Hey guys, i won't be able to update until late tomorrow as I have a flight to catch and I'm heading to New York. But updates will come. Tell me what you think so far.
Elliot had just entered the house by now, and he had seen the fear in her eyes. Olivia hadn't told him anything, neither had Robert, all he knew was speculation of pilot error. She turned away from Robert and grabbed Elliot, guiding him towards the front door. She put on her heeled black boots, thick heels that made her three inches taller, more sophisticated looking, the way the leather made her look slick. She hadn't grabbed a jacket, as it was nearing seventy outside. She opened the door, bombarded with photos and questions. The first time she would be outside of the house. The door shut closed and left Robert in the house.
"Elliot lets go, you're driving."
She pushed her away past the press, shoving the questions aside. She made it it Elliots squad car, entering the vehicle and finally having Elliot start the engine and drive away from the crowd.
Elliot looks at the thinning woman in the passenger seat.
"Where to?" he asks, keeping his hands on the wheel
"I don't care."
"Coffee?"
Olivia looks out the window, her hand resting against her head
"Sure."
In the wake of Robert's news, which Olivia most insistently refused to credit, had only wanted to be with Elliot right now. Margaret was alright with Julia, but Olivia couldn't tell the four year old that her father had taken his own life, let alone 344 other's lives. She wouldn't believe it was suicide. It couldn't be. It was impossible, she thought. It was unimaginable, unthinkable, out of the question.
"There saying suicide." Olivia blurted out, her eyes looking into the distance
Elliot immediately looked at the woman, seeing her profile, her eyes droopy, her expression, broken. He couldn't form the words, he couldn't ask why. He wouldn't.
"I'm-"
"El, don't bother. It couldn't of been suicide. I just won't believe it."
"Alright. Because I don't either. Now lets just get coffee, take our minds off that."
"Will I ever be able to?" Olivia says, look at him with glossy eyes
She continues
"Will I ever be able to stop thinking about the possibility that my husband was so unhappy, so depressed, angry even, at himself, someone, maybe even me, that he would take his own life, let alone hundreds of others?!" Olivia says, out of breath
"Olivia." Elliot starts "He loved you. He loved Julia. It couldn't have been suicide. He wouldn't do that."
They pull over next to the curb and Elliot guides opens her side of the door. They're at a coffee vendor outside of her neighborhood, nearby the precinct. She recognizes that it's the vendor they usually go to. It did have the best coffee after all. She got out of the car, starting out with a slower pace, a calm born of exhaustion, possibly, or simply a disguised numbness, descending upon her.
"Hey Mike" Elliot says, Olivia trailing behind her
Mike would stay out for hours with his coffee vendor, staying as late as ten pm, and as early as five am. After all, his usual customers were cops. He had been on the corner for nearly twenty years, beating out starbucks and peets for having the cheapest coffee, and for being pretty good.
"Hey Elliot, how ya doing?" Mike says, trailing over the words with his thick Brooklyn accent
He finds eye contact with Olivia, noticing how she looks different. He knew the entirety of the recent events, the woman's husband had gone down with his plane, speculations were made, but not confirmed. He didn't want to ask how she was, she was portably miserable.
"Hey Olivia, nice to see you" he says instead, choosing his words carefully
He hands both of them large coffees, and Elliot takes his wallet out, paying Mike.
Olivia takes the coffees, appreciating Mike's word choice, knowing that he's respectful to not bring up recent events.
"Have a good day." Mike says, watching the two step away from his set up
He wished Olivia the best, that she would get through this.
The two got back in their car. The thought of James came to her, his own death, coming randomly on the tail of another thought. A memory, an image, didn't rock her quite violently as it had done days before. How quickly the mind accommodated itself she thought. Perhaps that it was that after as series of shocks, the body acclimated itself. They drove through blocks of houses, passing people walking to and fourth to work. All routine, to get to work, to get home, to start the day again again.
Olivia had been one to know routine. As she had done the same thing everyday to get to work. And of course, James had understood routine. particularly in a job that had required a man to become a machine that would behave in precisely a certain way each time a circumstance came into play. Oddly, he was impatient with routine when he was out of the plane. He preferred to think of possibilities and would be ready for them. Out of the two of them, he would be more likely to say "lets go to staten island" or "lets head up north for a weekend."
