My Substitute Wife Is Not on the Return Manifest novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Statement

The board met at six in the morning in a windowless room behind the captain's office.

Three officers sat at the long table, and the flight surgeon sat at the end with a folder.

Signe took the chair facing them and put both hands flat on her knees.

Dane was not allowed in the room.

She had seen him through the door as it closed, standing in the corridor with his hands behind his back.

"Ms. Hallowell," the senior officer said. "You were aboard the ferry on Sunday."

"I was."

"You heard the pilot's radio calls during the rescue."

"I heard all of them."

"Were they clear?"

"Yes." She kept her voice even. "He called every hoist, every heading and every count. When the swimmer said there were three walk-ups missing from the manifest, he asked about the woman before he asked about anything else."

A flicker crossed the officer's face.

"You mean he asked about you."

"Yes."

"Did you believe he was impaired?"

"I didn't know until the night of the wreck, when he told me himself, that he could barely hear," Signe said. "Before that I knew he tilted his head. I knew he turned toward the person speaking. I never knew why."

She looked at the surgeon.

"I've read the paper," she said. "It's bad, and he should have reported it five years ago. He didn't. He made a choice that put another man in his seat. That's true."

The surgeon nodded slowly.

"And on Sunday, he flew forty-one people off a ledge in a gale with one aircraft and one swimmer. That's also true. I'm not asking you to weigh one against the other. I'm asking you to look at both."

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