"Run the name that gave us trouble," he said. "Let's see what we're dealing with." His friend laughed once, quiet. He was already reaching for his phone. Doss didn't wait until they were seated to search.
His precinct rotated through part of the airport's law enforcement liaison duty, which meant the app on his phone was legitimate, just not for this. He typed in Bell, Naomi. One result came back, a docket number tied to the name, nothing else attached but a status. Docket closed. He didn't know what case it was or whether it had anything to do with her at all.
But the numbers format looked close to the complaint review dockets his own division used. "You should close that," Marsh said low from the seat beside him. "I'm not doing anything wrong." "You're not allowed to run a passenger because she asked you a question at a gate." "I didn't run anything.
I searched a name." Doss angled the screen anyway like showing it would settle something. "Look at the format. That looks like ours." "Looks like doesn't mean it is," Marsh said.
"You don't know what office issued it." You don't even know it's about her and not somebody else who shares the name. Doss heard it and kept staring at the screen anyway. "I'd rather know now than get surprised with it later." "Surprised by what?
Nothing happened back there. She asked for a timestamp." "You want to pretend last year didn't follow us around for six months." "That followed us," Marsh said, "because of what we actually did, not because some woman knows how to ask a gate agent a question." His voice stayed level, but something in it had gone tight.
"You're turning a number you don't understand into a reason to go after two passengers." "I'm not going after anyone. I want to know what I'm dealing with." "Then ask her. Don't run her."
Doss locked the screen instead of answering, which wasn't agreement. And Marsh knew it wasn't. Three rows back, Kavolski crouched at the end of the aisle, tablet angled toward Naomi. "I want to enter the seating incident into the flight log. The code, the fact duty status wasn't confirmed.
Your objection. It gets timestamped once it's in." Anyone touching it after that leaves their own mark doing it. "Enter it," Naomi said. "In order: when the code was applied, then when I objected.", Kavolski typed beside her sister, Nadia had gone quiet, phone face down in her lap.
Their grandmother's memorial was tomorrow evening. "One more thing," Nadia said. "Does a code like that need two people to approve it, or can one gate agent do it alone?" Kavolski hesitated. "I'd have to check, because if one person can do it by themselves, it's not much of a policy."
Kavolski said she'd find out and moved toward the galley. Naomi watched her go, then looked at her sister. "You okay?" "I keep counting how much time we have before the service." Nadia turned the phone back over without opening it.