SIXTEEN

IT WAS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, AND SETH WAS STILL WORKING. The office was quiet, and he had several things to complete before he could leave. The television in the office break room was broadcasting the national news. He was focused on the organized pile of reports in front of him when the news reporter mentioned a name that brought him to his feet.

“Dr. Bradley Rivers crash-landed into a hangar, killing his second wife, her two children, and his daughter. Dr. Rivers survived this crash, which is similar to a plane crash he survived three years earlier.”

Seth came from around his desk and walked into the break room. The news was showing a photo of Dr. Rivers, his latest late wife, and her two children. They had been an attractive family, just as Rivers’s first family had been.

“According to the FAA, the first accident Dr. Rivers survived was a result of pilot error. Dr. Rivers misread the instruments, causing him to miss the landing strip. In this current horrific accident, an undisclosed source stated that Dr. Rivers told local authorities the engine stalled, which caused him to attempt to turn the plane around and land at the airport he had just left.”

Seth didn’t believe what he was hearing. Two very similar accidents, and each accident had killed Dr. Rivers’s wife and children. This accident managed to kill the surviving daughter from his first marriage, too. Seth wondered what the odds were of a pilot surviving two plane crashes in which passengers were killed.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, Seth was able to access the archives of the FAA’s NTSB. It wasn’t hard to locate the first accident report or the decision of the FAA. The report indicated that Dr. Rivers had not misread the instruments, as the news had reported, but that he did not have enough fuel to reach the airport. According to the report, FAA regulations required an aircraft to have enough fuel to reach not only its destination airport but also an alternate airport. This safety measure was designed to ensure the plane had enough fuel to circle if needed or to land at an alternate airstrip should something unforeseen happen. According to the accident report, Rivers had intentionally removed fuel to add shopping items his wife had purchased. Fuel weighs a lot more than shopping bags. Seth wondered exactly what his wife’s purchases had been that required such risk and if she had been aware of the choice. With the money the good doctor had, why hadn’t he shipped the items instead of risking running out of fuel?

As he skimmed the accident report, Seth recognized another name: attorney Eric Wilkerson. He knew Eric was an attorney, but he wasn’t aware he had a relationship with Dr. Rivers. He wondered if Eric was still Rivers’s attorney and if he would be assisting in this new accident investigation.

It was dark when he had finished downloading and reading all the documents. He turned off the television in the break room and the lights to the office, locked the doors, and went home. He was already planning his next kill, and he knew how he was going to do it. The stirring of excitement he felt as he developed his plan was better than he had ever felt before.