Chapter 4 - The Airport Trap
I held the envelope against the passenger door.
“What is Northstar Legacy Holdings?”
Daniel did not answer.
“What is it?”
“A business vehicle.”
“For what?”
“Estate planning.”
“Whose estate?”
He took the airport exit too quickly.
The tires squealed around the curve.
“Give me the envelope,” he repeated.
“Why was my life insurance beneficiary changed?”
His expression hardened.
“You’re misunderstanding documents you weren’t supposed to see.”
“Documents I wasn’t supposed to see?”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“Why is there an application for my death certificate?”
The black sedan remained behind us.
Daniel glanced at it repeatedly.
Then he changed lanes and entered the short-term parking structure instead of the departures lane.
“We’re going to talk,” he said.
“I’m going to miss my flight.”
“You canceled your flight.”
The sentence fell between us.
I kept my face still.
“How would you know?”
“I received an alert from the airline.”
“The reservation was in my name.”
“I booked it.”
“You also changed the password?”
Daniel drove to the highest level of the parking garage.
Very few cars were parked there.
The black sedan followed.
My heartbeat became painfully slow.
“Daniel, take me to the terminal.”
“We need privacy.”
“I don’t want privacy.”
He pulled into a space near the concrete barrier.
The sedan stopped three rows away.
The woman did not get out.
Daniel turned off the engine.
“Listen carefully,” he said. “The documents are designed to protect our family.”
“From what?”
“From your decisions.”
“My decisions?”
“You inherited a fortune and then built another one, but you have no understanding of financial risk. You refuse aggressive investment opportunities. You keep assets frozen inside trusts. You reject licensing proposals because you’re afraid someone might damage your characters.”
“They are my characters.”
“They are family assets.”
“They are my work.”
“I helped create the environment that allowed you to work.”
“You mean the house I paid for?”
His eyes sharpened.
There it was.
Not betrayal.
Resentment.
Daniel did not merely want my money.
He believed he deserved it.
“Rebecca is not important,” he said.
“She is your domestic partner.”
“That document was strategic.”
“For what?”
“To establish a legal path for managing Northstar.”
“You forged my signature.”
“Nothing has been finalized.”
“My life insurance was changed.”
“That can be corrected.”
“You prepared a death certificate.”
His mouth tightened.
“I didn’t prepare that.”
“Then who did?”
He looked toward the black sedan.
The woman was still inside.
“Daniel, who is she?”
“You need to give me the documents.”
I reached for the door handle.
The locks clicked shut.
I looked at him.
Daniel held the key fob in his fist.
“You’re frightening me.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“Unlock the door.”
“After we talk.”
“Unlock it now.”
The woman stepped out of the sedan.
She wore a beige coat and dark glasses.
Noah had described her as blond, but from a distance I could see darker roots beneath the knot.
She carried a slim leather case.
Daniel lowered his window.
“Stay there,” he called.
She ignored him and continued toward us.
My phone was inside my handbag.
The stuffed fox covered it.
I slipped my hand beneath the toy and pressed the side button five times, activating the emergency call shortcut.
The phone began recording and sent my location to Marcus.
At least, I hoped it did.
The woman stopped beside Daniel’s door.
“Why are you up here?” she asked.
Her voice sounded older than I expected.
Daniel opened his door but remained seated.
“She knows about Northstar.”
The woman removed her glasses.
Rebecca Vale was perhaps forty-five, with sharp cheekbones and pale green eyes.
She looked at me without embarrassment.
No guilt.
No shame.
Only calculation.
“How much does she know?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m sitting right here,” I said.
Rebecca ignored me.
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“She received the documents.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said the courier was handled.”
“It was.”
Rebecca looked toward me.
“Where is the envelope?”
I held it up.
Her gaze followed it.
“Mrs. Hart,” she said, “you are involved in a complicated financial matter that you do not understand.”
“I understand fraud.”
“This is not fraud.”
“You forged my signature.”
“The signature was obtained through a legal facsimile authorization.”
“I never authorized it.”
Daniel interrupted.
“Rebecca, stop.”
She turned on him.
“You told me she would sign voluntarily.”
“She was supposed to.”
“And now?”
Daniel looked at me.
The answer was visible before he spoke.
“Now we convince her.”
Rebecca opened the leather case.
Inside lay the same documents I had photographed from Daniel’s desk.
There was also a notary stamp.
“Sign the Power of Attorney,” she said. “Then we can resolve the remaining misunderstandings privately.”
I laughed.
The sound surprised all three of us.
“You followed me. You photographed me. You changed my insurance policy. You prepared to declare me dead.”
“I told you,” Daniel said, “I didn’t prepare the death application.”
Rebecca’s expression remained still.
But her right hand closed the leather case.
I looked at her.
“You did.”
She glanced at Daniel.
That tiny movement told me everything.
Daniel knew about the financial theft.
He might even have planned most of it.
But someone had expanded the plan beyond what he expected.
Perhaps Rebecca.
Perhaps the person who sent me the envelope.
Or perhaps someone neither of them controlled.
A car engine started on the level below us.
Rebecca looked toward the ramp.
“We need to leave,” she said.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
“The schedule changed.”
“What schedule?”
She looked at him with open contempt.
“You were never supposed to bring her up here.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
His face changed.
“Who is it?” I asked.
He did not answer.
Rebecca grabbed his arm.
“Do not pick up.”
He did.
A distorted male voice came through the speaker.
“You missed the departure window.”
Daniel swallowed.
“She knows.”
“We are aware.”
The voice was calm.
Almost bored.
Daniel looked at Rebecca.
“What do you want me to do?”
The man on the phone paused.
Then he said, “Proceed with the contingency.”
Rebecca stepped backward.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
“What contingency?” Daniel asked.
The line disconnected.
A dark van appeared at the top of the ramp.
It moved slowly toward us.
Rebecca turned and ran.
Daniel unlocked the car.
“Get out,” he said.
I did not move.
“Evelyn, get out now!”
The van accelerated.
Daniel grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the car.
We ran between rows of parked vehicles as the van struck the rear of Daniel’s sedan, crushing the trunk against the concrete barrier.
My suitcase was inside.
The impact shattered the back window.
Daniel dragged me behind a parked truck.
The van door slid open.
Two men wearing dark jackets stepped out.
One carried a tire iron.
The other held a syringe.
“They’re not here for me,” Daniel whispered.
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
May you like
His hand tightened around my wrist.
“Because I already gave them what they wanted.”
