It&039;s okay, Teddy"
That , crooked smile "You&039;re the best, Casey" He bent over and kissed her, a long kiss She knew this was because she wasn&039;t begging hi the faint odor of beer She ran her hand around his neck, caressing the fine hairs
Alain "So Anyway Hate to run"
"Sure, Teddy"
"By the way," Teddy said, "I hear you toured the gardens, between shifts "
"Yeah, I did"
"You don&039;t want to piss off the wrong people"
"I know"
He grinned "I&039; for his socks "So, anyway, I probably should be heading out"
"Sure, Teddy," she said "You want coffee, before you go?"
He was pulling on his cowboy boots "Uh, no, babe This was great Great to see you"
Not wanting to be left alone in the bed, she got up, too She put on a big T-shirt, walked him to the door, kissed hirinned "Great," he said
"Good night, Teddy," she said
She locked the door, set the alarh the house, she turned off the stereo, glanced around to see if he had left anything Otherbehind, because they wanted a reason to coone There was only the unfinished beer on the kitchen table She threw it in the trash, wiped away the ring ofherself for months to end it (End what? End what? a voice said), but she so the words She was so busy at work, it was such an effort to one with Eileen, Marder&039;s assistant, to a country-and-western bar in Studio City The place was frequented by young movie people, Disney ani She wasn&039;t beautiful, and she wasn&039;t young; she didn&039;t have the effortless glaht jeans and crop tops
Thefor her, their smooth faces unformed And she couldn&039;t make small talk with the She had a job, a child, she was looking at forty She never went out with Eileen again
It wasn&039;t that she had no interest insoh tiy In the end, she didn&039;t bother
So when Teddy would call, say he was in the neighborhood, she&039;d go unlock the door for hiet in the shower Get ready
That was how it had been for a year, now
She ainst the headboard, reached for the stack of papers, and began to review the records froh the printout:
A/S PWR TEST 00000010000