Flight 19, Part II, page 29
Patricia Sanders would never recover from the death of her daughter. She was eventually committed to an asylum after having a mental breakdown. Her marriage to Bart evaporated six months later, and within twelve, Bart met a woman who loved guns as much as he did.
Tammy stayed in touch with him, but as one year became two, and then five, the annual trips to see him eventually ceased.
Six years after killing his daughter, Bartholomew Sanders would be killed at a firing range by a stray bullet. In the end, he died doing what brought him joy: shooting guns.
“Dad!” Emily shouted from the lounge-room.
“Yes?” Dave responded, from somewhere in the rear of his home.
When Emily did not respond, he gritted his teeth, stopped what he was doing, and grumbled his way to the front.
“You could always just come to where I am, you know,” Dave said as he stood and stared at Emily.
When she gazed up from her phone, reading the text message she’d just gotten from Todd, she took a long, deep intake of air.
“Shit,” she said. “She’s already here.” Looking out through the windows, she saw the figure of a person walking up the driveway.
She jumped to her feet and said to Dave. “Todd just texted me. He told me his mother, Kylie, wanted to…”
The knock on the door was measured and evenly spaced.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“What is going on?” Dave said, looking down to his jeans and realizing he was quite underdressed for visitors.
Emily muttered profanities under her breath as she walked to the front door.
She opened it a moment later.
“Kylie, hi,” Emily said, looking at Todd’s mother with the best smile she could manage.
“Hi, Emily. Can I come in?” Kylie said, her tone low-key and pleasant.
“You bet. Come on in. Oh, you can meet my dad too.”
When Kylie walked into the living room, Dave stood up from his chair. “Hi, I’m Dave, Emily’s father,” he said.
Kylie walked up and offered her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Dave,” Kylie said.
She turned to Emily. “Is there somewhere we can talk privately for a moment?”
Emily looked over to her dad, and before she could answer, Dave said, “Why don’t I go back to what I was doing and leave you two be for a minute?”
Emily shook her head vigorously, and Dave could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t want him to go too far away.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Kylie,” Dave said before disappearing down the hallway.
The two women sat silently on the sofa for a moment.
“I know Todd wanted to meet me here,” Kylie said, “But just before I arrived, he sent me a text telling me he couldn’t make it. He said something urgent had come up.”
Kylie stared across the living room, seeming to gather her thoughts.
“I need you to do something for me, Em.” She spoke in a whisper.
“Anything,” Emily said.
Kylie stared into space.
“Does my husband have an illegitimate son?”
The question struck Emily hard. But she knew she’d struggle to avoid telling Kylie the truth.
“Yes,” Emily whispered, before closing her own eyes to hold back a tear.
Kylie patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s not your fault, Em. It’s okay.”
Emily opened her eyes.
“Todd has been looking for him, right?”
Emily nodded faintly.
Kylie sat back and cursed.
“That cheating son of a bitch. How old is this guy?”
Emily took a deep breath and said, “I think he’s around fifteen.”
Kylie shook her head. Emily could see she was upset.
“About that long ago, I suspected Andrew had an affair. I think it was a barmaid. She flirted with him even when I was there with him. When I confronted him, he denied anything had ever gone on.”
Emily shook her head and wondered what else she could say. She knew there was nothing that would make this moment any easier.
“I overheard Andrew on his phone one morning. He didn’t know I was listening. He said to some guy on the phone, ‘If Todd brings my bastard son home, your neck will be on the chopping block’.”
Kylie started to cry. Emily tried to console her.
When the tears stopped, Kylie sat back and wiped them from her eyes.
The look on her face had changed slightly. Now she’d started to look angry.
Kylie stared out the living-room window before turning back to Emily.
“My marriage to Andrew is over,” she said.
Kylie held true to her word. When she left Andrew the next day, it was the beginning of the end for the mighty Andrew Roberts.
With his marriage over, the guy started to unravel. The first restraining order she put on him did not bode well for Andrew at work.
As his reputation began to disintegrate, people within the force started coming forward to tell stories that Andrew had believed were safely buried by bribes and intimidation.
Some of those names are familiar to us.
Michelle Lowne successfully stopped her transfer to a police station on the other side of greater Los Angeles. When she went over her boss’s head, it took only a few days before it became part of the web of lies revealing itself around the not-so-honest cop Andrew Roberts.
Johnny Kelseanno, better known as Johnny the Mac, took a leap of faith and put all his cards on the table.
After a month’s suspension, he returned to work with a new lease on life.
The Mac and Todd became good friends outside work, as, eventually, did their partners. The four became inseparable. Two years later, with Emily by his side, Todd had asked the Mac if he could put down those Big Macs and instead hold onto two wedding rings for a moment.
Andrew Roberts was eventually fired from the California Highway Patrol.
