Chapter 15 - The Man Who Knew My Mother
My father grabbed my arm before I opened the vehicle door.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“He has Nathan.”
“He wants you.”
“I know.”
“That is exactly why you do not go.”
Richard leaned toward the radio.
“Gerald.”
No response.
“Gerald, you have no aircraft.”
“You have no clean exit.”
“You have federal teams closing the perimeter.”
Gerald laughed through the audio feed.
“Then perhaps I should make the remaining minutes useful.”
He pressed the weapon harder against Nathan.
Nathan winced.
I watched through the camera.
Gerald looked toward our vehicle.
“Claire.”
“Your mother begged your father to listen.”
My father went pale.
I opened the door.
He pulled me back.
“Claire.”
“You lied to me about the investigation.”
“You lied about Nathan.”
“You lied about Mom’s final call.”
“I am done letting other people decide what truth I can handle.”
I stepped outside.
Security moved around me.
Gerald smiled when he saw me.
“There she is.”
I stopped thirty feet away.
“Let Nathan go.”
Nathan looked at me sharply.
“No.”
Gerald laughed.
“Even now he doesn’t know when to stay quiet.”
I ignored Nathan.
“You wanted leverage.”
“I’m here.”
Gerald studied me.
“So much like Laura.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Your mother hated it too.”
I stared.
“You knew her well?”
“Very.”
Dad stepped out behind me.
Gerald’s smile deepened.
“Charles.”
Dad’s voice was calm.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
Gerald looked at me.
“Your mother discovered Blackthorn because she helped create the first version.”
My heart stopped.
Dad shouted.
“Lie.”
Gerald smiled.
“Not entirely.”
Richard came out of the vehicle.
“Laura helped build an emergency financing network.”
“That is not Blackthorn.”
Gerald nodded.
“Correct.”
“Originally, it was designed to protect Bennett companies during political seizures, bank failures, and hostile takeovers.”
I looked at Dad.
He did not deny it.
Gerald continued.
“Private ownership layers.”
“Nominee directors.”
“Emergency funds.”
“Untraceable succession authority.”
“The architecture was elegant.”
“Then some of us realized the same structure could control companies instead of protect them.”
My father stared at him.
“You corrupted it.”
“No.”
“We improved it.”
“You turned Laura’s safeguards into organized theft.”
Gerald shrugged.
“History is full of tools used differently by the next generation.”
I felt sick.
“Did you kill her?”
The airfield went silent.
Gerald’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Dad stared.
“Do not lie.”
“I am not.”
Richard looked toward him.
“Then who did?”
Gerald glanced at Nathan.
“Ask the man whose family benefited first.”
Nathan froze.
“What?”
Gerald laughed.
“You never wondered why Adrian chose you?”
Nathan’s face went white.
Gerald continued.
“Your father worked for Bennett Maritime.”
Nathan whispered.
“My father was a mechanic.”
“Yes.”
“A mechanic with access to Laura Bennett’s vehicle fleet.”
Nathan stopped breathing.
I looked at him.
He looked horrified.
“No.”
Gerald nodded.
“Thomas Ashford replaced the brake-pressure sensor in Laura’s car three days before the crash.”
Dad lunged forward.
Security held him.
“You son of a—”
Gerald shouted.
“I said he replaced it.”
“I did not say he sabotaged it.”
Dad stopped.
Gerald smiled again.
“Thomas reported that someone had ordered unauthorized work on Laura’s car.”
“He tried to tell Bennett security.”
“Guess who intercepted the report?”
Everyone looked toward the same direction.
Not at Gerald.
At where Peter Sloan had been taken away.
Gerald nodded.
“Sloan.”
Richard swore.
I struggled to breathe.
“So Sloan killed her.”
Gerald tilted his head.
“Maybe.”
“You know.”
“I know Sloan disabled a warning sensor.”
“I know Laura drove anyway.”
“I know another vehicle followed her onto the mountain road.”
My father looked shattered.
“Whose?”
Gerald’s eyes moved toward Richard.
Richard went still.
“No.”
Dad turned.
“Richard?”
My uncle shook his head.
“My car was there.”
My chest tightened.
Gerald smiled.
“But Richard wasn’t driving.”
Dad stared.
Richard whispered.
“I gave the car to Adrian.”
Everything stopped.
Gerald looked pleased.
“There it is.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Adrian killed Laura.”
Gerald shrugged.
“He followed her.”
“Whether he caused the crash is a more difficult question.”
I stared at Gerald.
“You are telling us this because you want us fighting each other.”
“Of course.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I have very little left to lose.”
Nathan suddenly spoke.
“You have me.”
Gerald looked at him.
Nathan continued.
“And that is the mistake.”
Before Gerald could react, Nathan drove his elbow backward.
The weapon shifted.
Security fired a nonlethal round.
Gerald collapsed.
Nathan fell beside him.
Agents rushed forward.
I stood frozen.
Gerald was alive.
Nathan was alive.
The airfield was secured.
But the question that had haunted my father for nineteen years remained.
May you like
Did Adrian Monroe kill my mother?
And if he did, where was he now?
