Chapter 7
“Her birthday is—”
“Nine days from now.”
The room went very still.
“Daddy did it because he didn’t trust Mother to run the company the way he and Catherine built it,” Faith said. “He died twelve years ago. Boating accident on the lake. Mother has run Shaw Aeronautics ever since, as trustee, and Meredith has been groomed to take over. In nine days, all of that belongs to Evelyn.”
“And Evelyn knew about the SA-7 fraud,” I said slowly. “The minute she controlled the company, she’d expose it.”
Faith nodded.
“There’s a clause,” she said. “Mother’s lawyers found it last year. If Evelyn is legally incapacitated on her thirty-fifth birthday, the trustee keeps control until capacity is restored. Indefinitely.”
I felt something cold move through my chest.
That explained everything. The guardianship petition. The forged divorce. The broken wrists. The head injury.
They hadn’t necessarily needed Evelyn dead.
They’d needed her unable to sign her own name.
“Tell me about that night,” I said.
Faith closed her eyes.
“I was at the estate. I heard Mother in her study with Meredith and Cole Brandt. Mother said Evelyn had taken ‘Catherine’s road’ and was going to ‘hand Daddy’s company to the government.’ Meredith said they’d go get the laptop and ‘make her understand.’ Mother said...” Faith’s voice cracked. “Mother said, ‘Make certain she can’t sign anything.’”
I had to stand up. I walked to the window and gripped the frame until my knuckles ached.
“I didn’t believe they’d actually hurt her,” Faith whispered. “I thought they’d threaten her. Scare her. I got in my car twenty minutes after they left, because something felt wrong. When I got here, the back door was open and the Escalade was gone.”
She pressed her hands against her eyes.
“I called Mother first. That’s the part I’ll never forgive myself for. Twenty-six years of being trained, Grant. I called Mother before I called for help. Then I heard Evelyn trying to breathe and I grabbed the burner phone I keep in my glovebox, and I called 911.”
“Why did you have a burner phone?”
Faith gave a bitter smile. “Because I’m a Shaw. Mother reads our texts.”
I turned back to her. “Did you see who did it?”
“No. But Meredith’s sleeve was soaked when she arrived at the hospital. And Cole’s knuckles were wrapped in a handkerchief.” She looked up at me. “In that family consultation room, Mother told me if I ever spoke to anyone, she’d have me committed. She has the doctors to do it. She’s done it before, to Sabrina, when Sabrina tried to leave her husband.”
I sat back down across from her.
“Faith, will you give a statement to Agent Reyes?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. “But Grant, there’s one more thing. And it’s the reason I was afraid to come to you.”
“What is it?”
She leaned forward.
“Mother knew the exact day your plane was landing. She knew Evelyn was meeting a federal agent. She even knew the agent’s name. She said it in the study that night. ‘Reyes.’” Faith’s voice dropped to almost nothing. “Grant, none of that came from inside our family. Somebody in your world has been feeding Mother information. Somebody in the Army.”
There were very few people who knew my exact return date.
My unit. My chain of command. And one man who had called me personally two weeks before I flew home, to welcome me back like an old friend.
Colonel Wade Hollister.
Hollister had been my battalion commander years ago. He’d pinned my Bronze Star on my chest. He’d come to our wedding and danced with Evelyn. Now he worked in Army acquisitions at the Pentagon, the office that approved contractors, inspected parts, and signed off on waivers.
Reyes ran his name that night.
At 6 a.m., she called me.
“Hollister signed a quality waiver on the SA-7 hub two and a half years ago,” she said. “It allowed Shaw to self-certify their own fatigue testing. Without that waiver, the fraud doesn’t work.”
“Anything else?”
“His wife’s consulting company has received four hundred thousand dollars from a Shaw subsidiary in the last three years. And he’s been quietly offered a seat on the Shaw Aeronautics board when he retires next spring.”
I closed my eyes.
“Grant,” Reyes said, “I need to tell you something you won’t like. Hollister had access to the coordination memo between my office and Army CID. It mentioned Evelyn as a source. He’s the leak. I’d stake my badge on it.”
I’d been betrayed before. Every soldier has. But this one went somewhere deeper. Somewhere I didn’t know I still had.
“I want to talk to him,” I said.
“Absolutely not.”
May you like
“He’ll talk to me, Nadia. He won’t talk to you.”
There was a long pause.