They had finally pulled back up to the house, the press still there. Some ready to take photos, others eating their breakfast, choking it down, waiting to hopefully get a few words in. Elliot opened the door for her, and she walked out. Olivia walked to her front door, a path cleared by the press. Then she heard one of the questions that she knew she didn't want to hear.
"How do you feel that your husband not only took his life but murdered 344 other people?"
She immediately rushed to her door and entered into her house, Elliot delayed.
"It wasn't suicide." Elliot said, before turning into the house
They walk into the kitchen, surprised that theres more people than there was before. Next to Robert are two men, people from the airlines, Olivia assumed. She hadn't seen these particular people before. Olivia leaned against the kitchen door, her back pressing against the door handle. In the harsh sunlight that came threw the windows, she could see the smallest details on Robert's face, the faint bluish line from where a beard might have grown if he hadn't shaved, white ghost skin below his sideburns where the hair was cut shorter than an old tan line, the under shadow of his jaw.
"Whom are they?" she asks, Elliot behind her looking at the scene unfolding
"These are investigators from the Safety Board who want to talk with you."
"In my house?"
"Yes."
"Do I have to answer their questions?" Olivia asks, looking at the two men, then at Robert
He looked away, and then back again.
She nodded slowly.
"I can't protect you from the crash investigation itself. Or from legal proceedings." Robert says
"Legal proceedings?"
"In the event..." one of the men says
"I thought this was just a wild rumor."
"It is. At the moment."
"Why? What do you know? What's on the tape?" Olivia says, getting louder, as if she was interrogating a suspect
"One of our American technicians with the Safety Board was in the room when the tape was first played. He called a woman he's involved with at CNN, he apparently made statements about the tape. I don't know for certain what his motivation was in revealing this, but we can speculate. Now CNN has reported this and all the other networks are catching on. So at best, this is third or fourth hand."
"But it might bet true." one of the men says
"It might be true." he continues
Olivia shifted her feet, crossing her arms at her chest. Elliot behind her, put his arm on her back.
Robert removed a small white sheet of paper from his shirt pocket. He handed her the fax.
"This is exactly how the bulletin was read over CNN" he said
The fax was hard to read. The square letters, some with watery stems, swam before her. She tried to focus on a sentence, to begin from the top.
"CNN has just learned that a source close to the investigation of American Airlines flight 270 is reporting that the CVR-that's the cockpit voice recorder,may, and we stressed may, reveal an altercation between Captain James O'Connell, a ten year veteran with American airlines, and British flight engineer Trevor Sullivan just moments before the explosion. According to as yet unconfirmed statements, a malfunctioning headset caused Sullivan to reach into Captain James O'Connell's flight bag six and a half hours into the flight,the object that Sullivan had pulled out of the flight bag may, and again we stress may, have been the source of the explosion that ripped apart the plane, sending all 345 passengers and crew to their death. In addition the alleged source reports that the transcript of the last several seconds of American Airline flight 270 may indicate that a scuffle of some kind took place between Captain James O'Connell and flight engineer Sullivan, and that several expletives were uttered by Sullivan. Henry Slater, a spokesperson for the Safety Board, was heated earlier today in his denial of these allegations which he called maliciously false and irresponsible. This report we repeat comes from an as yet unnamed source that claims to have been present when the CVR tape was played. The CVR, as we noted earlier, was located last night in the waters off the Cliffs of Moher, in Republic of Ireland..."
Olivia shut her eyes and leaned her head back against the door.
"What does that mean?" she asked
Robert looked briefly at the ceiling of the kitchen
"First of all we don't know if it's true. The Safety Board has already issued a strenuous reprimand, the source who leaked the quotes has apparently been fired. They won't say his name, and he hasn't come forward. And second of all, even if it is true, it doesn't neccessarily prove anything. Or even mean anything. Neccessarily."
"But it does." Olivia said. "Something happened."
"Something happened." Robert said
"Oh my god." she said
It would be great to see what you guys think in a review! Here's a question for you guys.
Now that we've gotten pretty far, what are any of your questions that I could answer in the next update?