Every Bitter Thing Page 8

  “Because?”

  “Because if we don’t, and soon, he’s liable to kill someone, or someone’s liable to kill him. How about you check the passenger lists for domestic airlines?”

  “Sure. Glad to help.”

  “Did Clancy pay the hotel with a credit card?”

  “He did, and we have the number. But it’s an American card. I’ve had dealings with those people, Chief Inspector, and they’re a pain in the ass. The Americans are too damned afraid they’re gonna get sued. They don’t cough up anything without legal paper.”

  “I have a friend who’s a cop in Miami Beach. You think he can help?”

  “Don’t waste his time. They won’t give it to him either. We’ll get you the information eventually, but we’re gonna have to go through channels.”

  “And how long is that likely to take?”

  “At least a week, probably more. It’s not like we’re at the top of any of their priority lists.”

  Silva told Cizik to do it anyway, thanked him, and placed another call to his nephew.

  “The Gloria?” Hector said. “Isn’t that the place where Bobo—”

  “It is. Listen, I’ve been thinking about that flight. Something else occurred to me.”

  “What?”

  “We should consider the flight crew as well. Find out who worked the business-class cabin.”

  * Dependent of Aline Arriaga, TAB employee #13679, traveling on standby.

  ** Minor child accompanied by parent.

  Chapter Twelve

  BRUNA NASCIMENTO AND LINA Godoy breezed through immigration and followed the rest of the crew to the waiting van. A ten-minute drive brought them to the Caesar Park Hotel. The rising sun was painting the building with gold as they maneuvered their small suitcases through the revolving door and into the marble-floored lobby.

  They checked in, sent their luggage upstairs, and then, as they often did after a long flight, the two young flight attendants went to the coffee shop.

  Forty-five minutes later, they were on their second pot of hot chocolate and trying to get rid of Horácio Leão. Leão, their copilot, was handsome, single, and on a fast track to captain. He was also vain, shallow, and a crushing bore. His interests, as far as Bruna could determine, were limited to airplanes and sex. Horácio had been trying to get Bruna or Lina into bed for some time, and he’d made it abundantly clear that he’d be equally happy to score with either one.

  “I’m just below the penthouse,” he was saying. “You can’t believe the view from up there. It’s almost as good as the one I get from the cockpit.”

  Bruna toyed with her spoon and glanced out of the window at an A320 on its final approach. Lina looked at the tablecloth.

  “So, how about it?” Leão looked from one woman to the other.

  “One of you ladies want to have a look? I’ll get the check.”

  He turned to signal the waiter; Bruna and Lina exchanged a what-an-idiot glance.

  “We have some girl things to talk about,” Bruna said as Leão scribbled his name on the check. “What’s your room number?”

  Leão furrowed his brow. She could practically see him decide to be hopeful.

  “1607,” he said.

  “See you later, then.”

  Later, she thought, would be when they were in the van, on their way to board the return flight.

  Leão got to his feet and favored her with a leer before he swaggered off.

  “Creep,” she said, as soon he was out of earshot.

  “Screw him,” Lina said.

  “Not on your life.”

  “Figuratively, I meant. Come on, Bruna, come with me. It’ll be fun.”

  Bruna shook her head. “I need sleep.”

  They were on a seventy-two-hour layover. Lina was going to her uncle’s country place in Juquiti, a municipality three hours’ drive to the south. The uncle’s partner, Franco, was a gourmet cook. And neither man ever talked about airplanes.

  But Bruna was exhausted. Her holiday on St. Bart’s had been anything but restful. Henri, the diving instructor she’d met on St. Jean Beach, had seen to that.

  “I’m going to get into bed,” she said, “and I’m going to sleep for twelve hours. Then I’ll take it from there.”

  “Take what where? This hotel’s in a dead zone.” Lina gestured toward the window where the control tower of Guarulhos Airport towered over some shrubbery and a chain-link fence.

