“Of course not! Matt wouldn’t have hurt a fly.”

Kelly raised her hand. “I’m sorry, I have to ask. It’s part of the job.”

“I don’t understand, he’s dead. And this child was kidnapped after he died. How can it be part of the job?”

The job is often more about the dead than the living, Kelly thought, although she did not say it aloud. She chose to ignore the question.

“Why did you say Matt was brilliant?” she asked.

“He could do anything he put his mind to.”

“Was he an exceptional student while in school?”

“He was above average, although he never finished college. I remember this one time there was an online IQ test, we both took it for fun. I missed half the questions but he got a perfect score. The explanation at the end of the test said that meant he was one in a million.”

Kelly thought of hovering in a helicopter over a black ocean.

So close and yet so far. He had just slipped away.

“I can believe it,” she said.

KELLY DID not get back to her office until late. Charlie was already gone for the day, which made her both sad and relieved. Already she could see she was repeating the pattern she had displayed while pursuing the Acid Man. She had the same rationalization for her secrecy—she was chasing a wild lead, nothing more. Yet she was finally able to admit to herself that she was emotionally ill-equipped to be an FBI agent. She resented the chain of command. She wanted to be the boss. Worse, she wanted to be the hero.

She read over the NTSB report and uncovered a couple of facts Gabe Adams had not mentioned. Matt had been flying a Cessna 172 when he had gone down. The NTSB investigators noted that plane did not easily slip into a graveyard spin. Indeed, the plane was designed so that when one released the controls it spontaneously righted itself. Yet Matt had plunged into the sea as if his plane had been slapped from the sky.

Another point she found interesting was that although Matt was not technically instrument certified, he had completed most of the course requirements and should have been able to fly in zero visibility. Gabe had not fully grasped Matt’s skill level. The poor conditions would not have intimidated Matt.

What exactly did she have? She took out a piece of paper and made a list.

1. Matt had been infatuated with Amy and she had devastated him when she had dumped him for David.

2. Matt’s obsession had continued long after the relationship ended.

3. Matt’s plane had behaved suspiciously before it had crashed.

4. Matt’s body had never been found.

5. Jimmy had probably been kidnapped by someone who knew the family.

6. Matt had died after learning to scuba dive, while flying from Catalina.