Chapter 6 - THE SECOND SURVIVOR
Charles survived surgery.
The bullet passed through his shoulder and missed his heart by less than an inch.
He was placed under police guard.
Detective Ortiz believed the shooter intended to silence him.
Charles refused to identify the second survivor until Noah was brought to him.
Noah did not want to go.
“He watched them leave me,” he said.
“You don’t owe him forgiveness,” Evelyn replied.
“But he may know something that keeps you alive.”
They met in a guarded hospital room.
Charles looked at Noah for a long time.
Noah remained in his wheelchair near the door.
“You look like your father,” Charles said.
“I hope I’m nothing like you.”
Charles absorbed the words without protest.
“The official report said your father and both pilots died,” he began.
“That was false.”
A mechanic named Elias Crowe had been inside the aircraft’s rear compartment when it crashed.
He was inspecting an electrical fault.
The flight plan did not list him as a passenger.
Elias survived with severe burns.
Graham found him before the police arrived.
Instead of killing him, Graham paid him to disappear.
“Why?” Detective Ortiz asked.
“Because Elias had seen who tampered with the plane.”
Charles gave them the name of a rehabilitation center in Rhode Island.
Elias had lived there under the name Edward Crane for six years.
“Did he see Julian?” Noah asked.
“Yes.”
“Did he see you?”
Charles looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
Noah turned his wheelchair toward the door.
“I’m done.”
Charles called after him.
“I loved your father.”
Noah stopped.
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“You loved what he could do for your company.”
He left without looking back.
Evelyn, Ortiz, and Arthur traveled to Rhode Island the next morning.
Elias Crowe lived in a private room overlooking the ocean.
Burn scars covered the left side of his face.
At first, he denied knowing Daniel Whitmore.
Then Evelyn placed the photograph of the plane on his table.
Elias began to cry.
“I told them I wouldn’t talk.”
“Graham tried to kill a twelve-year-old boy,” Evelyn said.
“He will not stop.”
Elias asked whether Noah had survived the fire.
When Evelyn said yes, relief changed his face.
“I heard the boy crying after the crash.”
Elias had regained consciousness inside the wreckage.
Daniel was still alive.
He shielded Noah with his own body.
Daniel begged Elias to carry Noah away before the fuel ignited.
Elias dragged the child through a broken section of the fuselage.
Then Graham arrived.
“He wasn’t coming to rescue anyone,” Elias said.
“He was looking for something.”
Graham searched Daniel’s coat and took his phone.
Daniel saw him.
With his final strength, Daniel said, “Tell Evelyn the garden has roots.”
Evelyn did not understand.
Elias then revealed what he had witnessed before takeoff.
Julian opened a maintenance panel beneath the left wing.
Victoria stood watch.
Charles arrived and gave Graham the red case.
Charles left before Julian entered the aircraft.
Graham believed Charles ordered everything.
But Elias heard Julian tell Victoria, “By sunset, you’ll be the widow of a billionaire.”
Elias secretly photographed them with his phone.
Graham destroyed the device after the crash.
But Elias had enabled automatic backups.
“Where are the photographs?” Ortiz asked.
“In an account Graham never found.”
Elias wrote the password on a sheet of paper.
The cloud folder contained forty-seven images.
One showed Julian cutting a hydraulic line.
Another showed Victoria carrying a container of accelerant.
A third showed Graham watching.
The final image had been taken inside the cabin.
Daniel sat beside Noah.
Through the window, Julian and Victoria were kissing beside the hangar.
Detective Ortiz immediately contacted the district attorney.
The images were devastating.
But Elias had one more secret.
Before the crash, Daniel gave him a metal drive.
He asked Elias to mail it to Evelyn if anything happened.
After the crash, Elias hid the drive in a place connected to Daniel’s final message.
The garden has roots.
Evelyn suddenly remembered Daniel’s memorial garden at Whitmore House.
A large oak tree had been planted in the center.
Its roots extended above the soil like twisted fingers.
“The drive is buried beneath the tree,” Elias said.
Before Ortiz could respond, the fire alarm sounded.
Smoke entered beneath the door.
A nurse shouted from the hallway.
Evelyn opened the door and saw flames near the elevators.
Someone had started another fire.
Through the smoke, Graham Reed appeared at the end of the corridor.
May you like
He raised a gun.
And this time, there was nowhere for them to run.
