The Last Hostage (44 page)

"No problem," Annette said as she stood and gestured to the man.

"This is Chris Billings of CNN."

Kat nodded.

"And you're the FBI agent?" he asked. She saw his eyes glance to a notebook full of scribbled entries, then back at her. "Ms. Bronsky?"

"Kat Bronsky. Yes. Are you broadcasting?"

He looked at the phone. "Not right this second. They're taking a ten- minute break, then I'll go back live. As she said, I'm Chris." He extended his hand and she shook it. "Ah, Agent Bronsky, could I ask you a few questions?"

"Briefly."

"Okay. When you were talking on the P.A. about the porno picture you found on Bostich's computer I got the feeling you agree with the captain about Rudy Bostich. But I went back and talked to Mr. Bostich a while ago, before a mob started threatening to throw him out of the emergency hatch, and he swore there were no pornographic pictures on his computer when he came aboard, and if you found anything there, it was only because the captain planted it to discredit him. He said the same thing to the captain in that bizarre 'dueling P.A.' episode.''

Kat looked at Annette, then back at Chris Billings. "Truth is, there was no time for the captain to plant anything on that computer, Chris." She explained the sequence of events and the fact she'd been in the cockpit from the first moment Ken Wolfe had brought the computer forward.

"And those pictures are.., that bad?" he asked.

She looked at him in silence for a few seconds, until it was obvious he was becoming uncomfortable.

"Chris, have you ever seen a pornographic photo involving a female child? I mean, hardcore, everything's visible? Illegal stuff?"

He shook his head rapidly. "No. I mean, I'm certainly not interested in--"

She raised her hand to stop him. "I'm not saying you are, but in your reporting career, you've never seen such garbage?"

"Never."

She nodded. "Okay. Just so you'll know, when I go back up front in a little while, if Wolfe okays it, I'll bring you forward to look at the evidence. It will sicken you, I promise."

She straightened up and moved aft in Annette's direction, finding a sullen Bostich in the same window seat looking out the window.

"Mr. Bostich?"

He looked up suspiciously. "Yes?"

"We need to continue our discussion, sir. I'm Agent Katherine Bronsky of the FBI. We talked over the radio an hour or so ago."

He glared at her without moving, his left hand under his chin, his index finger massaging the edge of his mouth as she stood in the aisle and looked at him.

"What do you want?"

"Please stand up, sir. We're going forward."

He shook his head. "I'm not going back to the cockpit with that maniac."

"No sir, I want you to accompany me back to your seat in first class where we can talk in private." She looked around at the number of passengers who had turned and raised up in their seats to hear the exchange. "Or, maybe you'd rather we talk back here where everyone can participate?"

Bostich exhaled and reluctantly pulled himself from the seat with a dark scowl. He followed her through a gauntlet of boos, hisses, and worse to the first class cabin, where she motioned him into seat 14

again and asked Louise Richardson in seat 13 across the aisle to relocate to a seat several rows away.

Bostich assumed the same sullen, defiant position and looked up at her.

"All right, what do you want?"

She sat sideways on the armrest of seat 1 B and looked at him. "The question, Mr. Bostich, is what do you want? You're in quite a pickle here. Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot to read you your rights."

He snorted. "I've done nothing wrong! I don't need Mirandizing."

"Nevertheless, this is a formal interrogation, Mr. Bostich. You are suspected of possession of illegal pornographic materials. First, you have the right to remain silent." Kat repeated the entire litany of the Miranda warning as Bostich looked away with a sneer on his face.

When she'd finished he looked back at her.

"Are you about done?"

"No, sir, I'm just getting started."

"Yeah? Well, let me fill you in on reality, babe. You're way out of your league! That fool in the cockpit is going to end up on a table in Leavenworth with a needle in his arm, but you--when I get through with you, Miss Bronsky--you'll be lucky to find a position as a crossing guard somewhere."

She smiled and nodded. "I always liked crossing guards, and I've always liked children. And, judging from those pictures on your computer, you apparently like children, too, Mr. Bostich. Female children. Preferably nude and spread-eagled."

"Bullshit!"

"Oh, really? You are obviously aware of what Captain Wolfe said he found on your computer. Do you deny that computer is yours?"

"I have no reason to believe he's even touched my computer."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? Perhaps you'd like to try to find it in the overhead where you left it?"

Kat stepped back and Bostich got to his feet and pulled open the overhead compartment, slamming it shut with a grunt when he found it empty.

"Sit down, Mr. Bostich," she ordered. "I'll be right back."

Kat moved to the cockpit door and quietly knocked six times in the sequence Ken had requested. The door swung open and she disappeared inside, returning a few seconds later with Bostich's computer, and a tiny tape recorder she'd found in the prosecutor's briefcase.

She sat in the aisle seat on the right side and looked over at Bostich.

"Mr. Bostich, I've borrowed--or commandeered, if you want--your microcassette tape recorder, and I'm turning it on now. Do you acknowledge the fact that I'm recording what you say?"

He snorted. "You steal my recorder to use against me? Sure, go ahead. It'll never be admissible."

She held up his computer.

"This computer has your business card attached to the case, Mr. Bostich.

Do you recognize it as your computer?"

He snorted and nodded.

"Out loud, please."

"Yes, it's my goddamn computer, but since it's been stolen by that maniac, I have no control over what's been planted there."

"Did you buy this computer new?"

"Yes."

"Where did you buy it?"

"By mail order from the manufacturer in Texas, I think."

