Chapter 5 - MASON’S MESSAGE
Mason came back with a lawyer.
Not to the airport.
To the inspector general's office two days later.
His Sentinel employment had been suspended immediately.
Airport credentials inactive.
No access to staff systems.
His attorney, Grace Nolan, made one thing clear:
“He is here voluntarily. We are not discussing criminal exposure without separate agreement.”
Fine.
Grant was not leading the interview.
Because once Mason accused Grant of old bias, the inspector general assigned Deputy Inspector Andrea Shaw.
Forty-six.
No history with 2018.
Grant sat in the back as a subject-matter consultant.
He hated it.
Good.
Andrea asked Mason why he grabbed my phone.
He answered:
“Because Claire told me she had stolen Sentinel records.”
I almost stood.
My lawyer put one hand on my sleeve.
Yes.
I had a lawyer now.
Learning.
Andrea asked:
“Why not contact company counsel?”
Mason looked embarrassed.
“I thought company counsel was compromised.”
“Why?”
He produced his phone.
A text from an unknown number.
Three hours before our meeting.
CARTER GIRL HAS THE RED BOOK PAGE. GRANT IS USING HER TO BURY YOU BEFORE RENEWAL. GET THE PHONE BEFORE HE GETS YOU ON TAPE.
Silence.
Grant muttered something under his breath.
Andrea looked at him.
“Mr. Mercer.”
He stopped.
She asked Mason:
“Did that message instruct you to physically remove Ms. Carter?”
“No.”
“Then why did you?”
“I wanted her away from cameras.”
That sounded worse.
He knew it.
Mason continued.
“I wanted to ask what she had without Grant listening.”
“You are a private security supervisor.”
“Yes.”
“Was Ms. Carter being detained under any written security authority?”
“No.”
“Did you have reason to believe she posed an immediate danger?”
“No.”
“Then why did you say, ‘You're coming with me’?”
Mason looked down.
“Because I was angry.”
There.
No operational excuse.
He owned that sentence.
Then Andrea asked about Ava.
“I didn't know who she was.”
“You shoved her into a pillar.”
“She hit my arm.”
“She knocked your hand away from Claire.”
Mason said nothing.
Current conduct remained current conduct.
Old mysteries did not erase it.
Then Andrea held up the message.
“Why did ‘red book’ frighten you?”
Mason looked toward Grant.
Then me.
“Because there was one.”
My heart kicked.
Grant leaned forward.
Mason's lawyer said:
“Careful.”
Mason shook his head.
“No. This part is done.”
The red book was a handwritten shift log.
Sentinel staff used it when electronic scanners lagged.
Arrival time.
Bag tag.
Temporary location.
Supervisor initials.
Not official evidence.
Still useful.
During the 2018 storm, the red book captured movements the database did not.
My father wrote in it.
Mason did too.
“Where is it?”
Andrea asked.
Mason's answer:
“I destroyed it.”
I stood.
My lawyer tried to stop me.
I didn't care.
“You what?”
Mason looked at me.
“Six weeks after your father was fired.”
“Why?”
“Regional ordered all unofficial logs destroyed after legal preservation was complete.”
“Who?”
Mason looked at Andrea.
“Paul Voss.”
Sentinel regional vice president.
Still with the company.
Currently leading its Hudson contract renewal.
Grant said:
“You told me the red book never existed.”
Mason looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Voss told us duplicates created inconsistent discovery.”
“You lied to an integrity investigator.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mason's jaw tightened.
“Because your report was already blaming Carter, and I wasn't volunteering a log I had already been told to destroy.”
I stared.
He had just admitted something that hurt him.
Then he added:
“But I did not change those bag statuses.”
Andrea asked:
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
“Who could?”
“Three people that night.”
“Names?”
Mason gave them.
Peter Carter.
Himself.
And an administrative account controlled by regional operations.
Then Mason slid his phone across the table.
The anonymous sender had attached one image.
A photograph of a red-book page.
My father's handwriting.
Mason's initials.
And one line at 1:17 a.m.:
ADMIN OVERRIDE — S14 / VOSS CALLED
Mason stared at it.
“I watched that book go into a shred bin.”
Nobody spoke.
Someone had photographed the page before Mason destroyed it.
May you like
And the only man we knew who had been asking about the red book in 2018—
was Thomas Bennett.
