The Betting Window
by Bill Kowaleski
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 |
part 2
The next morning I had it all worked out. Treena was still in my cell phone contacts. Why not?
“Hey, Treena, how’s tricks?”
“Stan, why are you calling me? You ain’t gettin’ no money from me.” That whiny voice! How did I ever put up with that?
“Don’t need any. You know, I been thinking. We parted on such bad terms. I’m trying to make some changes in my life, be a better person, so I thought maybe I’d give you a present just so we could be friends.”
“Huh? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I am. You know, baby, I still have a weakness for you. I know it’s crazy, but what can I do? So this guy I know can get me a ticket to Cancun for a flight next week. Just one. I can’t use it, and I was wondering whether you might want it...”
Her tone of voice changed from guarded to interested. “Well, Cancun, that sounds pretty nice. You mean you don’t know nobody who wants to go?”
“Nobody who can go with such short notice. That’s the problem.”
“I see. Well, you know, I just might be able to do it. I don’t know why you’re really doing this, Stan, but hey, why not?”
“Great. Are you still living in the same place?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool, I’ll bring it by tomorrow, say around six?”
“Hey, Stan, you just put it in the mailbox, hear? I don’t want you comin’ in.”
“Oh, not even just one quick hug?”
“No way! In the mailbox.”
“All right. One step at a time. Look for it after six tomorrow.”
The next morning I rummaged around in my sock drawer and, sure enough, there was the five hundred thousand life insurance policy I’d bought for Treena when we first got married, paid up in advance. Then I bought the ticket. It was all coming together so well that it was almost too good to be true. Now all I had to do was wait.
The window into the future never lied. The plane went down, and Treena was on it. The day after it happened, it occurred to me that her brother was none other than Dennis, the guy who’d got me the airport job, and the only decent member of her family. This revelation happened when I saw him approaching me down the long concourse corridor.
“Stan, did you see the news about who was on that plane?”
“No, Dennis, I didn’t really pay no attention to that.”
“Treena was on that plane along with some guy she was dating.”
“Oh my god! Dennis, I’m so sorry for you. It’s just unbelievable!”
He seemed awfully upset. I didn’t know they were so close. His voice was cracking, and I could see tears in his eyes.
“Why would she be going to Cancun? I don’t get it. She never said a word about it to me, and she was always talking about the most minute details of her life.”
“Well, maybe she, like, did it on short notice or something, or maybe the guy she was with wanted it kept a secret?”
“Yeah, well, it’s just very strange.”
He seemed more than just upset. I could detect something else, and it seemed a lot like fear. Why would he be afraid?
I waited a week and then put in my claim. The insurance company said that under the circumstances, there would be an investigation. On the news, there was talk that the plane may have come down due to an explosion in the baggage area. I thought they checked the bags for bombs. How could that happen? If it really was a bomb, my claim might be denied. Then I’d be out the cost of that ticket. Not cool.
Two weeks passed and, for the most part, I kept away from that window. I was getting really paranoid that someone else would notice it and maybe put two and two together and guess that I had sent Treena to her death. But was what I did even a crime? I knew the plane was going down, but the reason I knew was certainly not something that had ever been considered by the law. I was beginning to wish I hadn’t done it. And then things got worse.
I was just finishing up a refresh of gate B29 when a youngish guy in a nice black suit came up to me. You don’t see too many suits in the airport these days. They’re gonna be maybe bankers, salesmen, politicians, law enforcement.
Sure enough, he introduced himself to me. “Mr. Nowitski?” He didn’t wait for me to answer; he already knew who I was. “I’m Special Agent Mark Sellars.” He showed me his badge.
“Mr. Sellars, what can I do for you?”
“Got some questions about the air crash. Could you come with me and we can discuss this further?”
“Uh, I’m working now...”
“Yeah, I know. Your supervisor has been informed.”
He led me to one of the unmarked doors that you see in any airport terminal. It opened into an interrogation room complete with the standard table, overhead light and one-way window.
“Have a seat. We’ve been looking into this crash. As you know from the news, there’s been a lot of speculation about the cause.”
“Yeah, like maybe it was bombed. Do you know if that’s true?”
“I’m thinking that it is. But we don’t know for sure yet.”
“Well, why would you want to talk to me? I just clean up around here.”
“Yeah, I know, but we’ve run across some interesting coincidences concerning you. There was a person on that plane, Katrina Delany, who was your wife until last year. It appears that you bought her ticket less than a week before the crash. On top of that, you had, at the time of your brief marriage to her, purchased a large life policy in her name with you as beneficiary. Why is that?”
“Well, like I told her, I’m trying to make some changes in my life. So I thought I’d give her a small present. I had no idea she would end up being killed. But it seems like that’s the way things go for me. I always end up getting the short end of the stick.”
“But the life insurance...”
“I’ve always been a gambler. I assume you checked my sheet...”
