A Taste of Terror — Martha Albrand

"Thomas J. Kent. No matter that you have been acquitted of all guilt in the crash of your Boeing 727, it was your negligence that killed 20 people and made life a torture for whose who survived. No decent human being would go on living with the knowledge that he had caused such misery. But you seem to have no such sense of responsibility. We feel it is essential that you redeem yourself, and can see only one way in which you can do it. If you don't kill yourself in recognition of your guilt, we shall exercise the punishment you deserve on you daughter, Kate."

There was no signature. It was written in red block letters on blue notepaper and Kent's instinctive reaction was to tear it up. There had been other anonymous letter writers, of course. But this one was different. This one knew Kent's private address and the name of his 14-year-old daughter. This might be the letter of a crazy man, but it was someone too near to home to ignore.

And this was only the first letter.