CHAPTER 7 — THE FLIGHT THAT NEVER LANDED
The aircraft was headed toward Canada.
Federal authorities contacted Canadian border services while my father’s aviation team tracked the plane.
Grant sat under guard inside the museum’s conference room.
He claimed Celeste kept alternative landing sites across the Northeast.
“She never flies directly to her destination when she knows she’s being watched,” he said.
“Where would she go?”
“Private airfields. Decommissioned military strips. Estates owned by donors.”
Adrian placed a map on the table.
“We have seventeen possible sites.”
Grant examined them.
“Four.”
He pointed toward locations in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Maine, and northern Vermont.
“My mother needs medical support if Helena is as weak as she looked. These four have facilities nearby.”
My father stood near the window.
“Why help us?”
Grant’s mouth twisted.
“Because she left me inside a sealed museum to take the blame.”
“That bothers you more than what happened to Helena?”
“It bothers me enough to talk.”
I wanted to despise every word he said.
But we needed him.
The aircraft vanished from civilian radar near the Adirondack Mountains.
Military tracking detected a rapid descent.
No distress signal followed.
Within an hour, federal agents located the aircraft abandoned on a private runway.
No passengers.
No pilot.
Blood was found near the rear door.
A black SUV had left the airfield twenty minutes earlier.
Adrian traced its plates to a security contractor employed by Thomas Creed.
My father looked at the screen.
“Thomas is not working for Celeste.”
“Then why is he moving her?” I asked.
“He may be moving her away from Celeste.”
“After hiding her for eighteen years?”
My father had no answer.
An officer brought Julian Mercer into the conference room on a hospital stretcher. He had refused to leave without speaking to me.
“Thomas built the archive,” Julian whispered.
“What?”
“Your mother gathered the evidence. Thomas organized it. When she disappeared, he became obsessed with finishing her work.”
“Did he know she was alive?”
Julian nodded.
“For years.”
My father stepped forward.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because Helena didn’t trust you.”
The words landed like a blade.
Julian reached beneath his blanket and produced a small digital recorder.
“Thomas gave this to me six months ago. He said to play it only if Helena was moved.”
I pressed the button.
My mother’s voice filled the room.
“Mara, if you are hearing this, Thomas has failed to keep the Holloways away from me. You will be tempted to trust him because he knows the truth. Do not.”
A pause.
“He believes justice gives him permission to become cruel.”
The recording continued.
“Thomas no longer wants to expose the network. He wants to control it.”
Adrian’s phone rang.
The abandoned SUV had been located outside a mountain lodge.
Inside, agents found the pilot and one of Celeste’s guards.
Both alive.
Both restrained.
Celeste was missing.
Helena was missing.
May you like
A message had been written across the lodge wall in black paint.
BRING ME THE ORIGINAL LEDGER OR MARA WILL BURY HER MOTHER TWICE.
