Chapter 26 - The Whispering Gallery
Two weeks after the Supermax transfer order was executed, the legal fallout swept across the remaining remnants of Raymond Vance’s empire like a cleansing wildfire.
The twelve million dollars recovered from the Panamanian shell accounts was formally transferred by federal court order to The Mason Sterling Educational & Flight Heritage Foundation. Under the supervision of our corporate trustees, every single dollar was designated to fund full, four-year collegiate flight academy scholarships for daughters and sons of single working mothers across the United States.
At the federal correctional camp in Pekin, Illinois, Vanessa Vance sat in a drab gray visitation cubicle behind three inches of scratched Plexiglas.
She wore an oversized khaki prison uniform, her bleached blonde hair grown out into dark, matted roots, her fingernails cut down to the quick, completely stripped of the cosmetic armor that had once defined her arrogant strut through first class.
On the other side of the glass sat Claire Montgomery, accompanied by an agent from the United States Postal Inspection Service.
"Your father’s plea deal at Butner was finalized yesterday, Vanessa," Claire said through the telephone receiver, her voice completely devoid of emotion. "And your brother Marcus has been transferred to a medium-security facility in Colorado after cooperating fully in the Gary hangar raid."
Vanessa clutched the plastic receiver with trembling, red-knuckled fingers, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks. "What about Tyler? Did he... did he ever ask about me? Did he leave anything for me in the Panama accounts?"
Claire offered a faint, sorrowful shake of her head. "Tyler Holloway never thought about you for a single second, Vanessa. The moment he landed in Wisconsin, his only concern was using his stolen escrow to buy his own freedom. You threw your life, your career, and your family's honor away for a man who viewed you as nothing more than a convenient prop for a public address stunt."
Vanessa buried her face in her prison smock, sobbing with an agonizing, irredeemable grief that shook her entire frame.
"Mrs. Sterling-Miller wanted me to give you this," Claire added, sliding a single piece of paper through the document slot beneath the partition.
Vanessa looked up through her swollen, red eyes, picking up the document.
It was a fully paid release of civil liability. Audrey Sterling had declined to pursue personal civil bankruptcy against Vanessa for the eighty-four thousand-dollar diamond ring, forgiving the financial judgment on one sole condition: that upon her eventual release from prison in sixteen years, Vanessa would never set foot within one hundred miles of an airport operating under the Horizon Continental flag.
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"She... she forgave the judgment?" Vanessa choked out, her voice cracked and bewildered.
"Audrey doesn't hold grudges against broken mirrors, Vanessa," Claire replied, rising from her chair and buttoning her trench coat. "She simply cleans up the glass and keeps walking."
