“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Someone’s in the lavatory, even though we asked everyone to return to their seats. It could be nothing but I just thought you should know.”
Jessie nodded and moved to the door. Adrenaline was pumping through her and it was all she could do to remind herself to knock softly.
“We’re about leave the gate,” she said firmly. “It’s time to return to your seat.”
There was no answer. She tried a different approach.
“Bridget,” she said quietly. “You can come out now or we can bust through this door. Either way, the jig is up.”
There was still no verbal response but she did hear a flush. She took a step back and undid the holster guard for her gun. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal a sweaty, heavyset guy in his forties.
“What the hell?” he demanded. “Obviously I’m not Bridget. The plane isn’t leaving yet so why don’t you and your ridiculous hat leave me alone?”
Jessie took note of the dusting of white powder around both his nostrils and understood why he’d been so slow to reply. He’d been busy. But she wasn’t in the mood for any backtalk. She got up close to him and growled.
“Why don’t you take your seat right now before I inform the pilot that you were snorting coke in the bathroom and you get hauled out of here for a federal crime? Or would you rather make another crack about my hat?”
Despite his chemically altered state, he seemed to get that he was out of his depth and quickly slithered past her back to his seat. Jessie watched him struggle to clamber past his first class seatmate, despite ample room. As he got settled, her eyes fell on an older woman seated in the row behind him. It wasn’t Bridget. This lady was hunched and frail. Still, something Jessie couldn’t quite place felt off about her.
After a moment, it clicked and she was briefly ashamed. The woman’s shoes were worn and scratched. Her purse was equally shabby, with a broken handle and several frayed areas. She had a wide smile plastered across her face as she giddily sipped a glass of white wine and gawked at her surroundings. It occurred to Jessie that this woman didn’t look like a passenger who would normally be in first class. She walked over and smiled down at the elderly lady.
“You excited for the trip?” she asked politely.
“I am,” the woman said excitedly. “It’s already starting wonderfully. A sweet young woman even switched seats with me. I’ve never been in first class before.”
“That is sweet,” Jessie agreed. “Where were you originally sitting?”
“All the way back in 34H.”
“Wow, I’m headed back that way myself,” Jessie said. “What does this woman look like so I can tell her what a sweetheart she is?”
“That’s nice,” the older woman said. “She’s a little thing with curly black hair and glasses. Please tell her again how much I appreciate it.”
“I’m going to do that right now,” Jessie promised.
She stepped into the economy section again and looked toward the back. Ryan was already far along, nearing the rear of the plane.
“Ryan, did you hear that?” she asked. “Check 34H. She might have glasses and a curly, black wig. Ryan?”
When he didn’t answer, she pulled out her phone. The battery was low but it seemed fine. Maybe the call had just dropped.
“Can you hear me, Kat?” she asked.
“Loud and clear. I don’t know what’s up with him,” Kat answered. “What can I do to help?”
“Give that description to the airport police so they know what to look for,” Jessie told her. “Other than that, I’m not there’s much you can do.”
Jessie looked at the seat assignment and saw that “H” seats were on the aisle on the side that Ryan was currently checking.
She tried to count back to row 34 but it was just too far away to get a clear look. She guessed it was near where a large man in the middle section was getting something out of the overhead compartment, just a few rows ahead of where Ryan currently stood. The man handed something to the woman seated across the aisle from him and sat back down.
Jessie squinted at the woman. She had dark, curly hair and glasses. It was too far away to accurately determine facial features but Jessie didn’t need to. The woman was staring right back at her. In her bones, she knew it was Bridget Newhouse.
In that moment, Bridget seemed to grasp that Jessie had identified her. She looked behind her at Ryan, then to the front of the cabin, as if calculating which direction offered her the better chance of escape.
Then, without any warning, she popped up and turned to the back of the cabin. Jessie saw what she was holding—a laptop. Ryan, whose back was to her, stood just a few rows ahead of her, blocking her path to the back of the plane. He was unaware of her moving quickly toward him as she raised the laptop above her head.
“Ryan,” Jessie shouted as she ran toward them,” behind you!”
But she was too late. The engine noise and passenger chatter muffled the sound of her voice and it was clear that he hadn’t heard her. To her surprise, instead of swinging the laptop down toward his head, Bridget tossed it across the center row of seats and, in a screech that cut through the ambient noise, yelled “Bomb!”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Jessie saw Ryan’s eyes open wide.
He clearly had heard that. His eyes followed the path of the laptop as it arced through the air and slammed into a seat on the other aisle. Panicked screams filled the cabin as people got up and rushed forward. Jessie saw Bridget push past Ryan, whose back was to her, and head toward the back of the plane.
“She’s behind you!” Jessie shouted, waving her arms wildly. But with the screams and the crush of people, there was no way he could either see or hear her. A moment later, Bridget disappeared from sight amid the mass of fast-moving bodies.
People near the middle of the plane had already opened the emergency exit doors and begun leaping onto the evacuation slides. Jessie had a flash of Bridget doing the same thing near the rear, then escaping among the throng of passengers streaming across the tarmac. The only thing that could prevent that at this point were the flight attendants back there, who would likely insist on a more orderly process than what was going on mid-cabin.
Jessie chose to believe that scenario and decided to act accordingly. Because everybody was streaming into the aisles, the middle section of seats was fast emptying out. That was her path to the back.
She dodged one skinny guy barreling toward first class. A much larger man right behind him was shoving people out of the way. Jessie clipped him as he went past, sending him off to the side and tumbling like a human bowling ball to the ground where, at least for now, he was no longer a menace.
“Stay down,” she ordered as she flashed her ID, “or I’ll have you arrested for assault.”
Satisfied that he looked sufficiently cowed, she moved into the middle row and climbed onto the seat, where she had a better vantage point. It was a long way to the back of the plane but she didn’t have much choice.
She put her hands on the seatback headrest and used it like a pommel horse to leap one row back. She did the same thing again, and then again, and another time after that. She could hear Kat’s voice in her ear but it was too loud in the cabin to understand a word she said. Instead, she focused all of her attention on getting to the rear of the plane.