He would leave the state of California in shame, unable to handle his fall from grace. He’d end up on his cousin’s farm in rural Texas, working as a farmhand before an untimely accident, involving a tractor, a bottle of whiskey, and a sad and lonely old man, ended his life ten years later.
Kylie Roberts remained a much-sought-after single woman for quite some time after her divorce was finalized twelve months to the day after that awkward conversation with Emily.
She had no desire to jump back into a relationship, and wondered if she would ever get married a second time.
But at Todd and Emily’s beautiful late-afternoon wedding, held on the breathtaking roof terrace of the Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, something really unusual happened.
Kylie had a strange sensation while chatting to one of the guests among the eighty people invited to her son’s wedding. She felt as if she’d been in this very spot at another time, talking with this very person.
She and Dave Collins had been speaking about all manner of things. He seemed like a decent guy, and was dressed very nicely. Out of the blue, he asked her if taking her out for dinner would be too unusual for her.
Kylie smiled back to him and said, “Not at all.”
Three years later, Todd and Emily Roberts would return to the roof terrace of the Casa del Mar.
This time around, Todd would be the best man, and Emily would be the maid of honor.
For their parents.
Epilogue—Part Two
“But this was your idea,” Melanie said to Darcy over the phone.
“I know,” he said, with a grin she couldn’t see, “but I just had a craving for an almond berry chicken salad sandwich.”
“Where are you?” Melanie shook her head and could feel the smile creeping across her face. “My God—you went all that way for a sandwich? I don’t think so, Michael Edward Darcy.” Melanie could hear his snicker, and it brought joy to her heart. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to have this get-together without you. Enjoy the sandwich and get back here as soon as you can. I miss you.”
As Michael rang off, those last words of Melanie’s would stay with him forever. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had said those three words to him.
Now’s not the time to think of that, Michael. You’re trying to impress someone.
“There’s a familiar face,” said Janice Webb, the cafe’s owner, as she saw Darcy sitting at her counter.
She walked up to him. “It’s nice to see your friendly face again. How long are you in town for?”
Darcy felt like a teenager all over again. His heart fluttered and his hands went a little clammy.
“Long enough to ask you out for dinner,” he said.
Janice shook her head and laughed. She couldn’t think of anything she’d like to do more.
“Well, you’d be staying in town tonight, then,” she said.
Darcy wondered if he’d ever want to leave Piedmont.
But he would.
Don’t worry, it was all for a good reason.
After the sale of Darcon went through six months later, Darcy was a billionaire three times over. He could be anywhere on the planet he wanted to be.
When he bought the luxurious beachside home in Carmel by the Sea, Monterey, it was because he wanted to be close to the people he now treated like family.
Janice Webb eventually moved there from Piedmont, and along with her own daughter they became part of the clan. Although Michael insisted she needn’t work, she bought a quaint little cafe on Ocean Avenue, which she ran for a few years before retiring.
Michael, flush with cash, did something else quite commendable.
He saved Pacific International Airlines from bankruptcy.
The year after the A380 reappeared in 2021, the company went to the wall in a matter of months.
No one would dare get on one of their planes. It took years for the trust to return and the patronage to pay the bills.
But Darcy’s $680 million injection turned the company around in under three years, and saved the 8,000 employees from losing their jobs. Darcy continued to remain a significant shareholder for many years to come, and also ended up giving away close to two billion dollars of his money to a vast array of charities and organizations. Those generous donations brought relief and happiness to many people around the world.
Melanie rang off from her call with Darcy and shook her head. She was happy for him. He’d flown all that way just to buy a sandwich from a lady he had a crush on. Melanie thought it was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard of.
Darcy was the one who’d organized the barbecue at Melanie’s home, part of him doing his best to help her get back into the social rhythm again. He’d teed it up with Tony and Tammy, who would take care of everything on the day. Darcy had planned on being there, of course, but the night before, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to go to Piedmont the very next day.
The get-together was now humming along. It was mid-afternoon in one of coastal California’s prettiest seaside villages. The sun was shining, the breeze coming off the Pacific Ocean was pleasant, and the conversation and drinks were flowing. Tony tended to the barbecue while Tammy took care of the salads and other dishes.
Lee Lather would become a regular face in Carmel by the Sea, and found the idea of living in St. Louis, away from Tammy, less attractive as the weeks and months rolled on. She happily helped Tammy tend to the food. She’d brought her new man to Monterey for the weekend, too.
Tammy couldn’t help but giggle like a teenager when Lee eventually told her what his full name was: Quentin Tinderson.
Lee made her promise she wouldn’t laugh in his face when he was first introduced. Unfortunately, she failed. What were the odds of meeting someone on Tinder whose last name was Tinderson?
Darcy had surprised Melanie with a little gift he’d bought her the day before the barbecue—a miniature poodle.
The dog was a tiny ball of black fluff, and so small he fit almost snugly into both of Melanie’s hands. She fell in love with him at first sight. At first, she wanted to call him Roscoe, but thought a few minutes later that this felt a bit weird.
