Chapter 18 - Before the Airport
Marcus pulled another chair to the table.
"Start from the beginning."
The elderly man remained standing.
"There is no beginning."
"There has to be."
"There are only moments when people finally notice the truth."
Dana activated an audio recorder.
"State your name."
The man hesitated.
"You may call me Arthur."
"Last name?"
"I stopped using it years ago."
Marcus wasn't interested in arguing.
"Were you working with Daniel Whitmore?"
Arthur nodded.
"We investigated the same people."
"The airport?"
Arthur slowly shook his head.
"The airport was only one location."
Marcus leaned forward.
"What were you investigating?"
Arthur looked toward the folded American flag resting on the evidence table.
"A network."
"What kind of network?"
"One that specialized in making evidence disappear."
The room grew quiet again.
Arthur continued.
"Accident reports."
"Insurance records."
"Security footage."
"Passenger manifests."
"Witness statements."
"If someone important needed history rewritten..."
He paused.
"...they knew exactly whom to call."
Marcus remembered Rebecca's position in the airport records office.
"So Rebecca copied the originals."
Arthur nodded.
"Before they vanished forever."
Dana opened Daniel's notebook again.
"Did Daniel know everyone involved?"
"No."
"Did Rebecca?"
"No."
"Who did?"
Arthur's answer came without hesitation.
"The accountant."
Marcus frowned.
"Accountant?"
"The only person who followed the money instead of the paperwork."
Eleanor looked confused.
"Daniel never mentioned an accountant."
Arthur gave a tired smile.
"Because Daniel never learned the accountant's real identity."
Marcus felt another piece of the puzzle shift.
"Do you know who it is?"
Arthur looked toward Victor.
"No."
Victor laughed softly.
"For once, he's telling the truth."
Marcus noticed something unexpected.
Victor wasn't mocking Arthur.
He sounded genuinely uncertain.
Before Marcus could ask another question, the communications officer rushed back into the room carrying a printed report.
"We've finished reviewing the emergency footage from North Storage."
Dana accepted it.
"What caused the alarm?"
"It wasn't a fire."
Everyone stared.
"The sensors detected intense heat... but no flames."
Marcus frowned.
"What generated the heat?"
The communications officer turned to the final page.
"We don't know."
"Why not?"
"Because every camera covering Locker 118 failed at exactly the same second."
Marcus sighed.
"So we're blind again."
The officer slowly shook his head.
"Not completely."
He placed one enlarged image on the table.
Captured just before every camera failed was the silhouette of a single person emerging from the maintenance tunnel.
The face was hidden.
The clothing was unremarkable.
But in the figure's right hand was an object wrapped in dark cloth.
Arthur took one look at the image and quietly whispered,
"They found the second archive before we did."
Marcus immediately looked at him.
"You've known there were two archives all along."
Arthur met his eyes.
"No."
"There were never two."
May you like
He pointed toward the blurred object in the photograph.
"There were always three."
