Chapter 4 - Dorian’s Last FlightThe official helicopter report said weather.
The private maintenance report said something else.
Manual navigation override.
Unauthorized software access.
And one service technician who vanished two days after the crash.
Lucian returned home at 7 p.m.
Suspended chairman.
Still in control of nothing.
He poured whiskey.
I placed the photograph on the counter.
He stopped.
“Where did you get that?”
“Anonymous.”
“Adrian.”
“Yes.”
Lucian stared.
“That was the morning Dorian died.”
“I know.”
“Why wasn’t this in the investigation?”
“Excellent question.”
He picked up the maintenance report.
His face changed.
“Who has this?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
“Probably whoever sent it.”
Lucian looked toward the stairs.
“We move Selah.”
I shook my head.
“Still no.”
“If Adrian killed Dorian—”
“We don’t know that.”
“He was the last family member photographed with him.”
“Photographs are not convictions.”
Lucian paced.
I watched.
“Why was Adrian there?”
“He claimed Dorian asked him to discuss the Helios deal.”
“Did Dorian?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Dorian hated Adrian.”
That seemed useful.
Lucian continued.
“Adrian had been pushing a merger between his private logistics company and Ashcombe Aviation. Dorian blocked it.”
“Money?”
“Always.”
“How much?”
“Potentially hundreds of millions.”
“Enough to kill?”
Lucian looked at me.
“Money doesn’t kill people.”
“People who think money is oxygen sometimes do.”
We contacted an independent investigator.
Former intelligence.
Mara Quill.
She arrived at midnight.
No theatrics.
No giant entourage.
She looked at the files and asked one question.
“Who benefits if Dorian dies childless?”
Lucian.
Vivienne.
Adrian indirectly.
That was the problem.
Mara looked at Lucian.
“You were the largest beneficiary.”
“Yes.”
“Did investigators examine you?”
“Yes.”
“Thoroughly?”
Lucian smiled without humor.
“My mother made sure they did not.”
That surprised me.
Vivienne had protected Lucian from suspicion.
Which meant she might also have protected whoever was actually involved.
Mara asked:
“Did you want Dorian dead?”
“No.”
“Did you resent him?”
“Yes.”
Lucian answered without hesitation.
That honesty mattered.
Dorian was older.
Favored by their father.
Expected successor.
Lucian had spent forty years being second.
Then Dorian died.
Lucian became chairman.
Easy story.
Too easy.
Mara said:
“Your mother may have assumed scrutiny of the family itself was dangerous to the company.”
Lucian looked away.
I knew that expression.
She had.
Even if Vivienne had no role in Dorian’s death, she may have influenced investigators away from anything that could destabilize Ashcombe Group.
Again:
Protect the company.
Bury the truth.
The family disease.
Two days later Mara found the missing technician.
Alive.
Living in Portugal under his wife’s surname.
He agreed to speak only through an attorney.
His name:
Elias Kemp.
He said he had been paid to install a remote diagnostic module on Dorian’s helicopter.
Legal technology.
Normally.
But someone later used that module to upload unauthorized navigation commands.
“Who paid you?” Mara asked.
“An Ashcombe vendor.”
“Which?”
“Vale Aeronautics.”
Adrian.
But Elias insisted he did not know the module would be misused.
Then:
“Who asked you to leave England?”
He hesitated.
“A woman.”
“Name?”
“I never met her.”
“Voice?”
“Older.”
Lucian and I looked at each other.
Vivienne.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Mara asked for payment records.
Elias produced them.
A transfer from an account connected to Aster Family Office.
I had never heard of it.
Lucian had.
He whispered:
“My mother’s.”
The room changed.
I stared at him.
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Aster manages her private assets.”
We did not tell Vivienne.
Not yet.
Mara subpoenaed records through investigators reopening the crash.
The transfer existed.
£800,000.
Made five days after Dorian died.
Recipient:
Elias Kemp.
Memo:
consulting settlement
Lucian sat down.
“My mother paid the technician.”
I said nothing.
He looked at me.
“Say it.”
“What?”
“What you’re thinking.”
“I’m wondering whether the woman who tried to control Maeve’s birth also tried to control Dorian’s death.”
Lucian closed his eyes.
That night, he called Vivienne.
I listened.
He asked:
“Did you pay Elias Kemp?”
Silence.
Then her voice:
“Who told you that name?”
Not denial.
Lucian’s face went still.
“Mother.”
“I can explain.”
“Come here.”
“No.”
“Then I come to you.”
Another pause.
Finally:
“Tomorrow.”
Lucian disconnected.
I asked:
“What do you think?”
He stared at the dark phone.
“I think I spent my entire life believing my mother would destroy anyone except her children.”
“And now?”
May you like
He looked toward the room where Maeve slept.
“Now I’m not sure she knew where that boundary was.”
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