Richard’s Private Airport
Chapter 08 - Richard’s Private Airport
Richard Cross did not wait for breakfast.
He left his lake estate before dawn and drove to a private airport using a vehicle registered to a shell company. A jet filed a flight plan for the Bahamas, then changed destination while taxiing.
Federal agents blocked the runway.
Richard barricaded himself inside the cabin with two encrypted drives and a satellite phone. He threatened to release confidential company data if allowed to leave.
Marcus advised negotiation.
Julian wanted the door opened immediately.
Thomas, from a secure hospital room, asked to speak with his brother.
The call was connected through investigators.
Richard laughed when he heard Thomas’s voice.
“So the dead man wakes.”
Thomas remained calm.
“You always needed an audience.”
“You always needed worship.”
The brothers had competed since childhood. Thomas built machines; Richard built relationships. Their father praised Thomas’s inventions and used Richard to negotiate sales. Richard interpreted every success as proof he was useful but never loved.
None of that excused the crash.
Thomas asked where the original Blue Harbor documents were.
Richard claimed they burned.
Thomas replied, “You never burn leverage.”
Silence.
That answer guided investigators.
The drives aboard the plane contained copies of the original trust, bribery records, clinic payments, and surveillance files. Richard had preserved everything in case Victoria tried to blame him alone.
He surrendered after agents disabled the jet.
During questioning, Richard admitted sabotaging Thomas’s car. He intended a survivable crash that would remove Thomas temporarily from a crucial board vote. The vehicle caught fire unexpectedly. When Richard found Thomas alive, Victoria insisted they hide him rather than call authorities.
Each blamed the other.
Both continued the confinement.
Richard also revealed that the burned body used for Thomas’s identification belonged to a homeless man who died in an unrelated industrial accident. Dental records were switched through a security contractor.
A stranger had been buried under Thomas’s name.
Julian listened to the confession with horror.
Somewhere, another family may have spent fifteen years without knowing where their son, brother, or father rested.
He ordered the man identified.
Marcus corrected him gently.
“You request an investigation. You do not order human truth.”
Julian nodded.
May you like
Power had distorted every generation of the Cross family.
If he wanted to repair anything, language was a place to begin.
