Chapter 5 - Blackridge
Nora refused to say more by phone.
Ryan flew commercially to Arizona with Rebecca while Emma remained with Maya and Ryan’s sister, Laura, in Pittsburgh.
For the first time, Ryan did not use a Carter aircraft.
He did not trust his own fleet.
Nora Bell lived in a small house outside Flagstaff.
She opened the door with a baseball bat in one hand.
“Leave your phones outside.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Nora—”
“Or leave.”
They complied.
Inside, every curtain was closed.
Nora had once been one of Carter Air’s most respected compliance executives.
Now she looked like someone who had spent a year expecting a knock.
“Claire contacted me nine months ago,” Nora said.
“Two months after she vanished?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“A prepaid phone.”
“Why didn’t she contact Emma?”
“She wanted to.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
Nora stared at Ryan.
“Because she thought your communications were monitored.”
“By Adrian?”
“And Bianca.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
Nora continued.
“Claire disappeared voluntarily at first.”
Ryan froze.
“What?”
“She discovered Redmoor before she vanished. She believed Adrian had forged corporate consents and shifted aircraft into shell companies.”
“So she hid.”
“For a short time.”
“Why make everyone think she was overseas?”
“She didn’t.”
Ryan stared.
“The Geneva trail?”
“Adrian created it after she stopped using her normal accounts.”
That mattered.
Claire had not chosen to make Emma think she vanished overseas.
Someone used her temporary secrecy against her.
“She planned to go to federal authorities,” Nora said.
“Why didn’t she?”
“She needed original records.”
“The aircraft trust schedule.”
“Yes.”
Nora explained.
Years earlier Carter Air had placed several aircraft into a financing trust. Certain transfers required consent from both Ryan and Claire because of Claire’s divorce-settlement interest.
Adrian could forge digital approvals.
But original title schedules existed on paper.
If Claire produced them, Redmoor’s supposed ownership collapsed.
“Where were the originals?”
“In the black case.”
Ryan understood.
“And Claire hid it on N771CR.”
“After our Blackridge flight.”
“What happened there?”
Nora’s hands tightened.
“We were supposed to meet an attorney working with the Justice Department.”
“Name?”
“Daniel Frost.”
Rebecca knew him.
“Former federal prosecutor. Aviation-fraud specialist.”
Ryan leaned forward.
“Did he arrive?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Adrian.”
Nora described Blackridge.
Small municipal airport.
Private hangars.
Snow.
Claire and Nora landed just before midnight.
Adrian was waiting inside Hangar Six.
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“He had two men with him.”
“Security?”
“Contractors.”
“What did he want?”
“The case.”
“Claire refused?”
Nora almost smiled.
“She told him to go to hell.”
Ryan remembered Claire’s temper.
Pain moved through him.
“What happened?”
“Adrian showed her photographs of Emma.”
Ryan’s face emptied.
“Photographs?”
“School. Playground. Your house.”
Ryan stood.
“He threatened my daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Explicitly?”
“He said, ‘You can expose me or you can keep Emma outside this.’”
Ryan walked to the window.
Rebecca asked, “What did Claire do?”
“She pretended to agree.”
“Then?”
“She said the case was on the aircraft and convinced Adrian to let me retrieve it.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“Where did you go?”
“To the cockpit.”
Nora contacted the pilots secretly.
One pilot refused to become involved.
The other helped her escape through a baggage door.
“Who?”
“Captain Samuel Pierce.”
Ryan knew the name.
Pierce resigned four months ago.
Adrian said he had a drinking problem.
Another lie?
“What about Claire?”
“She stayed behind.”
Ryan turned.
“You left her?”
Nora’s face hardened.
“She told me to.”
“You should have called police.”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“Local sheriff arrived thirty minutes later.”
“And?”
“Hangar was empty.”
“Claire?”
“Gone.”
“Adrian?”
“Gone.”
Ryan sat.
Nora continued.
“The sheriff said there was no evidence of a crime.”
“What about airport cameras?”
“Offline for maintenance.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Convenient.”
Nora opened a drawer.
“I stole this before I ran.”
A paper maintenance log.
Blackridge Hangar Six.
Camera system disabled by contractor.
Contractor:
Vale Aviation Security.
Adrian’s private company.
Ryan whispered, “Of course.”
Nora continued.
“Three days later Claire called me.”
Ryan’s head snapped up.
“She was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“What did she say?”
“That she escaped.”
“How?”
“She said Bianca helped her.”
Ryan stared.
“Bianca?”
Nora nodded.
“Claire said Bianca had finally realized Adrian would sacrifice anyone.”
Ryan struggled to reconcile the woman who poured ice over Emma with a woman who helped Claire escape.
“Then why was Bianca trying to get the key?”
“Because helping once doesn’t make someone good.”
Nora reached for another envelope.
“Claire mailed me this.”
A handwritten note.
Bianca is afraid of Adrian, but she is still protecting the money.
Do not confuse fear with conscience.
Ryan read it twice.
Nora continued.
“Claire said she was going to meet Daniel Frost again.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was that the last time you spoke?”
“Yes.”
Ryan’s voice became quiet.
“Do you think she’s alive?”
Nora looked at Emma’s photograph on his wallet.
“I think she was alive four months ago.”
Not hope.
Not certainty.
A fact.
Then Rebecca’s temporary phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at Ryan.
“Carter Air’s main server room had a fire.”
He stood.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Accident?”
“Fire suppression worked. But the archive servers were destroyed.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
Adrian was burning evidence.
May you like
And Ryan had made the mistake Claire predicted.
He had let Adrian know he was looking.