  “But in here there’s double glazing and room service,” Bruna said. She glanced at her watch. “Let’s go up to the room. Your uncle’s almost due.”

  “He’s always late,” Lina said.

  UPSTAIRS, LINA stripped off her skirt and blouse. Bruna kicked off her shoes and inquired about messages.

  There weren’t any.

  Lina opened her suitcase, took out a shoulder bag, and started stuffing it with things she might need. “Nothing from your Frenchman?” she asked.

  Bruna shook her head. “I’ll give him another ten minutes. Then I’m going to block incoming calls.”

  “You? Block incoming calls? You must be exhausted.”

  “I told you,” Bruna said, standing up and removing her blouse.

  “Why don’t you call him?” Lina said and disappeared into the bathroom.

  “You have any idea,” Bruna said, raising her voice so Lina could hear her over the sound of running water, “how much it would cost to call St. Bart’s from this hotel?”

  “Probably a lot, but you could make it short, tell him to call you back.”

  “I told him where I’d be. He’s the man, so he’s supposed to call. I don’t want him to think I’m chasing him.”

  “Which you are.”

  “Which I am, but I don’t want him to think so.”

  Lina stepped out of the shower and Bruna stepped in. She’d just turned off the tap when the telephone rang. Lina answered it, but it wasn’t Henri. It was her Uncle Eduardo, and he was downstairs.

  “Gotta run,” she said, coming into the bathroom to give Bruna a peck on the cheek.

  Bruna heard the door slam and picked up the hair dryer.

  IT SEEMED as if she’d barely laid her head on the pillow when something woke her from a steamy dream in which Henri was playing a major role.

  She squirmed, stretched, and looked at the clock. Half past eleven. She’d slept three hours, no more. She frowned, rubbed the sleep from her eyes. And then it came again: the sound of someone rapping at her door. She was sure she had hung out the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Once more, the same knock, furtive, as if the knocker didn’t want anyone in the neighboring rooms to hear; insistent, as if the intruder knew she was there.

  Which, of course, he did. It had to be that damned copilot. He must have seen Lina leaving for her uncle’s sitio, must know Bruna was alone.

  “Who’s there?” she said, not bothering to keep the irritation out of her voice.

  There was no answer.

  “I’m trying to get some sleep,” she said. “Whoever the hell you are, come back later. Come back in ten hours.”

  The reply came in the form of three gentle taps, neither harder nor softer than before.

  Furious now, she went to her open suitcase and felt around until she’d found her kimono.

  “All right,” she said, searching for the sleeves and finding them. “I’m coming. Wait.”

  And she did let him wait. She went into the bathroom, splashed some cold water on her face, grabbed a brush and smoothed her blond hair. Finally, she went to the door and removed the chain. If she’d been more awake, or if it hadn’t been the Caesar Park Hotel, with all the security in the world, or if she hadn’t been quite sure that it was their copilot, she might have kept the chain on.

  But she didn’t.

  Chapter Thirteen

  GUARULHOS, THE LARGEST OF São Paulo’s international airports, is viewed with favor by the aviation community. Congonhas, the smallest, is not. The shortest runway at Guarulhos is in excess of three thousand meters; the
shortest at Congonhas measures less than fifteen hundred, barely enough for a modern passenger jet. But that isn’t the worst of it. The worst of it is that the runways at Congonhas aren’t grooved.

  Grooving is a technique whereby tiny trenches are cut into the surface of the concrete to drain rainwater. At Congonhas, an airport famous for inclement weather, rainwater on the runways often accumulates to a depth exceeding twenty-five millimeters, which is barely the thickness of a fifty-centavo piece, but it’s enough to cause aquaplaning, a fancy word for a skid.

  Passenger jets depend on two devices to bring them to a stop: brakes and reverse thrusters. If either fails, and if the runway is as short as it is at Congonhas, skids can be fatal.

