Chapter 10 - Bianca’s Bargain
Bianca asked to speak to Ryan.
This time he refused.
He asked her to speak to investigators instead.
She did.
Then she sent him a letter through her attorney.
Ryan gave it unopened to Rebecca.
“You read it.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust myself to separate truth from manipulation yet.”
Rebecca nodded.
She read.
Most of the letter was apology.
Ryan stopped her.
“Skip that.”
“There is one factual claim.”
“What?”
“Bianca says Adrian took Claire from Hangar Twelve to a private house in Greenwich.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Ryan stared.
“I don’t own a house in Greenwich.”
“You do through Carter Family Properties.”
He frowned.
An old guesthouse.
Inherited from his father.
Rarely used.
Adrian managed it for corporate guests.
Ryan had almost forgotten it existed.
Police searched it.
The house was empty.
But a basement bedroom had recently been renovated.
Investigators found blood traces beneath replaced flooring.
DNA matched Claire.
Ryan sat down when Rebecca told him.
“Was she killed there?”
“Unknown.”
“Was it a lot of blood?”
“No. Could be an injury.”
Bianca admitted she visited the house.
“When?” Ryan asked Rebecca.
“The morning after Hangar Twelve.”
“What did she see?”
“Claire alive.”
Ryan’s heart pounded.
“Then what happened?”
Bianca claimed Adrian wanted Claire to sign a settlement.
The agreement would surrender Claire’s Carter Air shares, validate the Redmoor transfers, and require her to remain away from Emma for two years under threat of criminal accusations involving stolen corporate funds.
Ryan stood.
“He was trying to erase her legally.”
“Yes.”
“Did she sign?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
Bianca said Claire threw the agreement into a fireplace.
Adrian became violent.
“He hit her?” Ryan asked.
“Bianca says he shoved her against a desk.”
Blood.
Possible.
“Then?”
“Bianca left.”
Ryan laughed in disbelief.
“She keeps leaving.”
Rebecca did not defend her.
“Why?”
“Because Adrian threatened to expose Bianca’s fraud.”
“And she chose herself.”
“Yes.”
Ryan looked out the window.
“What happened after?”
“Bianca returned that night.”
“Why?”
“She says guilt.”
“Fear.”
“Probably both.”
Claire was gone.
Adrian said he had released her.
Bianca did not believe him.
For four months Bianca helped Adrian continue the cover-up anyway.
Until the silver key appeared in Emma’s hand.
The key meant Claire’s black case still existed.
If Ryan opened it, Bianca’s payments and affair were exposed.
So she attacked a child.
Ryan finally read one sentence of Bianca’s apology.
I thought if I could get the key, I could make everything stop.
He set it down.
That was the logic of every conspiracy.
One more lie.
One more destroyed file.
One more frightened witness.
Then everything could stop.
It never did.
The search of the Greenwich property produced another clue.
A paper receipt from a private ambulance service.
Date:
The day after Claire was seen there.
Destination:
St. Vincent Recovery Center.
Ryan frowned.
“A hospital?”
“Private neurological rehabilitation facility,” Rebecca said.
Police contacted it.
No patient named Claire Bennett.
But an admission under another name matched her age.
Catherine Blair.
Admitted unconscious.
Head injury.
No family contact.
Discharged three weeks later.
Ryan stared.
“Who authorized admission?”
“Adrian Vale.”
“Who authorized discharge?”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“Ryan Carter.”
He froze.
“No.”
His signature appeared on the discharge order.
Ryan looked at authentication data.
The digital approval came from his personal tablet.
He remembered the date.
He had been in London at an aircraft-finance conference.
His tablet had been in New York.
With Bianca.
He looked at Rebecca.
“Can we prove it?”
“Hotel records show you were overseas. Device location shows the tablet in Manhattan.”
“That helps.”
“It does.”
“Where did Claire go after discharge?”
The facility had a transportation record.
Private car.
Destination:
Carter Field.
An old general-aviation airstrip north of the city.
Owned by Carter Air Holdings.
The same airstrip Ryan’s father had built thirty years earlier.
Flight records showed one aircraft departed that night.
Not N771CR.
A small company turboprop.
Destination:
Maine.
Passenger:
No record.
Pilot:
Leonard Shaw.
Ryan whispered:
“They moved her again.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Now we know where to look next.”
Then Ryan’s phone rang.
Carter Air’s independent monitor.
Adrian had presented a proposal to sell the entire charter division to Redmoor within ten days.
If approved, hundreds of millions in assets—and possibly key records—would leave Carter control.
Ryan stared at the notification.
May you like
Claire had risked everything to stop that transaction.
Adrian was finishing it anyway.
