Three weeks after the emergency landing, Maya received a call before sunrise.
She was standing barefoot in the kitchen, waiting for the coffee machine to finish, when the unfamiliar number appeared on her phone. For several seconds she considered ignoring it. Then she answered.
“Maya Lin?”
“Yes.”
“This is Elena Brooks. I need you to come to the federal building.”
Maya glanced toward the hallway.
Leo was still asleep.
“What happened?”
“We found something in Daniel’s records.”
The coffee machine clicked off.
Maya did not touch the cup.
“Something new?”
“A discrepancy.”
“What kind?”
A pause.
“The kind that changes the date.”
Maya felt the old tightness return beneath her ribs.
“I'll be there.”
She arranged for Leo to stay with the same elderly neighbor who had watched him during the flight emergency. Then she drove across town beneath a gray morning sky, replaying Elena's words.
Changes the date.
Daniel had died seven years earlier.
His accident report had been closed for years.
The replacement components had been identified.
Robert Anderson was awaiting trial.
So what date could possibly change anything?
Elena was waiting in the same conference room where Maya had first read Daniel's final message. This time, a large monitor displayed a maintenance log.
“Look here.”
Maya leaned forward.
The aircraft had supposedly received its replacement control component six days before Daniel's final flight.
Elena enlarged the entry.
“The installation was logged at 2:14 in the afternoon.”
Maya frowned.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Daniel called me that morning.”
Elena waited.
“He told me the maintenance crew was still working on the aircraft.”
“How sure are you?”
“I remember because I was angry.”
Maya's voice became quieter.
“We had plans that evening. He said he'd be late because maintenance had delayed the flight.”
Elena nodded.
“That call isn't in the military records.”
“It wouldn't be.”
“Why not?”
“Because it was personal.”
Elena enlarged another document.
“Your phone records say otherwise.”
Maya stared.
A call from Daniel's number had been made to her phone at 6:47 that morning.
But the maintenance log said his aircraft had already been cleared the previous afternoon.
Maya sat back.
“Someone changed the records.”
“We think so.”
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
Elena opened another file.
“This is the part I couldn't understand.”
A second maintenance entry appeared.
The same component had been removed and replaced again two days after the first installation.
Maya stared at the screen.
“Why replace something twice?”
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
“Was Daniel's aircraft inspected after that?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
Elena gave her a name.
Maya recognized it.
She had seen the same name in the documents Robert had tried to keep hidden.
Her mouth went dry.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“That person worked for Robert.”
“We know.”
Maya looked at Daniel's photograph on the table.
The investigation was not finished.
It had only been waiting for someone to notice the wrong date.
Click here to continue reading: PART 6: A Second Set of Maintenance Records Revealed Someone Had Been Following Daniel’s Aircraft Long Before the Fatal Flight
The Quiet Mother in Seat 8A Heard a Question That No Ordinary Passenger Was Supposed to Answer
Part 5 of 20