  Hector approached the airport from the city center, passing on his right the blackened ruins of a warehouse. The area had been closed off by a brand-new fence now lined with flowers and teddy bears. Beyond the fence, bulldozers were demolishing walls and clearing rubble. Thirteen days earlier, a TAB flight from Porto Alegre, landing in light rain and with only one thruster functioning, had skidded off the runway to Hector’s left. The runway and the area around it were higher than the road. The Airbus had retained just enough momentum to clear the heavy rush-hour traffic before plunging into the warehouse.

  Killed were 187 passengers on the plane, several employees working in the warehouse, and a few passersby, a grand total of 199 deaths. The authorities were still sorting out carbonized bodies, still trying to fix the blame for the disaster.

  Hector parked in the underground garage, took the elevator up to the terminal, and asked to be directed to the airline’s personnel department.

  “Aline Arriaga, Aline Arriaga,” the obliging young man repeated to himself, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “Ah, here she is. Works check-in on the noon to eight.”

  The young man was wearing a red blazer and a name tag identifying him as G. Salcedo, Assistant Manager. He reached out for a telephone without taking his eyes off the screen.

  And put it down as quickly as he’d picked it up.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Sorry, what?” Hector said.

  “She’s off today. She works Saturdays and Sundays, takes Thursdays and Fridays off. She’ll be here on Saturday.”

  “She live close by?”

  Salcedo consulted his screen, “Not really. Mooca.”

  The Mooca neighborhood was a long way from Congonhas.

  “I’ll drop by her place tomorrow,” Hector said. He made a writing gesture. “Could you give me her address?”

  “Sure.” Salcedo grabbed a ballpoint pen and made a note. “Can you tell me what this is about?”

  “Sorry,” Hector said. “Police business. Confidential. But I can tell you that she isn’t a suspect. It’s just a routine inquiry.”

  Salcedo passed the paper to Hector. Hector slipped it into his breast pocket.

  “Something else,” he said. “Can you access the flight-crew assignments? Tell me which of your attendants was on which flight and when?”

  “Which flights are you interested in?”

  “Just one. The 8101 from Miami International to São Paulo on the twenty-second of November, specifically the business-class cabin.”

  “You’re in luck.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the twenty-second of November was less than three months ago, and we only keep that kind of information for three months. Unless there’s an incident report, that is. Then we keep it longer.”

  “Incident report?”

  “Yeah, you know, reports on unusual occurrences, like a passenger getting physically abusive.”

  “Happen often?”

  “Not often. But when it does, we keep the records. It’s a crime, you know.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And then there are the subpoenas.”

  “Subpoenas?”

  “First thing a defense attorney does is subpoena our reports, looking for some loophole to get his client off.”

  “Who makes the reports?”

  “The chief steward. Then the captain signs off on it. What was that flight again?”

  “The 8101 on the twenty-second of November.”

  “The 8101 is a daily flight. Are we talking about departure or arrival?”

  “Departure. The one that left on the twenty-second, and arrived on the twenty-third.”

  Salcedo’s fingers returned to the keyboard. While he was at it, an older man approached his work station.

  “Is there a problem, Gabriel?”

  Hector glanced at the newcomer’s name tag. He was E. Dornelles, Manager.

  “No, Senhor Dornelles. No problem. This man is from the police.”

  “The police?” Dornelles raised a pair of bushy eyebrows. “How can we be of service?”

  Hector told him what he wanted.

  Dornelles asked him why he wanted it.

  Hector told him the same thing he’d told Salcedo, that it was a police matter, confidential.

  Dornelles turned to Salcedo. “The conversation between the two of you is over,” he said.

  “But—”

  “But nothing, Gabriel. It’s over. I’m sure you have other duties to attend to.”

  Salcedo nodded but didn’t move.

  Dornelles stared at him. “Well?” he said.

  “This is my work station, Senhor.”

  “Take a break. Go have coffee.”

  When Salcedo was out of earshot, Dornelles turned back to Hector. “You have some kind of identification?”

