Book 3, Chapter 12 Summary

The FAA rules the crash an accident, pilot error. But the Mafia has to wonder. FAA recordings of the flight transmission captured the pilot's use of the word "sabotage." The lone survivor, one "Gerald O'Malley," was picked up by the Coast Guard, but subsequently vanished from the hospital. The Mafia is also called the Cosa Nostra, which translates from Italian as "this thing of ours," meaning their business is no one else's. All the families involved hasten to hide information from the authorities about the plane, its destination, and its pilot. No one has figured out Michael's involvement. No one outside the Corleone Family even knows that Gerald O'Malley is really Nick Geraci, except Don Forlenza, Nick's godfather.

Michael's men ask if he's responsible for Geraci's disappearance. They are surprised when he says that he is not. They conjecture that Forlenza...