A pilot poisoned.

The one piece of physical evidence spirited away.

And now, in the middle of all of it, a company executive trying to talk his way through a locked cockpit door during an emergency he had every reason, if her suspicion was right, to want to end in deep water.

She looked at Davis.

Whatever he tells you, she said, whatever authority he claims, that door does not open until the wheels are stopped.

He’s my superior, Davis said, not as an argument but as a man stating the thing that made this hard.