Lauren agreed to meet us at a quiet office outside Atlanta.
She arrived carrying a folder.
“I don't want trouble,” she said immediately.
Thomas nodded.
“Then just tell us what you know.”
Lauren looked at me.
“I recognize you.”
“From the news?”
“No. From a photograph Victoria showed me before your flight.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“What photograph?”
She opened the folder.
Inside was a printed picture of me leaving an office building in New York.
Someone had circled my face in red ink.
Underneath were three words.
Daniel Brooks. Investor.
I stared at the page.
“Where did she get this?”
“I don't know,” Lauren said. “But she told me a business contact wanted her to identify you.”
“When?”
“About two weeks before Flight 418.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Did she explain why?”
Lauren hesitated.
“She said it was a business opportunity.”
“What kind?”
“She wouldn't tell me. But she said all she had to do was make sure you didn't enjoy your flight.”
I looked at Thomas.
He remained expressionless.
Lauren continued.
“I thought she was joking.”
“Did she mention Adrian Cole?” Thomas asked.
Lauren nodded.
“Yes.”
My pulse quickened.
“What did she say?”
“She called him her new corporate sponsor.”
Thomas wrote something down.
“Did she ever discuss the money?”
Lauren swallowed.
“She said she'd receive another payment if everything went according to plan.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
I sat back.
Twenty-five thousand before the flight.
Fifty thousand afterward.
Seventy-five thousand dollars.
For what?
A humiliating confrontation in first class?
A complaint against an airline investor?
Or something we still hadn't discovered?
Thomas closed his notebook.
“Lauren, thank you. We'll need to verify these details, but you've been very helpful.”
She looked at me.
“Mr. Brooks, I'm sorry.”
“You didn't spill the coffee.”
“No,” she whispered. “But I knew Victoria was planning something unpleasant. I should have said something.”
I shook my head.
“You're saying something now.”
After she left, Thomas remained seated.
“Well?” I asked.
He looked at the photograph.
“Now we know the incident wasn't entirely spontaneous.”
“Do we?”
“We know Victoria had your identity and photograph before the flight. We know she discussed a plan to make your flight unpleasant. And we know she received a suspicious payment.”
I stared at the red circle around my face.
“Then the question is why.”
Thomas nodded.
“Exactly.”
The answer began to emerge from a set of financial records Natalie obtained during a scheduled corporate review.
The Meridian Project had originally been presented as a cost-saving initiative.
Its stated purpose was to consolidate corporate travel partnerships, improve premium customer retention, and negotiate better agreements with large business clients.
On paper, it looked reasonable.
But several payments didn't make sense.
Consulting fees had been routed through small companies with vague descriptions.
Marketing research expenses were unusually high.
And one advisory contract contained language allowing substantial performance bonuses without clearly defined deliverables.
Natalie spread the documents across my conference table.
“Look at this,” she said.
She pointed to a payment schedule.
“Meridian Advisory Group received four hundred thousand dollars over six months.”
“For what services?”
“Strategic relationship management.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“That's vague.”
“Very.”
She turned another page.
“Then Meridian paid several smaller vendors, including Victoria's company.”
“Who approved the original payments?”
Natalie looked at me.
“Adrian Cole.”
I leaned back.
“So Northstar pays Meridian. Meridian pays Victoria. And Victoria creates an incident involving one of Northstar's investors.”
“That's the apparent sequence. But we still need to establish intent.”
I studied the documents.
“Who benefits if I become dissatisfied with Northstar?”
Natalie hesitated.
“That's the part I haven't figured out.”
We spent the next several hours reviewing the restructuring agreement.
Then Natalie found something.
It was buried in an appendix describing investor governance rights.
Our investment group had been granted the authority to nominate an independent audit committee representative if certain operational performance benchmarks weren't met.
Those benchmarks included customer service complaints, safety reporting, and financial transparency.
I frowned.
“That doesn't explain why Adrian would target me. An incident like this only makes the airline look worse.”
“Unless he expected you to react differently.”
“What do you mean?”
Natalie opened another document.
“Adrian has been pushing for Northstar to sell a large portion of its corporate travel division to an outside buyer.”
“I remember. We opposed the valuation.”
“Exactly.”
The proposed buyer was a private holding company called Westbridge Capital Partners.