Chapter 2 - GET ON THE HELICOPTER
Two guards grabbed Caleb.
He fought them immediately.
“Check the helicopter!”
“Calm down,” one guard snapped.
“CHECK IT!”
Grant stepped forward.
“Let him go.”
Vanessa turned sharply.
“Grant.”
“I said let him go.”
The guards released Caleb.
Caleb bent over, trying to breathe.
Vanessa stared at his torn shirt and bloody hands with open disgust.
“This is insane.”
Caleb looked at Grant.
“I saw two men under your helicopter before sunrise.”
“What men?”
“One was Derek.”
Vanessa’s driver.
Grant looked toward her.
Vanessa laughed.
“My driver?”
“Yes.”
“Derek is in Boston.”
“No, ma’am.”
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
Caleb continued.
“He was here.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You were beaten because you got into some drunken fight, weren’t you?”
Caleb stared at her.
“I don’t drink.”
“People like you always have an excuse.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“Vanessa.”
But she kept going.
“For eleven years, we’ve allowed you to live here practically for free.”
Caleb’s face hardened.
“I work sixty hours a week.”
“And you’re paid.”
“Yes.”
“So what is this really about?”
Caleb said nothing.
Vanessa looked around at security.
“Jealousy?”
One guard lowered his eyes.
“Resentment?”
Caleb wiped blood from his mouth.
“You finished?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Not even close.”
Grant stepped between them.
“That’s enough.”
Vanessa looked stunned.
Grant turned to Caleb.
“Tell me exactly what you heard.”
Caleb did.
The device.
The altitude trigger.
The plan to make the crash destroy the evidence.
Grant listened without interruption.
Then he turned toward the helicopter.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“You’re actually entertaining this?”
Grant said quietly, “I’m thinking.”
“He’s a farmhand.”
Caleb looked at her.
“And you’re his wife.”
She smiled coldly.
“Exactly.”
Caleb suddenly understood something.
Vanessa wasn’t scared of the accusation.
She was scared Grant might believe it.
So Caleb changed tactics.
“Okay.”
Everyone looked at him.
Caleb pointed toward the helicopter.
“If I’m lying, get on.”
Vanessa froze.
Grant slowly turned.
Caleb repeated it.
“You planned the trip with him, right?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Yes.”
“So go.”
“I have another appointment.”
“You didn’t five minutes ago.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“Who do you think you are?”
“Nobody.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“That’s why you never worried about me.”
Grant stared at his wife.
“Vanessa.”
She looked at him.
“Get on.”
Her face went pale.
“Grant, don’t be ridiculous.”
“You were supposed to fly with me to New York last night.”
“My plans changed.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What time?”
“I don’t know.”
Caleb watched her.
Vanessa was losing control.
Grant noticed too.
“Get on the helicopter.”
“No.”
One word.
Quiet.
Immediate.
Grant stepped away from the cabin.
“Shut it down.”
The pilot killed the engine.
Vanessa’s breathing quickened.
“You’re humiliating me because of him?”
Grant ignored her.
“Call State Police. Call the bomb squad.”
Vanessa grabbed his arm.
“You’re overreacting.”
Grant pulled away.
Twenty-eight minutes later, a bomb technician crawled beneath the helicopter.
Nobody spoke.
Caleb sat against an SUV while a medic cleaned his hand.
Vanessa paced.
Grant stood perfectly still.
Then the technician emerged.
His expression said everything.
Grant asked, “Well?”
“There’s a device.”
Vanessa stopped moving.
The technician continued.
“Professionally installed.”
Grant stared at his wife.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“This wasn’t me.”
Grant said nothing.
“It was Derek.”
Caleb looked up.
Vanessa pressed both hands to her chest.
“He must have done this alone.”
The bomb technician frowned.
“How did you know it was Derek?”
Silence.
Vanessa blinked.
Caleb slowly stood.
May you like
Because nobody had told Vanessa that Derek was one of the men Caleb had identified to the technician.
And Grant knew it.
