Elena spent the next two hours walking Maya through the records.
The deeper they went, the less accidental anything looked.
There were repeated inspections that should never have been necessary. Parts were ordered, canceled, reordered, and transferred between aircraft without clear explanations. Names appeared on documents belonging to people who later claimed they had never touched the planes.
Maya listened without interrupting.
Then she noticed something.
“Stop.”
Elena froze.
Maya pointed at the screen.
“Go back three pages.”
Elena did.
“There.”
A serial number appeared in the corner of an inventory sheet.
Maya knew it.
“That component was on Daniel's aircraft.”
Elena nodded.
“Exactly.”
“No.”
“What?”
“It wasn't supposed to be.”
Maya reached for a pen.
“The serial number belongs to a different aircraft.”
Elena stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because I memorized Daniel's aircraft.”
She swallowed.
“After the crash, I could identify almost every part of it.”
Elena looked at the document again.
“So someone transferred a component without recording it properly.”
“Or someone wanted it to look as though they did.”
Neither woman spoke.
Maya began to see the pattern.
Daniel's aircraft had not simply received defective parts.
Someone had been manipulating the paper trail around it.
The question was why.
Later that afternoon, Elena obtained permission to review archived surveillance footage from the military maintenance facility.
Most of the recordings were damaged or missing.
One remained.
It showed a man entering the hangar the night before Daniel's final flight.
His face was partially obscured.
But Maya recognized the way he walked.
“That's Robert.”
Elena nodded.
“We thought so too.”
The footage continued.
Robert entered alone.
Twenty-seven minutes later, another man joined him.
Maya leaned toward the screen.
“Who is that?”
“We don't know.”
The second man carried a small case.
They disappeared inside the hangar.
The recording ended.
Maya stared at the frozen image.
“What happened after?”
“Nothing.”
“That can't be everything.”
“It isn't.”
Elena opened another file.
A photograph appeared.
The same second man was standing outside a private aviation facility several months later.
His face was clearer.
Maya recognized him immediately.
“That's the maintenance contractor who signed the inspection after Daniel's accident.”
Elena nodded.
“And now he's missing.”
Maya's stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Two days before Robert was arrested.”
“Do you think Robert killed him?”
“We don't know.”
Maya stood.
“Then find him.”
Elena looked at her.
“We're trying.”
“No.”
Maya's voice remained calm.
“You've spent seven years trying to understand what happened to Daniel. You finally have the right records. Don't let another missing person become another unanswered question.”
Elena studied her.
Then she nodded.
“I won't.”
That evening, Maya returned home to find Leo at the kitchen table doing mathematics.
He looked up.
“Was the meeting about Dad?”
Maya stopped.
“Yes.”
“Did you find something?”
She sat beside him.
“We found evidence that people lied about what happened to him.”
Leo's pencil stopped.
“Why?”
“I don't know yet.”
“Are they going to jail?”
“Some of them might.”
Leo thought for a moment.
“Does that make you feel better?”
Maya looked toward the window.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because knowing someone did something wrong doesn't give you the years back.”
Leo reached across the table and took her hand.
“Then don't think about the years.”
Maya smiled faintly.
“What should I think about?”
“Tomorrow.”
It was such a simple answer that Maya almost laughed.
But she kept holding his hand.
Outside, a car slowed near the house.
It did not pass immediately.
Maya noticed.
She watched through the window.
The car remained parked beneath the streetlight.
Leo did not see it.
Maya's expression changed.
Someone was watching the house.
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: The Car Outside Maya’s House Carried No Familiar Face, but Its Driver Left Behind a Warning Meant Only for Her
The Quiet Mother in Seat 8A Heard a Question That No Ordinary Passenger Was Supposed to Answer
Part 6 of 20
