The Burnt House Read Online Free PDF

called up WestAir. They verified that Roseanne had been on the flight.”
    “Yeah, verified in what way?” Lodestone said. “They haven’t found her body.”
    “They haven’t finished all the recovery, Mr. Lodestone.”
    “They finished most of it,” Shareen added. “They got thirty-eight so far.”
    “Then maybe we should wait until they have all forty-seven.”
    “They aren’t gonna find forty-seven bodies, Lieutenant,” Farley said. “Besides, it don’t matter if they do find everyone on the passenger list because WestAir didn’t issue her a ticket.”
    That threw Decker momentarily off guard. “They didn’t?”
    “No, they didn’t!” Farley said triumphantly. “So how the hell did they know she was on the flight?”
    Decker didn’t answer. He wrote down no ticket? while stalling for time.
    Shareen rescued him. “Let me start from the beginning, Lieutenant. Roseanne was a flight attendant for WestAir. After the crash, when we couldn’t get hold of Roseanne, we called up the airlines. But WestAir told us she wasn’t working on flight 1324. Then the company called us up a couple of days later and backtracked. No, she wasn’t working 1324, but she was on the plane, hopping a ride to San Jose to work the route up there for a couple of nights…which is why they claimed they didn’t issue her a ticket.”
    “Wait a minute.” Decker started to take notes in earnest. “I thought every passenger who flew on an airline had to be issued a ticket.”
    “That’s what I thought,” Shareen said. “But I was wrong. This was told to me by one of Roseanne’s friends, so I hope I’m getting this right.” She took a deep breath. “Okay. Here we go. I think if you work for the airlines and you’re flying to work at a destination, you don’t have to be issued a ticket even if you’re not working the flight.”
    Decker nodded. “So it was possible for her to be on the flight and for the airlines not to have a record of it. But then they’d have a record of the assignment, wouldn’t they?”
    “They should have a record,” Shareen said. “But they’re not telling me yes, they have one, or no, they don’t have one.”
    “Right now they’re not saying nothing without their lawyer,” Lodestone said.
    Shareen said, “Roseanne used to work San Jose. So I figure that maybe WestAir was shorthanded in San Jose. So I called up San Jose, and asked if Roseanne was scheduled to work some routes up there. First they tell me no, then they tell me yes, then they tell me that if I want to talk to them again, they’ll put me in contact with their attorneys.”
    “Same old, same old,” Lodestone said.
    Shareen patted her husband’s knee. “Their hemming and hawing was making us very suspicious.”
    Decker nodded. It did sound funny on the surface, but the airline was probably in disarray.
    “I talked to Ivan,” Shareen said. “I just didn’t like what he told me.”
    “What did he tell you?”
    “That at the last minute, Roseanne changed her plans to work in San Jose. He told me emphatically that she was on the plane and he was upset enough without me making up stories about her not being on the plane. Then he said, in the long run, we were hurting not helping and that he and several other people had lawsuits pending, so we should kindly shut up.”
    “He told you to shut up?”
    “Not in those exact words, but that’s what he said between the lines. Then he told me I was in denial.” The old woman’s eyes watered. “I’m not in denial, Lieutenant. I know in my heart of hearts that Roseanne is dead. I just don’t think it was the crash that killed her.”
    “You said Roseanne had worked San Jose before,” Decker said. “Could she have gone up to San Jose to visit someone?”
    “Who, sir?” Lodestone said. “She’s married.”
    “I was thinking about a friend.”
    Shareen said, “If she was hitching a ride to visit someone, then WestAir would have had to issue her a ticket. The only