"Has anyone else used this computer on a regular basis?"

"Others have had access to it."

"I didn't ask that, Mr. Bostich. I asked you if this has been your personal computer, used normally by only you."

"Yes. I'm the primary user."

"Stay in your seat, Mr. Bostich." Kat opened the cover, turned it on, and when the computer had finished spinning up, she entered the appropriate commands to bring up the list of recovered files. She triggered one of the first, and waited until the lurid photo had materialized, then moved to the armrest across the aisle and turned the screen around so he could see it.

"Keep your hands in your lap, Mr. Bostich, but look at this screen.

Do you recognize that picture?"

"No! Of course not! That's been planted there."

She closed the lid and held the computer in her lap as Bostich motioned to the laptop and then the cockpit.

"He stole my computer. That disgusting image, and anything else that shouldn't be there, he obviously put there."

Kat inclined her head as if puzzled. "Well, you have a problem with that explanation, Mr. Bostich, because I'm a witness to the chain of evidence, and he didn't have any time alone with it before these pictures were discovered."

Bostich brightened, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

"Oh, of course! You helped him. Without a warrant or probable cause, you' started probing my computer and helped him fabricate these charges.

That means that whatever you think you found is inadmissible.''

She shook her head. "Wrong. I didn't touch this computer before these files were discovered. Ken Wolfe found the files without any input from the FBI. Once found, they constituted probable cause. You should know that." She leaned forward slightly. "See, Mr. Bostich, despite your arrogant attitude on the radio a while ago, I had virtually no reason to suspect you liked kiddie porn. Nor, for that matter, did the captain."

"I don't like child pornography!"

"Then why is this picture--and fifty others like it--on your computer?

It does exist. I just showed you one of them!"

He shook his head. "All I can tell you is, to the best of my knowledge there were no such files or pictures on any segment of my computer at any time when I walked on this aircraft! Somehow Wolfe has manipulated you and my computer. I can't make it any more clear than that. Why is that picture there? Hell, I don't know, but I didn't put it there, and I didn't know it was there."

There was a movement on her left, and Kat realized Annette had quietly come forward and was standing a row behind, listening. Kat began to ask her to leave, but thought better of it, and looked back at Bostich.

"So, you're telling me, Mr. Bostich, that you were unaware at all times that there were pornographic picture files of any sort on your computer, in any form?"

He shook his head. "That's right. I never had anything like that on my machine. Good Lord, I'm a federal prosecutor. There was no such material on my hard drive."

"There is now."

"The machine was stolen from me by a hijacker who hates me, right? You think for a second a court would consider that uncontaminated evidence? Not a chance."

Kat shook her head. "Perhaps you didn't hear me, Mr. Bostich.

From the time I came aboard this aircraft, I have been in constant visual contact with Ken Wolfe, and he never had a moment to manipulate your computer."

Bostich leaned forward with a smirk on his face. "So, Miss Amateur Lawyer, did you consider the fact that it had to have happened before you came on board?"

She inclined her head toward the passenger from 13 who had moved to the back. "I believe you'll find there's a witness who'll testify that from the time your computer was placed by you in the overhead, no one touched it until Wolfe pulled it out and brought it immediately to the cockpit.., with me watching." She patted the top of his computer and looked up. "You've got a big problem here, Counselor.

These files do exist, they are on your computer, they are illegal, and they were not planted here by the captain or by me. So, how can you explain that reality?"

"Look, you idiot! I've already told you. I do not have, maintain, or otherwise possess any pornographic material in my computer. Understood?"

"The pornographic picture files that were found on your computer were locked with your password. Not a random password, but one you've obviously used to lock very routine files as well. Did you hear Captain Wolfe mention that password?"

"I heard him mention a password, but I didn't memorize what it was."

"The password he mentioned was 97883PSY."

"Okay."

"Is that your password?"

"It is a password I've used, yes. But it isn't really secure. I carelessly keep it listed in an unprotected file, which I'm sure Wolfe found, so anyone could use it or plant it."

"What is the significance of those numbers and letters?"

"They're random. Just random numbers."

"And the letters 'PSY'?"

He shrugged. "I can't recall."

"Could that be a contraction for a particular word, Mr. Bostich?" "No."

"So it has no significance, was picked at random, and in no way is related to the slang term for a particular part of the female anatomy?"

"What are you suggesting? That 'PSY' stands for pussy? No. It doesn't. I think you're obsessed with sex, Bronsky."

She smiled and shook her head in amazement. "I'm not the one who keeps kiddie porn hidden in my computer."

Bostich came forward in the seat, arms flailing, eyebrows flaring.

"Goddamn you! There was no kiddie porn in my computer. I didn't load any, I didn't have any, I never had any, I didn't maintain any, and there were no erased files on that hard drive as far as I know!

GOT IT?"

Kat looked at him in silence as Bostich looked back at her, defiantly, unaware what he had blurted. She waited a very long half minute until Bostich blinked and looked away, then she cleared her throat.

"Mr. Bostich, why did you mention erased files?"

"What?"

"Well, if files are erased, they're gone, right?"

"I always thought so," he replied, his eyes darting from her face to the wall and back.

"So why would you feel the need to assure me you hadn't erased any files? I'm curious, because before you brought it up, I never mentioned to you the fact that such files existed."

Bostich leaned back, looking trapped. "I just meant I never had any files on that computer that were pornographic. I didn't want you thinking I might have had some there at one point, and then gotten rid of them."