Chapter 3 - Someone Knew Her Hotel
Evelyn reached the door before the handle moved.
She didn't open it.
Instead, she stepped backward and called security.
A knock came.
"Evelyn?"
She knew the voice.
Claire.
The flight attendant who had brought the oxygen bottle.
"Evelyn, open up."
Evelyn looked through the peephole.
Claire stood alone.
She looked frightened.
Hotel security arrived thirty seconds later.
Only then did Evelyn open the door.
Claire's face collapsed with relief.
"Thank God."
"Why were you beside that man?"
Claire froze.
"What man?"
Evelyn showed her the surveillance image.
Claire stared at it.
Then she sat down.
"I didn't know."
"Know what?"
"He told me he was airline security."
"What did he want?"
"He asked about the overhead bins."
Evelyn's anger rose.
"You didn't report it?"
"He had credentials."
"Fake credentials."
"I know that now."
Claire covered her face.
"He said there had been a security concern involving a passenger. He asked which bag belonged to 2A."
"And you showed him?"
"No."
Evelyn waited.
Claire began crying.
"I looked at it."
That was enough.
The stranger had followed her eyes.
Evelyn sat opposite her.
"What else?"
"He asked when you would be away from business class."
"Me?"
Claire nodded.
"He specifically asked about you."
That changed everything.
Why Evelyn?
Before the emergency?
Before she'd saved Antonio?
Claire swallowed.
"He said you were part of a routine evaluation."
"What evaluation?"
"I don't know."
Police interviewed Claire separately.
Her story remained consistent.
She had been manipulated.
But Evelyn couldn't shake one fact.
Someone had been interested in her before Antonio collapsed.
Antonio was released from intensive observation the following afternoon.
He wasn't discharged.
He was transferred to a private wing.
Evelyn was preparing to deadhead home when Marco appeared with two police officers.
"Antonio wants to speak with you."
"Does Antonio always send an escort?"
"Usually more."
One officer almost smiled.
Evelyn agreed because investigators also wanted her to identify people from photographs.
Antonio looked different in the hospital.
Less invincible.
No black suit.
No carefully controlled surroundings.
Just a man sitting beside a window with an IV line taped to his hand.
"Ms. Foster."
"Mr. Vitelli."
"Evelyn."
"Antonio."
That earned a small smile.
"Thank you."
"You already thanked me."
"Not properly."
"You can thank me by telling me why someone was asking about me before you got sick."
The smile vanished.
Antonio looked at Marco.
Marco closed the door.
Antonio said, "Because your name was on a document."
Evelyn stared.
"What document?"
"A security report."
"I don't know you."
"I know."
"Then why was my name there?"
Antonio hesitated.
"Three days before the flight, my office received an anonymous warning."
"About what?"
"The trip."
"What did it say?"
Antonio opened a folder.
A printed page lay inside.
FLIGHT 728.
NEW YORK-ROME.
ANTONIO VITELLI.
Then:
WATCH THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT.
EVELYN FOSTER.
Evelyn read it twice.
"Why didn't you cancel?"
"Because I receive threats."
"That's your explanation?"
"It's the truth."
"You boarded a plane knowing my name was in a threat?"
"I had you checked."
Evelyn stood.
"You investigated me?"
"Yes."
"Without telling me?"
"I didn't know whether you were a threat."
"And now?"
Antonio looked at her.
"Now I know you saved my life."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No. I don't believe you're involved."
Evelyn walked toward the door.
Antonio called after her.
"The warning wasn't accusing you."
She stopped.
"What?"
"It said watch you."
"There's a difference?"
"Maybe."
He turned the page.
A second line had been hidden beneath the fold.
Evelyn read it.
SHE WILL SEE WHAT YOUR FAMILY REFUSES TO SEE.
Her anger gave way to confusion.
"Who sent this?"
"We don't know."
Marco spoke.
"There's more."
He placed another document beside it.
A photograph.
Evelyn recognized herself.
Taken months earlier.
At an airport café.
She was laughing with someone.
Her father.
On the back, handwritten:
FOSTER REMEMBERS.
"My father?" Evelyn whispered.
Antonio said nothing.
"What does my father have to do with you?"
"We don't know."
But Evelyn knew he wasn't telling her everything.
She called her father immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She texted.
DAD, CALL ME.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No one spoke.
Then a man's voice whispered:
"Ask your father about Rome."
The call ended.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Antonio rose despite Marco's protest.
"What happened?"
Evelyn didn't answer.
Another message appeared.
A photograph.
Her father standing outside his house.
Taken minutes ago.
Beneath it were five words:
HE NEVER TOLD YOU WHY.
Then her father finally called.
Evelyn answered immediately.
"Dad?"
Silence.
"Dad?"
A breath.
May you like
Then he said the one name she had never heard him speak before.
"Vitelli."