So she decided to call him Buster. Being a male, she didn’t want him to sound like a sissy, as a miniature poodle and all.
After lunch came and went, and the last song of an album ended, Melanie looked down and realized Buster wasn’t sitting there looking up at her.
“I think I’d better find the ball of fluff,” she said as she rose to her feet. As she got to her doorway, Tammy shouted, “Please—pretty please, put on my favorite CD. It’s on the top of the pile.”
Melanie agreed, not sure which disk Tammy was referring to, and went straight for the music system inside before searching for Buster.
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Melanie said to herself, smiling, as she studied the CD on the top of the pile. Hall & Oates—the guys from the seventies with awesome hair and one mustache. The CD was their greatest hits.
Who was she to get in the way of her friend’s love of some seventies music?
She put the CD in.
“Thank you, baby,” Tammy shouted from outside a few moments later.
Melanie walked into the kitchen and found the ball of fluff in no time. He was chewing on something from the barbecue. It was nearly as big as he was.
Just as she knelt down to pick up Buster, Tammy screamed at the top of her lungs, startling Melanie.
She heard a glass drop and smash all over the balcony.
Melanie put Buster down and, as she rose to her feet, could hear unfamiliar voices coming from the direction of the balcony.
She could hear Tammy crying and Tony saying things she couldn’t understand.
Melanie ran from the kitchen and through the balcony doors in a second. When she got there, everyone stared straight at her. Tammy and Tony were in tears and breathing heavily.
Melanie wondered what the hell was going on.
She realized there were four other people standing on the balcony.
Two of the four men were holding up another, who clearly looked like he’d been in the wars.
Jesus, Melanie thought, the guy looks like shit.
As he asked the two men to let him stand on his own, she realized.
It was Ross.
Melanie fainted right there and then, and for real this time.
She woke a few minutes later, lying on the couch. Tammy was by her side.
“I just had the weirdest dream. Ross was alive and standing on the balcony.”
Tammy shook her head, and between sobs, said, “I’m glad you’re lying down.”
As she stepped away, Melanie looked up. Ross was standing there looking down at her.
He dropped to his knees, reached out for Melanie, and said, “I have one hell of a story to tell you, baby.”
In the background, the Hall and Oates CD kept going. Only later would Ross and Melanie remember the actual song that was playing the moment they embraced. It would be their favorite song forever, and the one they chose for their bridal waltz some months later: “How Does It Feel to Be Back.”
Epilogue—Part Three
“I want you to meet some people,” Ross said as he rose to his feet and began to hobble toward the balcony.
When they arrived outside, Ross told the guys who’d brought him home, “You three, I want you to meet my fiancée, Melanie.” They approached her, and Melanie could’ve hugged all three of them for hours.
“This one here—his name is Todd. Todd Roberts.” Melanie gave him a hug and said, “You were on the plane, right?”
Todd said, “It’s good to see you, Melanie.”
Ross then tapped her on the shoulder and ushered her to meet the next one. “This one here—they call him ‘the Mac,’ but he tells me his name is Johnny.”
Melanie went to shake his hand, but dispensed with the formality and hugged him as well.
“Thank you for bringing my man home to me,” she said as she kept her arms around him for a moment.
When Melanie finally backed away, there was only one left.
Ross stepped up to the guy and put his arm around him.
“This one here is special.” Ross smirked as the guy blushed. “If it weren’t for him, I may have never made it back here.” Ross struggled to keep his emotions under control.
Todd put his hand on the guy’s shoulder.
“You’ve done good, little brother,” he said. The boy would never forget those words.
Melanie stepped closer to him and said, “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.” She put her arms around him and hugged him firmly.
He would tell Melanie later it was the first time he could ever remember a woman hugging him with affection.
It would be one of the turning points in his life.
“His name is Jason,” Ross eventually said, when Melanie backed away from him. “I owe him my life. He is one brave guy, I can tell you.”
Ross, Melanie, and everyone else on the balcony ventured into the living room.
Ross wiped his face with his hand. He hadn’t had a beard in over ten years, and was looking forward to shaving it off.
He sat on the couch with Melanie by his side.
“I was carjacked when I left the charity event at the Arts District.” He studied his hands and could recall the moment as if it had just happened.
“There were six of them. I’d just sat in my car, and didn’t even have a chance to turn the key. My door flung open and they dragged me out by my throat.”
Everyone in the room hung on his every word, but he stared at Melanie.
“All I remember is the commotion, the shouting, the fists. I think one of them head-butted me, and next thing, I’d blacked out. I woke up in this darkened room, my head throbbing, feeling like I’d been run over.”
Ross turned to Todd, Johnny, and then Jason. He would never forget them as long as he lived.
“We think they bundled me into their car and one of them took the Jag. It just so happens that the one who took my car also took everything I had on me.”
