THE POOR MECHANIC CLIMBED THE BROKEN ROLLER COASTER TO SAVE THE MAFIA BOSS'S SISTER—THEN HE LEARNED WHY SHE HAD NO ONE TO CALL

Northstar Mobility did not want Lake View Grand because of the roller coaster.

It wanted the server room beneath it.

Meredith discovered that at 6:20 Wednesday evening while reviewing facility schematics with Bryce and a digital forensics consultant. Lake View's amusement systems were connected to a legacy building-management network installed years before Ashford funds acquired a minority stake. The network stored maintenance archives, contractor credentials, procurement histories, and scanned work orders going back more than a decade.

"If Northstar owns the property," Meredith said, "they inherit the physical servers."

The consultant nodded. "Unless the seller preserves records first."

Bryce looked at Kieran. "Which we are doing now."

Kieran had already ordered a litigation hold across every Ashford-affiliated entity connected to Lake View, Orion, Northstar, Harris, Leah Voss, Caleb Voss, and Daniel Pike.

"Can Sebastian stop it?" Meredith asked.

"He can complain," Kieran said.

"That wasn't my question."

"No. Not while I hold executive authority."

"Then what's the seventy-two-hour vote for?"

"To remove that authority."

Meredith looked up.

Kieran leaned against the conference table.

"Sebastian can't take the company by ordinary succession. I have forty-two percent of voting control through trusts and direct holdings. Jolene has nine. He has thirty-one. The rest is scattered among family partnerships."

"You and Jolene together have fifty-one."

"Yes."

"So why is there a fight?"

"Because Jolene's nine percent becomes independently voting on her twenty-fifth birthday next month. Until then, her shares sit in a protective trust with three trustees. Sebastian persuaded one trustee that my leadership creates unacceptable risk."

"And the attack on Jolene supports that argument."

"Exactly."

Meredith sat back.

The sabotage was not only about killing or frightening Jolene.

It was about creating evidence that Kieran could not protect his own family, while simultaneously building a chain that framed Meredith and pushed liability toward operational chaos.

A crisis useful in multiple directions.

"Sebastian doesn't need Jolene dead," she said slowly.

Kieran's eyes hardened. "No."

"He needs her scared, discredited, or placed under tighter legal control."

Bryce nodded. "A trust court could restrict independent voting if she's deemed vulnerable or coerced."

Meredith swore.

"And you locking her in a penthouse would help him."

Kieran looked at her.

"Yes."

The admission cost him something.

Meredith respected that.

At seven, Detective Chen arrived with news.

Caleb Voss had been found in Milwaukee trying to board a bus under another name. He was alive, scared, and willing to talk after learning Pike had apparently stopped answering him.

His statement came through counsel.

Caleb admitted purchasing the prepaid card, creating the fake Tessa account, and photographing Jolene at Lake View after the accident. He claimed he had never touched the roller coaster.

"Who told him to do it?" Meredith asked.

"Pike," Chen said. "He says Pike described it as a pressure campaign in a corporate family dispute."

"Did Pike tell him Jolene would be on the ride?"

"According to Caleb, no. He was told to lure her to the property and leave."

"Then who sabotaged the ride?"

"He says he doesn't know."

Kieran folded his arms. "Do you believe him?"

Chen gave him a dry look. "My job remains evidence, not vibes."

"You're spending too much time with Meredith."

"She's less expensive."

The forensic team interrupted them.

They had recovered a deleted work order from the Lake View server.

TEMPORARY RETROFIT / RESTRAINT SENSOR CALIBRATION.

Contractor: Northstar Mobility.

Technician: Evan Rooke.

Approver: Leah Voss.

The technician signature was digital.

The IP used to sign it came from Ashford Tower.

Everyone became quiet.

"Who had access?" Chen asked.

Bryce answered. "Thousands of employees physically. Network access is narrower."

"Can you identify the terminal?"

"Working on it."

At 8:03, they did.

Executive floor.

Office 41B.

Sebastian Ashford's private administrative suite.

The evidence still did not prove Sebastian personally signed anything. Staff could access the suite. Credentials could be spoofed. But the pattern had moved closer.

Kieran looked through the window at Chicago.

"He'll say Pike acted without authority."

"Probably," Chen said.

"And Pike will say the same about Caleb and Harris."

"Probably."

Meredith walked to the screen displaying the work order.

"Then stop chasing the people and chase the part."

"What?" Bryce asked.

"The relay. The removed clip. Somebody had to obtain specific hardware and know the retrofit architecture. Components have batch histories. Tool marks have patterns. If Northstar supplied the relay, find the exact lot. Find who pulled it from inventory."

The federal safety investigator joined by video call and agreed.

By midnight, Northstar's lawyers received a preservation order.

By 2:00 a.m., a warehouse inventory clerk in Joliet produced a shipping record.

One restraint relay from lot N-463 had been removed from controlled inventory two weeks earlier under a "failure analysis" request.

The requestor was Daniel Pike Consulting.

The lot number made Meredith stop breathing.

N-463.

Her father's recording had named lot codes N-441 through N-468.

Seventeen years apart.

Same legacy batch family.

"How can the same lot still exist?" Kieran asked.

Meredith shook her head. "It shouldn't. Unless Northstar inherited unsold Orion stock and kept refurbishing components under new certification labels."

The federal investigator looked sick.

If true, Northstar had been putting legacy components with disputed certification into modern systems for years.

This was no longer just sabotage.

It was corporate fraud with potentially national safety consequences.

Meredith stared at the number.

Her father had died trying to expose those parts.

Now one had helped trap Jolene in the air.

At 2:17, Kieran's phone rang.

Sebastian.

Kieran put the call on speaker.

His uncle's voice was smooth.

"You're making a mess."

Kieran looked at Meredith.

"Interesting greeting."

"Federal subpoenas. Preservation holds. Press rumors. All because an employee climbed where she wasn't authorized and now believes she's an engineer."

Meredith stepped closer to the phone.

"I was almost an engineer. Then your company helped kill the one paying my tuition."

Silence.

Sebastian said, "Ms. Lawson. I wondered when we'd speak."

Kieran's eyes darkened.

"Careful."

Sebastian ignored him.

"Your father made the same mistake you are making. He confused technical competence with understanding power."

Meredith's hand tightened around the table edge.

"And you confused getting away with something with being right."

A soft chuckle came through the speaker.

"Thomas was stubborn too."