Chapter 2 - Claire’s Passport
Ryan locked the case.
Then he handed the key back to Emma.
Bianca stared at him.
“You’re giving it to a child?”
“I’m giving back what belongs to her.”
“Ryan, please.”
“Sit down.”
The jet shook violently as lightning flashed outside.
Captain Lewis announced that thunderstorms had closed their planned route into New York. They would divert to Pittsburgh.
Ryan told Maya privately to notify airport police and Carter Air’s independent security director before landing.
Not Adrian Vale.
Especially not Adrian.
Bianca heard enough to understand.
“You’re calling police?”
“You poured ice water over Emma and locked her in a compartment.”
“She was defying me.”
“She was terrified.”
“You don’t know what that key means.”
“Then explain.”
Bianca looked toward Emma.
Ryan noticed.
“No. Look at me.”
She did.
“Why did Claire’s key scare you?”
Bianca folded her arms.
“I knew she had company documents.”
“How?”
“She accused everyone of stealing.”
“Everyone?”
“You. Adrian. Me.”
Ryan went still.
“Claire accused me?”
“She thought you knew.”
A bitter memory returned.
Claire standing in Ryan’s office fourteen months earlier.
You keep signing whatever Adrian gives you.
Ryan had answered:
Because he’s kept this company alive for twenty years.
Claire:
That isn’t an answer.
Ryan had dismissed her.
They were divorced by then, but still fighting over Emma, money, and Claire’s remaining interest in Carter Air.
Ryan looked at the black case.
“What is Adrian stealing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie again.”
Bianca’s eyes flashed.
“You believed me ten minutes ago.”
“No. I asked a question ten minutes ago.”
“Eventually you would have.”
The truth in that sentence hurt.
Ryan turned away.
Emma sat with Maya near the forward divan.
Maya had found dry clothes in the aircraft’s emergency luggage.
Ryan crouched beside his daughter.
“Are you cold?”
“A little.”
“I’m sorry.”
Emma looked at him.
“For what?”
“For not knowing this was happening.”
She lowered her eyes.
Ryan’s stomach tightened.
“Has Bianca done something like this before?”
Emma was silent.
Maya watched carefully.
Ryan softened his voice.
“You won’t get in trouble.”
“Sometimes she takes Mom’s things.”
“What things?”
“Pictures.”
Bianca called from behind them.
“That’s not true.”
Ryan turned.
“Stop.”
Emma continued.
“She threw away one of Mom’s scarves. She said Mom wasn’t coming back.”
Ryan felt something crack inside him.
“What else?”
“She looks in my room when you’re gone.”
“For what?”
Emma opened her fist.
“The key.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
Bianca had been searching for it for months.
Maya whispered, “Mr. Carter.”
She had opened the sealed envelope only after Ryan asked her to photograph the exterior and place it on a clean surface.
The document inside was a notarized declaration from Claire.
It stated that Claire owned seventeen percent of Carter Air Holdings through shares received in the divorce settlement.
Under a separate trust agreement, those shares passed to Emma if Claire died.
But if Claire disappeared under suspicious circumstances, no transfer or sale of those shares could occur until an independent fiduciary investigation confirmed her status.
Ryan frowned.
“I never saw this.”
Maya pointed to the signature page.
The lawyer was Helen Carver, Claire’s private counsel.
Ryan knew her.
Or had known her.
Helen resigned from practice nine months earlier and moved without explanation.
A second document was worse.
It was a copy of a proposed transaction.
Carter Air planned to sell its charter-management division to a private-equity fund called Redmoor Capital.
Purchase price:
$286 million.
Ryan stared.
He had never authorized that sale.
But his electronic signature appeared on the draft board consent.
“So does Claire’s,” Maya said.
Ryan looked closer.
Claire’s signature was dated three months after she disappeared.
Bianca stood.
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means someone was forging her signature.”
Bianca’s voice sharpened.
“Or she signed it.”
“Then why hide evidence on my aircraft?”
Bianca had no answer.
The plane began descending.
Ryan opened Claire’s passport.
The entry stamps contradicted the story everyone had been told.
Claire had not entered Switzerland when she vanished.
The Geneva stamp was false.
A border-security verification code printed in the passport’s RFID audit showed no matching electronic entry.
Someone had created an overseas trail.
Ryan looked at Bianca.
“Who told me Claire was in Geneva?”
She did not answer.
He knew.
Adrian Vale had called him personally.
Adrian had said Claire missed a meeting.
Adrian had arranged the private investigator.
Adrian had provided hotel surveillance.
Adrian had helped comfort Emma.
Ryan whispered, “Jesus.”
The wheels touched down in Pittsburgh.
Police were waiting.
Bianca looked toward the windows.
“You’re really doing this.”
“Yes.”
“What about the company?”
“What about it?”
“If this becomes public, lenders panic.”
Ryan stared.
“My daughter was locked in a compartment.”
“You own a company with eighteen hundred employees.”
“And I have one daughter.”
For once there was no hesitation.
Airport police boarded.
Ryan gave a statement.
Maya gave a statement.
Emma spoke only with a child-services specialist.
Bianca was escorted off for questioning concerning assault and child endangerment.
She was not immediately jailed.
Ryan’s lawyers warned him that criminal charging decisions would take time.
But a temporary protective arrangement barred Bianca from being alone with Emma.
Ryan accepted it without argument.
As Bianca left, she looked back.
“Adrian will destroy you.”
Ryan replied, “Then he should start explaining.”
Her face changed.
“Don’t call him.”
That made Ryan certain he should not.
Instead he called Carter Air’s general counsel, Rebecca Sloan.
“Rebecca, I need every Redmoor file preserved.”
A pause.
“What Redmoor file?”
Ryan’s blood chilled.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“What about N771CR?”
Another pause.
“Ryan, N771CR was sold eight months ago.”
He looked around the cabin.
“No. I’m standing inside it.”
Rebecca said nothing.
Ryan stared at the aircraft around him.
The same jet existed in Carter Air’s system as sold.
Its records had been altered.
May you like
Its identity had been buried.
And somebody had continued flying it after Claire disappeared.
