Chương 7
Claire stared.
“He was there when we were there.”
“Apparently.”
“You didn’t see him?”
“No.”
“Did Walter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why was Gavin at an aviation hangar at six in the morning?”
“He says he was meeting the maintenance contractor about fleet costs.”
Claire leaned back.
“Of course he does.”
Daniel watched her.
“He also says he didn’t know you were on that helicopter until after the emergency signal.”
“He’s lying.”
“Yes.”
The agreement surprised her.
Daniel looked toward the marina.
A gull landed on the railing and immediately began attacking something that looked like a french fry.
Claire waited.
Daniel said, “Gavin texted me at six fifty-two.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel placed his phone on the table.
Claire did not touch it.
The message was short.
Everything is handled. You’ll have time to talk to her before Santa Barbara.
Claire read it twice.
“What did you ask him to handle?”
Daniel looked down.
“My request to delay you.”
“What does that mean?”
“I told him I needed you kept from reaching Nora until I could figure out Westmere.”
“How?”
“I asked him to disable your corporate credentials and have the flight plan changed.”
Claire stared at him.
“You changed our flight.”
“I asked for a fuel stop.”
“You wanted to trap me in a helicopter longer.”
“I wanted another hour to talk.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing I was trying to consult a lawyer.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel, do you hear yourself?”
“I do now.”
She laughed without humor.
“That must be convenient.”
He accepted that.
Claire looked again at the message.
Everything is handled.
“What did you think that meant?”
“The access restriction. The fuel stop.”
“You trusted him.”
“Yes.”
“With me.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
Claire pushed the phone back.
“Did you open the door?”
“No.”
“Did you touch my belt?”
“No.”
“Did you take the papers from my bag?”
“No.”
“Did you know Gavin was at the hangar?”
“Not until last night.”
“Did you tell him I had printed copies?”
Daniel hesitated.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said you had records.”
“Printed?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember.”
Daniel’s jaw moved.
“I may have said you had pulled invoices.”
“That is not the same answer.”
“I don’t remember the exact wording.”
Claire looked away.
The marina smelled of salt and diesel.
At another table, a little boy was trying to convince his father that pigeons could be domesticated if a person was patient enough.
Daniel said, “I didn’t try to kill you.”
Claire continued looking toward the water.
“I believe that you believe saying that should matter more than everything around it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you keep drawing the line at murder.”
He stared at her.
“As if everything before murder is still marriage.”
Daniel’s face went still.
Claire had not planned the sentence.
She wished immediately that she could take back its neatness.
Real pain was rarely that articulate.
She rubbed her forehead.
“I’m tired.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“All right.”
The tea arrived.
Claire added honey.
Her hand shook, so she set the spoon down.
Daniel noticed.
He said nothing.
That was almost worse.
Finally he asked, “What do you want from me?”
“The truth before it becomes useful to you.”
He looked down.
“Okay.”
“No. You always say okay when you want time.”
Daniel gave a short breath that might have been a laugh.
“You know me very well.”
“I thought I did.”
There it was.
The obvious sentence.
Claire hated it as soon as she said it.
Daniel looked toward Nora.
Then back.
“My father used Westmere for payments he didn’t want visible inside the company.”
“What kind of payments?”
“I don’t know all of them.”
“What do you know?”
“Permitting consultants. Political fixers. Settlements that weren’t booked as settlements.”
Claire felt cold.
“Illegal?”
“Some were probably legal and ugly. Some may not have been.”
“And Gavin?”
“He administered them.”
“For Richard?”
“Yes.”
“After Richard died?”
Daniel nodded.
“Why?”
“He told me there were legacy obligations.”
“You believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
Claire stared.
That sounded like the first honest thing Daniel had said.
“What obligations?”
“People who had been promised money. Old disputes. Confidential agreements.”
“And you signed?”
“Some.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel.”
“I don’t know without records.”
“Did you ever ask what they were for?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He showed me enough paperwork to make each one look defensible.”
Claire sat back.
“You knew they were questionable.”
“Yes.”
“And kept signing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at his hands.
“Because the first year after Dad died, I had twelve thousand employees watching to see if I could keep the company together, a board that thought I was a spoiled son, lenders calling every week, and my mother telling me that if I hesitated in public, everyone would smell blood.”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that too.”
He nodded.
A long time passed.
The little boy at the other table had abandoned pigeons and was now demanding ice cream.
Claire envied him.
Then Daniel said, “There’s something else.”
She waited.
“Gavin wasn’t just handling payments.”
Claire looked at him.
“What?”
“He was creating them.”
The investigation moved slowly after that.
Claire had expected fear to be dramatic.
Instead, fear became administrative.
Calls.
Interviews.
Passwords.
Document requests.
Medical appointments.
Lawyers explaining what they could say and what they could not.
The helicopter remained impounded for examination. Investigators confirmed that the door latch had been obstructed in a way that allowed it to appear closed until vibration and pressure worked it loose. The belt buckle had been deliberately prevented from locking fully. A control-assist breaker showed evidence of recent physical interference.
They did not say who had done it.
Cole Rainer disappeared for thirty-six hours.
He was eventually found at his sister’s house in Nevada.
May you like
He denied sabotaging anything.
Then he admitted he had performed unscheduled work on the Bennett helicopter the night before the flight.
