Chapter 19: The Speech

Sheridan came down the center aisle in a green dress, with Duchess on a blue ribbon at her knee.

The room applauded her.

Her eyes found mine at table one.

I nodded once.

Beck met her at the lectern with an arm around her shoulders, and the photographers raised their cameras.

"This is the woman," he said, "and this is the dog, and tonight we remember what Hollenbeck Air stands for."

The applause rose again.

He lifted a hand to quiet it.

"There has been some talk," Beck said. "Some of you have heard that mistakes were made on the night of the Dutch Ravine fire."

The inspector at table two put down his fork.

"I want to be honest with you," Beck said.

"There was a very sad misunderstanding about ground reports."

"We lost a beloved woman that night, and I grieve with my wife."

He found me in the crowd and gave me a sorrowful smile.

I stood up.

The scrape of my chair carried through the hall.

"You said you'd tell them, Beck," I said.

Four hundred heads turned.

"Vic." His voice was gentle. "You're grieving. Please sit."

"You promised the board you would tell them what you did at 4:13."

"I just told them."

"No," I said. "You told them what you hoped they'd believe."

I walked up the center aisle with the card in my hand.

Jude came out from table nine with the laptop under his arm.

The crew chief rose next to him.

Then the mechanic rose, and then the medics, in a slow line of flight jackets.

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