The Last Flight

It is Monday, February 21. Claire Cook, the wife of a wealthy, charismatic New York philanthropist—Rory, the scion of a prominent political family who is preparing to announce a run for the United States Senate—is busy completing the details for a trip to Detroit the following day. Ostensibly, she will be promoting a charitable foundation run by her husband’s family. However, Claire has secretly been planning for months to use the trip to Detroit as a cover to finally break free of her 10-year marriage to her abusive husband, whom no one suspects of such violence. When both her mother and her sister died in a car accident more than 14 years ago, Claire felt alone and was susceptible to Rory’s charms.

Exposing Rory to the public is unthinkable: “To speak out against Rory would be like stepping into an abyss and trusting that I would be caught by the generosity and kindness of others” (8). Claire has instead stashed away money and purchased a complete set of identity papers; when she flies to Detroit, the papers will be waiting for her at her hotel. She will then head to Canada and start a new life. She has confided her plans to old high school friend, Petra, who works at the gym where Claire is a member. The afternoon before Claire leaves, the two friends say goodbye for the last time.

As Claire sits through a tedious meeting at one of the Cook family’s numerous charitable organizations, she thinks about Maggie Moretti, Rory’s first wife. By Rory’s account the marriage was tumultuous. One weekend, at the Cook family country house, Maggie died in a massive housefire after Rory had returned to the city. The media openly suggested that Rory was involved in his wife’s death, but no charges were ever brought. Despite the rumors, Claire fell in love with Rory: “He understood what I’d lost [her mother and sister] because he carried his own grief” (16).

The evening before Claire is to head to Detroit, Rory unexpectedly asks Claire about her day. When he presses her on details, Claire worries he knows about her planned escape. As he continues to probe, he reveals what he suspects: that her frequent errands cover a relationship she is having with a personal trainer at the gym. She denies even having a trainer, but he warns her to be careful so as not to jeopardize his Senate campaign.

That night, Claire sneaks down to Rory’s office and copies all the secret hard drives from a second laptop that Rory keeps in his desk; she is not sure what the files might reveal but suspects they might come in handy. In addition, she copies a file with the email passwords of Bruce Corcoran, Rory’s chief of staff. She can now access to her husband’s computer activities and keep track of his reactions to her disappearance. She hides the thumb drive in the plastic tube of her travel toothbrush and returns to bed.

The next morning, Claire is stunned to find the maid unpacking her suitcase and replacing all her winter clothes with lightweight summer outfits. Bruce Corcoran steps into the room and tells her plans have changed: Rory has already departed for Detroit, and Claire is now to go to Puerto Rico to visit another of the Cook Foundation’s charities, this one for hurricane relief. Claire is devastated at the unraveling of her plans. Numb, she is driven to the airport. In a panicked moment, she calls the Detroit hotel where she sent the box with her money and forged identity papers. The concierge assures her that her husband has already picked up the package. She feels as if she just “slipped into a nightmare” (32).

It is that same morning at JFK. While Claire is on the phone explaining the aborted plan to her friend Petra, a woman named Eva James eavesdrops on the conversation. Eva understands one thing: Here is a “woman on the run. A woman like herself” (33). She trails Claire to a bar and starts up a conversation. She tells Claire that she is on the run from investigations into whether she played a role in her husband’s death, who she says was suffering from inoperable cancer. She claims she is heading back to Berkeley, California, to sort things out. Claire’s interest is peaked when Eva asks, “Do you think it’s possible for someone to disappear” (37).

Together the two hatch a plot. They will switch tickets and identities. Each will board the other’s flight. In the bathroom they transfer the contents of their carry-on bags and switch coats, Eva taking Claire’s pink sweater. They swap purses and credit cards (and PIN numbers). When the flight to California is announced, the two part.

Eva waits to board the plane to Puerto Rico, receiving a single message on Claire’s phone: “What the fuck have you done?” (42). Eva wonders who sent it. She considers taking Claire’s money and cards and simply leaving the airport and disappearing into New York.

Claire cannot relax until the plane is well on its way to California: “It was almost too easy” (44). When she lands in Oakland six hours later, she is shocked to see the terminal’s televisions broadcasting news of a catastrophic plane crash in Puerto Rico—Claire’s intended flight. Initial reports suggest no survivors. Trembling, Claire heads out of the airport. She checks Eva’s purse, finds her address, and hails a cab.

Eva’s neighborhood is near the campus of UC-Berkeley, the sidewalks teeming with students. Claire uses Eva’s keys to get into her apartment. It seems oddly clean, particularly given Eva’s story about nursing a dying husband. She cannot help but think of Eva at the bottom of the Atlantic and the terror and pain she must have endured in the moments before the crash. Suddenly a cell phone in the kitchen goes off, confusing Claire because Eva also had a phone at the airport. There is only a single text message: “Why didn’t you show up?” (50).

It is now six months before the crash. Eva is living in Oakland, California, near the campus of UC-Berkeley. She has been working for more than 10 years for a notorious local drug kingpin. A chemistry major before she dropped out of Berkeley, Eva now helps cook the drugs for the underground organization and works the campus, selling pills to wealthy students and professors. On this August night, Eva is trying to collect money owed by a student named Brett. When Brett admits he has not got the money, she coolly signals two men, who come out of the shadows and, as Eva departs, begin to beat up the student.

As she leaves, she is surprised to meet Dex, the man who sets up her buys and coordinates her activities with the mysterious kingpin (who goes by the name “Fish”). Dex tells her he has arranged a new client for her to meet: Brittany.

Eva agrees and returns to her apartment. She is concerned about why Dex appeared so suddenly. As she watches a neighborhood cat pounce on a small bird splashing in a puddle, she feels inexplicable dread, as if “things” are “rearranging and shifting” (56). She tells herself she needs to be careful.