on away from himself with professional skill.
"Bob, look," he said, addressing Kessler by his given name for the
first time during their interview, "I'm not criticizing you personally
for a second. And that's not why I asked you to stop by. I asked you
to come over and see me as a favor. You're not working for me and I
don't pretend to be in any position of authority as far as your
investigation goes. I asked you here because I'm deeply concerned
myself about these accidents and I wanted to know if you could
enlighten me in any way. May I say one personal thing though? Aren't
you getting emotionally involved in this?"

"Of course I'm emotionally involved!" Kessler burst out. "I'm sorry,
George." He passed his hand over his face and went on in a lower
voice. "It's just that I've been eating, breathing, sleeping, dreaming
this thing for the last six months. I feel as though I knew everyone
of those seventy-three people personally. The Patterson girl, who
looked as though she might be going to have a little good luck for a
change. I even know that the pilot nicked himself shaving that
morning. His friends called him Mike even though his name was Edward.
He had a fight with his wife the night before. She wanted to eat out
and he wanted to stay home. He was working with this crew for the
first time though they all knew each other very well."

"Really?" Brogan perked up. "I suppose I knew that. Is it possibly
significant?"

"Possibly, possibly. Everything is possibly significant but nothing
really adds up. The routines were all standard, the four men were all
vets. Aside from the pilot they had all worked together for years, off
and on."

"Still, couldn't wires have gotten crossed as a result of some
misunderstanding with a new pilot aboard?"

"Sure they could. What with the flight engineer being a souse and the
pilot new to the crew and the co-pilot just back after a two-month
layoff because of a ski accident. 'Human error,' that's what I said."

"Ski accident? I thought it was the stewardess that had the ski
accident? I'm not going to trip you up in your own bailiwick now, am
I?"

"Stewardess?" Kessler frowned. "You must be mistaken, senator."

"I felt quite sure," Brogan said musingly.

"I know your reputation for a fact, senator," Kessler said
uncomfortably, "but a stewardess with a ski accident. Oh! Oh, yes.
But not recent. That was Miss Sosnak, but it was almost a year before.
The newspaper accounts got garb