The hanger access he'd logged and set aside. The entry he'd assumed was Sterling Crown's facilities team. Someone had come into his hanger while he was on a supply run, not to install something, to remove something. using him, his reputation, his thoroughess, his documentation, discipline as the reason to cover their tracks. He felt something he didn't feel often, not anger, something colder than anger. The recognition of having been used precisely because of who he was, because someone had understood his methodology well enough to know that if Malcolm Hayes was doing a deep restoration, anything hidden in that aircraft was going to be found.
And so the smarter move was to use his presence as cover for the removal. They had counted on his thoroughess to protect their operation. I thought about that for a long moment. Then he thought about the fact that it hadn't worked because Rachel had logged the email because he had logged the hangar access because 312 pages of documentation had given Delgato's team a timeline specific enough to see the gap where something should have been and wasn't. You can try to use a meticulous man's habits against him, but his habits also record everything you did.
What What do you need from me this morning? Malcolm said the deposition prep took 3 hours. It was thorough, specific, and at certain points genuinely difficult. Not because the facts were uncertain, but because translating 19 years of technical instinct into language. a federal case could use required the kind of patience that Malcolm usually reserved for particularly complex wire runs. He was precise.
He was consistent. He went back and corrected himself twice when he realized he'd used shorthand that assumed knowledge the legal record couldn't assume. And each time Cho nodded with the approval of someone who understood that a witness who self-corrects is a witness, the other side can't easily shake. Rachel's deposition was even cleaner than his. She had timestamps for everything.
At 11, they broke. Delgato walked them to the elevator. One more thing, he said. The name of the private equity firm in Houston. I can't share it officially, but the principles of that firm are known to us from a prior investigation unrelated to aviation.
If you hear the name Crestline Capital in the next few weeks, pay attention. He hit the elevator button and walked back down the hall without another word. Malcolm and Rachel rode down in silence. In the lobby, Rachel said, "Crestline Capital." "I heard it," he said. "I'm going to look them up," she said.
"Don't," he said. "Not yet. Let Delgato's team do their work. We documented what we found. Our job isn't the investigation." She looked at him.
"What is our job?" He held the lobby door open. "Making sure the aircraft fly safe," he said. Same as always, they walked out into the Dallas midday. The work that followed was not glamorous. It was the kind of work that real things are built from methodical, unglamorous day after day.
Progress that doesn't announce itself. The Sterling Crown Fleet inspection wrapped up on Wednesday. Aircraft 11 was grounded indefinitely pending the federal investigation. Aircraft 6 had its fuel system rebuilt from scratch by Malcolm's team over 4 days with Jerome taking the lead on the bracket reinstallation under Malcolm's supervision and Jerome doing it correctly on the first try with the careful focused energy of a young man who understood that. There were no second tries at this altitude.