  “I showed it to Senhor Salcedo.”

  “I’d like you to show it to me.”

  Hector did.

  Dornelles gave Hector’s warrant card close scrutiny and then handed it back. “All right, Delegado, I’m convinced you are who you say you are. But if you don’t tell me exactly why you want this information, I won’t give it to you.”

  Hector bristled. “I can get a court order.”

  Dornelles was unperturbed.

  “You can,” he said. “And we’ll comply. Of course, it might take us a while to find the information you need. We have so many records. It might take us a week, maybe even two weeks. Do you have two weeks to spare, Delegado?”

  Hector opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Dornelles continued. “On the other hand,” he said, “you can back off on the confidential bullshit and, if I’m convinced that what you want isn’t something that’s liable to cause any damage to this airline, I might be inclined to give it to you.”

  “Might?”

  Dornelles sighed. “Do you have any idea, Delegado, how many lawsuits are launched against this company each year?”

  “No, and frankly, I don’t care.”

  “Of course you don’t. Why should you? But I do.” He gestured in the general direction of the devastated warehouse. “What happened just across the street is a prime example. The relatives of those victims are still in a state of grief, and I can’t blame them, but they’re lawyering up just the same. Pretty soon the civil actions will begin. Are they going to sue the people who make the Airbus 320? You bet they are. Are they going to sue the airport, which means the government? You bet they are. And are they going to sue us? You bet your ass they are. But who do you think, in the end, is going to wind up carrying the can?”

  “I don’t—”

  “Yes, I know. You don’t care. But bear with me. Airbus is far away, in France. They’ve got deep pockets, but they’ll also have the data from the flight recorders, the famous black boxes—which, by the way, aren’t black, but orange.”

  “What do the black boxes have to do with—”

  “I’m explaining. Hear me out.”

  Dornelles waited for Hector to nod before he went on:

  “The Airbus people will say there wasn’t a damned thing wrong with the design of their aircraft. They’ll say that an indicator light pointing to a malfunction of one of the reverse thrusters was working perfectly. They’ll say the malfunction was de
tected before the flight took off from Porto Alegre. The black boxes and our own maintenance reports will prove them right. Unfortunately for us, the black boxes have been located, and the reports have already been impounded.”

  “Where are you going with all of this?” Hector said.

  Dornelles continued as if he hadn’t heard him: “That will leave this airline, and the government, as the only two defendants. The government should have fixed the goddamned runway years ago, but they didn’t. They didn’t because of corruption in the contracts, and because of incompetence, and because the politicians wanted to show their constituents a shiny new parking lot and a renovated terminal, instead of investing money in something invisible like grooving the fucking runway.

  “In a just world, the government would lose the case. But this is our government. They’re going to appeal, and re-appeal, and in the end the families of the victims might get some money sometime in the next century. That leaves this airline holding the bag. The money bag, I mean.

  “The victims’ lawyers are going to claim negligence and pilot error, and we’re going to fight it, and the odds are we’ll lose. Now, granted, there has to be responsibility for a tragedy of this magnitude, but it isn’t fair that this airline should have to bear all of that responsibility just because a damned mechanic decided to postpone the repair of the thruster, and a damned captain decided to sign off on it.”

  It had been a long speech, delivered with mounting passion, and Dornelles was winded at the end of it. It could have been his money he was talking about, and if he’d stopped there, Hector would have classified him as a company man to his fingertips.

  But Dornelles wasn’t finished.

  “I’m covering my ass here,” he said. “If I want to keep my job, I’ve got to help to keep this airline afloat. Fifteen years ago, the biggest air carrier, the flag carrier of this country, was Varig. I put seventeen years of my life into Varig, expected to draw my pension from Varig. Do you know what happened to them?”

  “They filed for bankruptcy.”

  “Exactly,” Dornelles said, as if he’d finally gotten his point across. “So you tell me what I want to know, or you can go out and get your court order.”