Chapter 6 - THE FALSE CONSENT
The forged travel consent used more than my copied signature.
It included a video verification.
A man sat in my office chair beneath low light, held my driver’s license beside his face, and stated that Celeste could travel internationally with Sophie.
The man resembled me enough for automated review.
He was Richard wearing a realistic hairpiece and using altered audio.
The notary watched through a low-quality connection and approved the form.
She later admitted the client came through a premium corporate account that discouraged repeated identity challenges.
Convenience had lowered every safeguard.
Richard’s conspiracy charge expanded.
The airline placed the tickets on a fraud hold.
The reservation contained special instructions requesting private boarding assistance because Sophie suffered “severe behavioral episodes around strangers.”
Celeste intended airport staff to interpret resistance as illness.
A wheelchair escort had been arranged even though Sophie walked normally.
A sedative prescription had been requested from a telehealth provider under my name.
The provider refused because Sophie had not been examined.
Celeste then filled a children’s antihistamine prescription using an old authorization.
Police found the unopened medication in her handbag.
No evidence showed she had drugged Sophie.
The preparation still revealed how she planned to manage a frightened child in public.
At home, Sophie asked whether she had almost been taken forever.
“I don’t know what Celeste planned after Lisbon.”
“Would you find me?”
“Yes.”
The answer came too quickly.
She looked at me.
“How?”
I stopped.
Promises should not depend on magic.
“I would use the police, the courts, the airline records, every person who loved you, and every lawful tool available. I would never stop trying.”
“That’s different.”
“It’s more honest.”
She nodded.
The suitcase appeared in her drawings.
Sometimes huge enough to fill a house.
Sometimes small enough to fit in Celeste’s hand.
Her therapist taught her to separate memory from current danger.
The suitcase was in police evidence.
Celeste could not enter our home.
Richard’s access credentials had been revoked.
Doors were changed.
No travel occurred without my written confirmation.
Safety became visible procedure.
Helen Ward arrived from Boston.
She had served as Amelia’s outside counsel for a confidential corporate matter.
Attorney-client restrictions prevented her from revealing everything until the court resolved who controlled Amelia’s privilege after death.
She could confirm one point.
“Amelia believed Celeste and Richard were working together before the crash.”
“Working together how?”
“I cannot answer yet.”
“Did she believe they would hurt her?”
Helen looked toward Sophie’s photograph.
“She believed they would destroy evidence.”
“Did she believe she would die?”
“She updated Sophie’s guardianship documents three days before the crash.”
That was not an answer.
It was close enough to terrify me.
Helen also recognized the number sequence behind the photograph.
14-7-3.
It referred to a storage system Amelia used in legal exhibits.
Cabinet fourteen.
Drawer seven.
Item three.
The location was not in our home.
It was inside Carter Meridian’s secure compliance archive.
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Richard had controlled building security since Amelia’s death.
When investigators opened the cabinet, drawer seven was empty.
