Chapter 7 - THE AIRLINE WAS PART OF THE PLAN
Evelyn had trusted Daniel Mercer for six years.
He approved her vacation requests.
Handled medical leave.
Once brought flowers when her mother died.
Now his face appeared in a photograph beside the man altering Vitelli succession documents.
She felt more betrayed by that image than by anything connected to strangers named Vitelli.
“Find him.”
Marco was already calling.
Mercer had left Shannon Airport forty minutes earlier.
Rental car.
Heading south.
Irish police intercepted the vehicle near Limerick.
It was empty.
Inside they found Evelyn’s crew schedule, a second passport under Mercer’s photograph, and sixty thousand euros in cash.
He had been paid.
But by whom?
Charles Vale disappeared from Manhattan the same morning.
His office had been professionally wiped.
Matteo Vitelli denied everything.
Too aggressively.
Antonio requested full audits of family accounts.
Luca requested the same independently.
For once, the brothers agreed.
Evelyn watched them from the hospital conference room.
“You two always communicate like hostile governments?”
Luca smiled.
Antonio did not.
“Yes,” Luca said.
The investigation uncovered a pattern.
Mercer had manipulated flight assignments twice.
Originally Evelyn was not scheduled on the Rome flight.
Another attendant had been.
Three days before departure, a last-minute staffing change placed Evelyn in business class.
Someone specifically wanted her near Antonio.
But why would the planner risk Evelyn saving him?
Because they expected her to become the suspect.
Not the rescuer.
They assumed Antonio would die too quickly for intervention.
The pediatrician aboard had complicated the plan.
So had Evelyn noticing the reaction almost immediately.
Then Irish police found Daniel Rusk.
Alive.
He had been hiding.
Not from Antonio.
From Vale.
Rusk agreed to speak only if Luca and Evelyn were present.
At a secure police facility, he looked exhausted.
“I didn’t touch the medication case.”
Evelyn said, “You watched Antonio.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I knew something might happen.”
Everyone stiffened.
Rusk explained that Vale’s messages referenced “the Atlantic window.”
He suspected an attack during the flight but did not know the method.
“Why didn’t you warn the crew?”
“Because I needed to identify who was involved.”
Evelyn’s anger flared.
“You used a plane full of people as bait.”
Rusk looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Antonio’s voice became dangerous.
“You allowed me to ingest something.”
“I didn’t know it was already in your medication.”
“Then your incompetence nearly killed me.”
Rusk accepted that.
Then he looked at Evelyn.
“There’s something you need to know.”
She waited.
“Your airline supervisor wasn’t recruited recently.”
“How long?”
“Years.”
Rusk slid a file across the table.
Mercer had been receiving money from a shell company for nine years.
The company belonged to an old Vitelli associate.
A man officially dead for seven years.
Evelyn read the name.
Paolo Vitelli.
Antonio’s father.
She looked up.
Antonio had gone completely still.
His father’s death certificate said heart failure.
Closed funeral.
Family burial.
But the payments continued every quarter.
May you like
Antonio whispered,
“My father is alive.”