“Yeah, a gambler, for sure.” He paused, scratched his head, knitted his eyebrows and continued: “But there’s another interesting coincidence. Her brother works as an aircraft mechanic here. He serviced that plane the day of the crash.”
“What? Are you serious? I can’t believe he would do anything. He’s such a straight arrow.”
“So it would seem. But there’s yet another coincidence. You seem to know a guy by the name of Larry Donatelli?”
“Well, Larry used to be my bookie. I placed some bets with him, that’s all.”
“Of course, you know Mr. Donatelli’s special skill is explosives?”
“He mentioned it, yeah. In Afghanistan.” I could see where he was heading, but a lawyer once told me: “Only answer their questions; never volunteer anything.”
“So just let me ask the question of you straight out, Mr. Nowitski, and remember that the law requires you to tell the truth and fully cooperate with an investigation of a possible terrorist incident: Did you know that that plane was going to crash?”
Why did he have to ask the question just like that? If he’d asked me whether I knew anything about a bomb or conspiracy, I would have told the honest truth. But asked that way, I had to lie, and so I hesitated, just a millisecond, before replying, and he saw it, and I knew he saw it.
“No, of course I didn’t know it was going down.”
“It’s just not holding together for me, Mr. Nowitski. You are asking me to believe that you provided a ticket for that particular flight on that particular day to your ex-wife, whom I have already determined you disliked intensely, you had insurance in force on her life, and then the plane crashes, she’s killed, and it’s all a coincidence.”
“You got it. That’s what happened. I agree it sounds unlikely. But unlikely things happen every day.”
He looked me in the eyes hard, rubbed his chin, sighed. “I suppose this all could just be a series of coincidences. The investigation isn’t over. We’ll be getting more physical evidence and a report from the NTSB and see what develops. OK, that’s all, Mr. Nowitski. Thanks for your time.”
One day later, I was bent over doing some sweeping when Dennis jolted me loudly. “We need to talk. Now!”
“Hey, you scared me half to death, man! What’s going on?”
“Not here. Let’s go over to the food court.”
Once we’d found an empty table, Dennis looked carefully around, leaned really close to me, and whispered, “So how did you find out, Stan?”
“Find out what?”
“You know. I don’t want to say it. Sellars told me you had an insurance policy on Treena, that you bought her a ticket on that plane. You knew.”
“No, not at all. Really, Dennis, it’s all a coincidence.”
“Bullshit! You knew that the whole thing was going down, and I want to know how you found out. Did Donatelli tell you?”
I was getting a really ugly feeling. Why would Dennis be mentioning Larry Donatelli?
“Donatelli? What does he have to do with this?”
“Come on, Stan. Stop playing dumb. There’s no way you would have bought that ticket if you didn’t know what we were planning. I just want to know how you found out.”
“Man, I didn’t even know you ever met Larry. What are you doing hanging around with a guy like that anyway?”
“He called me out of the blue. He said that you’d told him once that your brother-in-law worked as an aircraft mechanic. He made sure he got the name. He said info like that could be ‘useful’.”
“Yeah, I do remember him asking me for your name...”
We sat there and stared at each other. I think Dennis was beginning to see that maybe I didn’t know what was going down. But now I was curious.
“Just what exactly did you guys do, Dennis? Did Larry give you a bomb, and you put it on the plane?”
Dennis’s eyes got real big. “Shut up, asshole! You can’t talk like that around here.”
“I’ll take that as a yes. My god, Dennis, I can’t believe it. Why would you do something like that? Surely you know these things are investigated and there’s no way—”
“Larry had a plan. My part was so small, and the money was so good. And I had no known connection to Larry at all. Nobody could tie us together. Nobody that is, until you came along and screwed everything up. They can tie me to Larry through you. They think you discovered the plan and decided to cash in on it by putting Treena on that plane and collecting on the insurance.”
“If that’s what they think, why haven’t they arrested us all?”
“It’s all just a theory, there’s no real evidence. They need one of us to break down and rat on the others. We’ve got to hang tough. For me, it’s easy, I just deny I did anything. They’ve got no evidence that shows me getting the device or putting it on the plane, so they don’t get me unless somebody testifies against me.
“For Larry, they’re gonna have to figure out why he did it and how he did it. Lots of work left for them to do. But for you, well it’s easy. You’re the key to the case for them. You obviously knew about the plan, and all they have to do is break you down, get you to tell how you found out and they can arrest us. Expect that to happen in the next few days after they get some more evidence they’re waiting for.”
It seemed like my choices were quickly being narrowed down to the death sentence for conspiracy in a terrorist act, or maybe something a little better if I showed everybody the window. Seemed like an easy choice.
“Dennis, can you come by gate B31 about 5:30 today? I want to show you something. After that, maybe you’ll believe me when I say that I really didn’t know about this plan you and Larry hatched.”
“Not today, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, it’s not me you’ve got to convince. I gotta get back to work, but I am curious how you found out, so I’ll see you at gate B31 tomorrow.”
“Dennis, before you go: why?”
Copyright © 2026 by Bill Kowaleski
