Chapter 3 - The Lawyer at the Memorial
Andrea Shaw answered Laura’s call on the fourth ring.
“Laura?”
“Ethan was alive.”
Silence.
Laura was sitting inside a private conference room at Teterboro Airport.
Port Authority police had taken statements regarding Noah and Grace.
Federal investigators had been notified because the newly discovered records involved potential aviation sabotage, corporate fraud, and interstate financial activity.
Victor sat elsewhere with counsel.
Andrea remained on the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Don’t ask me questions.”
“Laura—”
“You sat beside me at Ethan’s memorial.”
Andrea said nothing.
“You told me there was nothing left to wait for.”
“I believed I was protecting you.”
Laura laughed once.
No humor.
“Everyone in this family protects people by lying to them.”
“Ethan asked me to.”
“He was injured.”
“He was competent.”
“Did he sign the trust amendment giving Victor control until Noah turns twenty-five?”
Andrea paused.
“No.”
Laura closed her eyes.
There it was.
“What did he sign?”
“A ninety-day proxy.”
“What happened to it?”
“Victor replaced it.”
“Did you help?”
Silence.
Laura stood.
“Did you?”
“I prepared the later amendment.”
“After Ethan died?”
“Yes.”
“Then how does it contain Ethan’s signature?”
Andrea began crying.
Laura’s stomach turned.
“Andrea.”
“The signature page came from another instrument.”
Forged by page substitution.
Not a fake signature.
Something harder to detect.
“Why?”
“Victor said the company would collapse if voting control moved to you.”
“So you committed fraud?”
“I made a terrible decision.”
“You committed fraud.”
“Yes.”
Laura stopped.
Andrea’s willingness to say the word surprised her.
“Why didn’t you correct it?”
“Because Victor had something on me.”
“What?”
Andrea hesitated.
Laura said, “I have spent five years living inside a lie you helped build. You do not get to choose the comfortable part now.”
Andrea whispered:
“I moved client escrow money.”
Laura stared through the conference-room glass.
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
“My husband’s medical debts. I replaced it within three months.”
“That doesn’t make it legal.”
“No.”
“Victor knew.”
“Yes.”
“And he blackmailed you.”
“Yes.”
Laura thought of every estate document Andrea had placed in front of her after Ethan disappeared.
“Did I sign anything false?”
“No.”
“Anything giving Victor more authority?”
“You signed acknowledgments.”
“I thought they were administrative.”
“They were.”
“Then why did Victor need me?”
“Appearances.”
Laura closed her eyes.
Victor had built legitimacy one ordinary signature at a time.
Andrea continued:
“Laura, there is something else.”
“What?”
“Ethan knew Victor was using his disappearance to consolidate control.”
“Then why didn’t he contact me?”
“Because he had found evidence that someone had used your credentials too.”
Laura went still.
“My credentials for what?”
“Mercer Aviation board approvals.”
“I wasn’t on the board then.”
“You had spousal consent rights tied to Ethan’s restricted shares.”
Laura remembered electronic forms Ethan sometimes sent when he pledged stock for company loans.
“Someone used my signature?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Laura heard uncertainty.
Or lying.
“Where is Ethan’s original proxy?”
Andrea said, “I kept a copy.”
“Where?”
“My office safe.”
“Preserve it.”
“I already called my lawyer.”
“Good.”
Andrea’s voice broke.
“I am sorry.”
Laura looked toward Noah.
He sat beside Grace twenty feet away, holding the broken music box in his lap.
“Tell Noah.”
“What?”
“You lied about his father too.”
“Laura, please.”
“No. Do not apologize to me and hide from the child whose inheritance you helped steal.”
Andrea began crying again.
“I will.”
Laura ended the call.
Grace approached.
“The police want another statement from me.”
“You should give it.”
“I will.”
Laura looked at her cheek.
“Noah told me Victor hit him twice before you arrived.”
Grace nodded.
“I saw one clearly. The camera saw both.”
“I left him with Victor.”
“You trusted family.”
“That doesn’t make Noah less hurt.”
Grace studied her.
“You sound like you’re already blaming yourself for Victor’s hand.”
“No. I’m blaming myself for ignoring things Noah said.”
“What things?”
Laura thought back.
Noah refusing weekends at Victor’s Connecticut estate.
Noah saying Uncle Victor “got scary” around Ethan’s belongings.
Laura had interpreted it as grief.
She had wanted Victor to remain the safe uncle.
“I wanted my version to be true.”
Grace nodded.
“That is different.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. Wanting to believe someone is safe is not the same as what he chose to do.”
Laura looked at her.
“You stood between them without knowing who owned the aircraft.”
“I knew.”
Laura almost smiled.
“You did?”
“Everyone knows Victor Mercer.”
“And you still challenged him.”
Grace shrugged.
“He was hitting an eight-year-old. His net worth seemed irrelevant.”
Noah came toward them carrying one broken wooden piece.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“There are letters inside.”
Laura frowned.
The broken music box had a thin inner lining.
Behind the cracked velvet panel were four engraved letters.
A S T R.
Grace leaned closer.
“Aster.”
Noah said, “Dad used to call it that.”
Laura remembered.
Ethan had named his experimental flight-control system ASTER.
It was the technology Mercer Aviation had been preparing to license before his supposed death.
Victor later canceled the program, claiming it had caused the crash.
Laura’s pulse increased.
“If ASTER caused the accident…”
Grace finished:
“Why would Ethan hide its name with evidence proving he survived?”
A federal investigator entered.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
Laura turned.
“We pulled preliminary maintenance archives from Ethan’s aircraft.”
“And?”
“The ASTER system logged an external command eleven minutes before the crash.”
Laura’s skin went cold.
“What kind of command?”
“A remote maintenance override.”
“Who had access?”
The investigator looked toward the room where Victor sat with his lawyer.
“Three executives.”
Ethan.
Victor.
And Mercer Aviation’s chief operations officer at the time.
A woman named Evelyn Cross.
Laura knew the name.
Evelyn had vanished from the company two days after Ethan’s crash.
Victor had told everyone she resigned from guilt.
May you like
Now investigators had discovered something else.
Evelyn Cross had been a passenger on Flight 417.
