Chapter 5 - The Man Who Saw Me Fall
Nora opened the locker door before whoever sent the message expected us to move.
The dock was empty.
Rainwater glistened beneath the yellow security lights.
A gate banged in the wind near the parking lot.
No footsteps.
No running engine.
No shadow disappearing between boats.
Whoever had photographed us had already left.
Or wanted us to think they had.
"We go now."
Nora's voice left no room for discussion.
We took the red Helix Meridian file, the recorder, and two of the hard drives.
Everything else stayed exactly where we found it.
Evelyn wiped the locker handle with a cloth and locked the door.
"Why leave anything?"
I asked.
"Because the person watching us does not know what your father stored here."
"They know enough to follow us."
"Then let them wonder what we took."
We did not return to the vineyard.
Nora drove north while Evelyn went south, then doubled back through a series of service roads and commercial lots until we were certain no single vehicle had followed us the entire way.
At two in the morning, I found myself inside a modest house in the hills outside Ojai that belonged to one of Nora's former rescue partners.
There were no cameras.
No smart appliances.
No wireless security system Richard could hack.
I should have felt safer.
Instead, the text message kept replaying in my head.
You should have stayed in the ocean.
Only four people knew about the key before we reached the marina.
Me.
Evelyn.
Nora.
And Dr. Park, who knew we were leaving but not where we were going.
Unless someone had already been watching one of us.
At three twelve in the morning, Daniel Price called through a secure relay.
He sounded exhausted.
"The board meeting lasted four hours."
"What happened?"
"Victor failed to install Richard as interim family representative."
Relief moved through me.
"How badly?"
"Seven to four against."
"Good."
"Do not celebrate."
I stopped smiling.
"Why?"
"Victor introduced a second motion."
"What motion?"
"To create an emergency executive committee with authority over financing, acquisitions, and corporate security until your status is resolved."
"And?"
"That one passed."
I sat up.
"Who is on it?"
"Victor."
Of course.
"Lauren Beckett."
My jaw tightened.
"And Richard."
I stared at the dark window.
"Richard is not even an employee."
"Victor appointed him as an outside family adviser."
"He does not have the authority."
"He has enough directors willing to argue he does."
"Then challenge it."
"Evelyn already is."
Daniel paused.
"But they are moving faster than the lawyers."
"How?"
"They froze three capital projects this afternoon."
"Why?"
"To create a liquidity problem."
I understood immediately.
Hayes Technologies was enormously valuable, but like most growing technology companies, parts of the business relied on carefully timed financing.
If Victor created enough uncertainty, lenders could demand stronger guarantees.
Then he could offer a rescue.
And rescuers always asked for something in return.
"What does he want?"
"Voting control."
Daniel said it quietly.
"He is preparing a bridge facility through Kane Capital."
I closed my eyes.
Richard had tried to kill me less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Victor was already turning my disappearance into a corporate transaction.
"Daniel, did anyone get into my office?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Corporate security logs show Lauren used an emergency access override at two eleven in the morning."
"What did she take?"
"We do not know."
"Cameras?"
"Offline for maintenance."
I laughed once without humor.
"Of course they were."
"Natalie, there is more."
Daniel's voice dropped.
"Richard asked me today whether your trust freeze could be lifted if your death was ruled accidental."
My skin went cold.
"What did you tell him?"
"That I am a CFO, not his probate lawyer."
"What did he do?"
"Smiled."
I knew that smile.
The same one he wore before pushing me.
"Stay away from him."
"I intend to."
"And Daniel?"
"Yes?"
"Do not tell anyone I am alive."
"I have not."
"Not even your wife."
A pause.
"Understood."
After the call, Nora entered the kitchen carrying two mugs of tea.
She placed one in front of me.
"You need sleep."
"I need proof."
"You need both."
Evelyn arrived just before dawn with a folder of printed search-and-rescue logs.
She looked worse than I did.
"There was a witness."
I stood too quickly and grabbed the counter when my ankle protested.
"To the helicopter?"
"To your fall."
She spread the papers across the table.
