Chapter 5 - THE MAN AT THE HANGAR
Detective Reed ordered Daniel taken to the station for questioning.
Daniel did not resist.
Before leaving, he looked at Emma.
“I never wanted you hurt.”
Emma met his eyes.
“You wanted me frightened enough to surrender.”
Daniel opened his mouth.
No words came.
At the Sterling hangar, police found signs that someone had cleaned the concrete floor.
Chemical residue covered a wide section near the rear storage room.
A broken watch lay beneath a workbench.
The watch belonged to Gordon Pike.
Security records showed that the hangar doors opened at six twelve the previous evening.
Daniel’s vehicle arrived four minutes later.
A second vehicle arrived at six twenty-seven.
It belonged to Charles Sterling.
Charles claimed he had loaned the vehicle to the family pilot, Thomas Vale.
Thomas was nowhere to be found.
Detective Reed placed both men’s photographs on the table during Daniel’s interview.
“Your father says you met the pilot,” Reed said.
Daniel shook his head.
“I met Gordon.”
“Why?”
“He contacted me.”
“What did he want?”
“He said my father had ordered him to destroy recordings.”
“Did he ask for money?”
“No.”
“Then why meet at the hangar?”
“He believed the mansion was being watched.”
“By whom?”
“My father.”
Reed leaned back.
“What did Gordon give you?”
Daniel remained silent.
Detective Reed waited.
Finally, Daniel said, “A file.”
“What was in it?”
“Financial records.”
“Where is it now?”
Daniel looked toward the mirrored wall.
“I gave it to my father.”
Reed’s voice remained calm.
“Why?”
“He promised he would stop pressuring Emma.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
Daniel explained that Gordon had discovered payments from Sterling Biotech to several shell companies.
The payments had been authorized by Charles and Margaret.
Millions of dollars had disappeared.
Daniel believed his parents had been hiding money to protect themselves from the company’s collapse.
“Gordon said the records proved fraud,” Daniel said.
“He planned to go to federal investigators.”
“What happened after you gave the file to your father?”
“My father ordered me to leave.”
“And Gordon?”
“He was still alive when I left.”
Detective Reed placed a photograph of the bloodstained trunk in front of him.
“You expect me to believe you walked away?”
Daniel’s hands shook.
“My father said he would handle it.”
“People in your family use that phrase often.”
At the hospital, Emma received another visitor.
Margaret Sterling entered wearing a pearl-gray suit and carrying no flowers.
A uniformed officer stood outside the room.
“You should not be here,” Emma said.
“I came to discuss the future.”
“My future does not involve you.”
Margaret sat without being invited.
“You are angry.”
“I was thrown down a staircase.”
“Vivian made a mistake.”
“A mistake is forgetting a birthday.”
Margaret’s face remained composed.
“The baby survived.”
Emma stared at her.
“You say that as though it excuses everything.”
“I am trying to protect my family.”
“So am I.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“Then sign the agreement.”
Emma almost laughed.
“You came here to ask again?”
“If the company collapses, thousands of families lose their livelihoods.”
“And Charles keeps the money he stole?”
For the first time, Margaret’s expression cracked.
Emma saw it.
“You know about the shell companies,” Emma said.
Margaret stood.
“You have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Gordon Pike did.”
Margaret moved closer to the bed.
“You should be very careful about repeating the accusations of a missing man.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It is advice.”
Margaret reached into her handbag.
The officer outside immediately stepped into the room.
“Ma’am, keep your hands visible.”
Margaret slowly removed a photograph and placed it on Emma’s blanket.
It showed Emma’s late father standing beside Charles Sterling twenty years earlier.
Both men were signing a document.
Emma picked up the photograph.
“What is this?”
“Your father was not the innocent genius you remember.”
Margaret’s voice lowered.
“He helped create the secret that is destroying this family.”
She turned toward the door.
Emma called after her.
“What secret?”
Margaret paused.
“The failed drug trial was not the first time Sterling Biotech buried the truth.”
After she left, Emma turned the photograph over.
A handwritten date appeared on the back.
May you like
Beneath it were four words in her father’s handwriting.
PROJECT EVE MUST END.
