The scarred man’s voice softened by a fraction.
“That is why we came quickly too.”
Matteo looked at Elise.
“Now do you believe me?”
“I believe somebody is hunting me.”
A muscle moved in his jaw.
“That is not what I asked.”
“It’s all you’re getting.”
To her surprise, he nodded.
“Fair.”
The investigation moved faster after that.
Matteo’s security team had already recovered information from the crash site that contradicted the public claim of simple mechanical failure.
An emergency system had been deliberately disabled.
A maintenance access panel showed signs of tampering.
Someone with legitimate access to the aircraft had helped create the conditions for the crash.
The photographer’s phone supplied the missing bridge.
Messages linked the surveillance of Elise to the same network of intermediaries being examined in connection with the airfield.
Matteo could have handled that information privately.
Elise assumed he would.
Instead, when she learned enough to understand what was happening, she confronted him.
“You said men tried to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“What happens when you find them?”
Matteo watched her carefully.
“That depends.”
“No.” Elise shook her head.
“Not good enough.”
His expression cooled.
“You rescued a drowning man, Elise.
You did not become responsible for everything that man has ever done.”
“Maybe not.
But if you’re keeping me here because you say my life matters, I’m not going to sit comfortably in this house while somebody gets dragged into an alley because of me.”
The room went silent.
The scarred man looked away, almost as if hiding a reaction.
Matteo remained very still.
Then he asked, “What do you want?”
“The evidence goes to law enforcement.”
“That creates complications.”
“I’m sure you have expensive lawyers for complications.”
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Matteo gave one small nod.
“To the attorneys first.
Then the authorities.”
Elise exhaled.
“No bodies?”
The scarred man actually coughed.
Matteo’s eyes narrowed at him before returning to Elise.
“No bodies.”
It was the strangest agreement she had ever negotiated.
But he kept it.
Through counsel, the evidence from the surveillance phone and aircraft investigation was turned over to investigators already examining the crash.
The photographer, detained after abandoning his vehicle, agreed to cooperate when confronted with the communications found on his devices.
His employers had made one critical mistake.
They had been so desperate to learn what Matteo might have told Elise that they kept contacting the man watching her.
Those contacts created a trail.
Within forty-eight hours, warrants were executed at an airfield office and two other locations connected to the sabotage operation.
