Chapter 4 - DAVID'S SECOND WING
The police allowed Emma to return to her own home under protection.
David’s study had remained almost untouched since his death. Emma had avoided it because every object carried his absence: his reading glasses, the old leather chair, the coffee stain on the desk.
Now Mason stood beside her while she searched.
The phrase second wing made no sense until Emma found a framed photograph of David holding Lily beside a small airplane.
The aircraft’s wings were painted blue.
On the back, David had written: Her first flight. Her safest place.
Emma removed the backing.
A second photograph was hidden beneath it. This one showed a storage hangar at a private airfield owned by Carter Aeronautics.
A gold bird symbol had been drawn above Hangar 6.
The brass key opened a locked cabinet inside that hangar.
Mason obtained a warrant.
Inside the cabinet, detectives found financial ledgers, internal emails, and safety reports showing Carter Aeronautics had knowingly shipped defective guidance modules.
David had discovered the problem after a cargo aircraft nearly crashed.
Robert ordered engineers to change inspection data rather than recall the modules. Patricia authorized payments to silence a quality-control manager.
David planned to report them.
The music-box recording was his insurance.
But the box was still missing.
As detectives catalogued the documents, Emma found a sealed envelope beneath the ledgers.
For Emma. Only if they say I was careless.
Inside was a letter from David.
He wrote that his parents had become obsessed with protecting the company and the family name. Robert believed thousands of jobs justified hiding defects. Patricia believed wealth gave them the right to decide which truths mattered.
David feared they were monitoring him.
He also wrote about the night before his fatal crash.
Robert had asked him to meet at the estate.
Patricia demanded the evidence.
David refused.
He left in anger.
The final paragraph made Emma’s hands shake.
If I die in an accident, do not accept the first explanation. My car was serviced at the company garage today. I did not request it.
Mason reopened the accident investigation.
The original vehicle had been destroyed after the insurance review.
The mechanic who serviced it had disappeared.
According to company records, he resigned and moved overseas.
According to federal travel records, he had never left the country.
Emma returned to the hospital after midnight.
Lily was awake, drawing birds on a sheet of paper.
“Did Daddy know Grandma was bad?” she asked.
Emma sat beside her.
“Your father knew Grandma and Grandpa were making dangerous choices.”
“Did they make him go away?”
Emma could not answer.
Mason entered with news.
Patricia and Robert had hired separate attorneys.
They were no longer presenting a united story.
Robert admitted disabling the cameras, but claimed Patricia told him Lily was having a private emotional episode.
Patricia admitted giving Lily lemonade, but claimed the glass had come from a waiter.
Each blamed the other.
Then Mason placed a photograph on the bedside table.
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It showed the missing mechanic entering a bus station two days after David’s death.
Beside him stood Patricia.