A commercial fisherman named Luis Ortega had been running north of the Channel Islands when he saw a helicopter flying unusually low and erratically.
He reported seeing what he first thought was debris drop from the aircraft.
Then he saw a parachute open.
My heart hammered.
"He saw me."
"Yes."
"Did he see Richard push me?"
"He was too far away."
"But he saw the parachute."
"Which destroys the claim that you fell accidentally into the ocean and disappeared."
I looked at Nora.
"Where is he?"
Evelyn's expression changed.
"That is the problem."
Luis had given his statement to a Coast Guard dispatcher at six twenty the previous evening.
At seven eleven, someone identifying himself as an aviation investigator called him back and asked him to meet at Ventura Harbor.
Luis went.
He never came home.
His truck was still parked near the marina.
His phone was off.
His wife had reported him missing after midnight.
I felt the room tilt slightly.
"They found him before we did."
"Maybe."
"Evelyn."
"We do not know what happened yet."
"Someone photographed us at Black Harbor."
"I know."
"Now the only independent witness is missing."
"I know."
"Stop saying you know."
My voice came out louder than I intended.
Nora watched me carefully.
I pressed both hands against the table.
"Richard tried to kill me, and every hour I stay hidden he is rewriting what happened."
"Every hour you stay hidden, he keeps believing his plan worked."
Evelyn's voice remained calm.
"That matters."
"Luis Ortega may be dead."
"Which is exactly why you cannot become the next witness they silence."
I looked at the search log.
Luis had a wife and two teenage sons.
He had gone to meet someone because he thought he was helping with an accident investigation.
I could not accept that my survival had put him in danger.
"Find him."
"We are."
"Use my security team."
"We cannot use anyone whose reporting chain now touches Victor's emergency committee."
That eliminated most of Hayes Technologies' corporate security department.
"Then use private people."
"Already happening."
Nora tapped a line on the report.
"Look here."
Luis had not only described a parachute.
He had recorded part of what he saw on his navigation camera.
The camera automatically saved footage to a removable memory card.
Police had not found the card in his boat.
His wife said Luis often removed it at the end of each trip and carried it in his jacket.
If whoever took Luis had not found that card, then somewhere there might be video showing the helicopter's position at the exact moment I fell.
"We need the jacket."
I said.
Evelyn gave me a look.
"No."
"You just said the card could be evidence."
"I said we need it."
"Then let me help."
"You are seven months pregnant, injured, and officially presumed lost at sea."
"Which makes me the only person Richard is not looking for on land."
That stopped her.
Nora almost smiled.
"She has a point."
Evelyn turned on her.
"Do not encourage her."
We compromised.
Nora would go to Luis's home with a former Coast Guard colleague who knew the family.
I would stay hidden.
For six hours, nothing happened.
Then Nora called.
"We found the jacket."
I stood from the sofa.
"The card?"
"Gone."
My heart sank.
"But his wife found something else."
Nora sent a photograph.
It showed a folded piece of paper Luis had shoved into the inner pocket of his jacket.
On it was a license plate number.
Below the number he had written one sentence.
MAN FROM HELICOPTER HANGAR FOLLOWED ME.
Evelyn ran the plate.
The vehicle belonged to Northstar Advisory.
Richard's old company.
For the first time, we had a physical link between the missing witness and the firm that had paid millions through my father's secret audit trail.
But before we could do anything with it, my burner phone rang.
The number was blocked.
Evelyn motioned not to answer.
I answered anyway.
There was breathing on the line.
Then a man's voice whispered.
"Mrs. Hayes?"
I gripped the phone.
"Who is this?"
"Luis Ortega."
Evelyn was already recording.
His voice shook.
"They think I gave them the card."
"Where are you?"
"I got away."
"Tell me where."
"I cannot."
I heard a sound behind him.
A door.
Then Luis whispered something so quietly I almost missed it.
"The pilot knows your husband."
"I know that."
"No."
His breathing quickened.
"You do not understand."
"What do you mean?"
"The pilot is his brother."
May you like
The line went dead.
