Chapter 89: Sterling’s Investigation.
Marcus Sterling sat in the airport hangar where Captain Koker’s private jet was kept, his notebook open on his lap. The crew had been summoned for questioning, and they stood in a nervous line near the aircraft. The pilot, a man named Richards, looked like he hadn’t slept since the day Mira disappeared.
"Walk me through that day," Sterling said, his pen ready. "Everything from the moment she arrived at the hangar."
Richards cleared his throat. "Miss Koker showed up around noon with two other teenagers. A boy and a girl. She told us she had her father’s permission for a cultural trip to Mumbai."
"Did you verify that permission?"
Richards shifted his weight. "We called the main house. The housekeeper confirmed that Miss Koker had mentioned the trip to her. We assumed everything was approved."
Sterling looked up from his notes. "You assumed. Based on what the housekeeper said, not what Mr. Koker said."
"Yes, sir."
"And you didn’t find it strange that a seventeen year old girl was taking a private jet halfway across the world without her father present?"
The co-pilot spoke up. "Sir, with respect, Miss Koker has been using the jet since she was fourteen. Mr. Koker travels constantly. We’re used to her flying alone."
Sterling nodded, making a note. "Okay. Tell me about the other two passengers. Names, descriptions, anything they said during the flight."
Richards pulled out a clipboard. "The manifest listed three passengers but no specific names beyond Miss Koker’s. The boy was tall, maybe six feet, brown hair. The girl was shorter, darker complexion, nervous energy. They kept to themselves mostly."
"Did Miss Koker seem nervous? Scared? Was anyone forcing her to do this?"
"No, sir. She was confident, gave us clear instructions. Told us to file the flight plan for Dubai but change course to Mumbai once we were airborne."
Sterling’s pen stopped. "She told you to file a false flight plan?"
Richards nodded miserably. "Yes, sir. She said it was for privacy reasons, that her father had business competitors who might track the jet."
"And you didn’t question this?"
"Miss Koker can be very convincing when she wants to be. And she mentioned her father by name, said he’d approved the change. We had no reason to doubt her."
Sterling closed his notebook and stood. "I need copies of everything. The original flight plan, the actual route you took, fuel stops, everything. And I need the names of those two passengers." Then he walked away.
"One more thing, Mr Sterling?" Richards called.
He turned around. "What’s up?"
"Please we would like to resume working for Mr Koker. Can you let him know that we’re deeply sorry? And would be stricter next time. Just...put in a word or two for us."
"I’ll see what I can do Richards, but I can’t guarantee anything."
"Thank you."
—
An hour later, Sterling was on the phone with Brookside High, speaking to Sofia Martinez.
"Mr. Sterling, we’re already investigating these students," Sofia said, her voice tense. "Three of them disappeared the same day you’re asking about."
"Three students. Mira Koker and two others?"
"Yes. Liam Kenner and Raquel Torres. They created an elaborate cover story, hacked into our computer systems, and vanished."
Sterling made rapid notes. "What kind of cover story?"
"Liam told his mother he was going on a school cultural trip. Raquel told her mother she was staying at Mira’s house. Both stories were backed up by fake phone calls from someone posing as school staff."
"These kids planned this carefully."
"Very carefully. We have a detective working the case now, and we’ve contacted Interpol because we believe they left the country."
Sterling tapped his pen against his notebook. "They’re in Mumbai. I’m tracking them for Mira’s father."
After hanging up with Sofia, Sterling pulled Mira’s bank records. Captain Koker had provided full access, and what Sterling found made his gut twist.
The million dollar transfer hadn’t been a single transaction. Mira had split it into dozens of smaller amounts, each going to different accounts in Mumbai. The transactions were carefully structured to avoid triggering automatic fraud alerts, which meant she’d either researched financial regulations extensively or had help from someone who knew what they were doing.
Sterling traced the receiving accounts. Most were shell companies or temporary accounts that had been closed shortly after receiving the funds. But one account stood out. It had received three separate payments totaling two hundred thousand dollars. The name of the account read Clearwater Solutions.
He ran a search on Clearwater Solutions and found virtually nothing. No website, no business address, no client testimonials. Just a registered business name in Mumbai and a single phone number.
Sterling dialed the number. It rang four times before a man answered.
"Clearwater."
"My name is Marcus Sterling. I’m a private investigator looking into some transactions made to your company by a client named Mira Koker."
The line was silent for several seconds. Then the man said, "I don’t discuss client information."
"I’m working for her father. Captain Viktor Koker. He’s trying to find his daughter."
Another pause. "If Captain Koker wants information about his daughter’s activities, he can contact me directly. This number will not accept calls from unknown parties again."
The line went dead.
Sterling stared at his phone, then immediately started running deeper searches on Clearwater Solutions. It took two hours and three different databases, but he finally found something. The company was registered to a man named Everett Clearwater, former military intelligence, specialized in security consulting and personal protection.
But that wasn’t what made Sterling’s blood run cold. According to his sources, Everett Clearwater had spent the last decade helping people disappear. Political refugees, whistleblowers, people running from dangerous situations. He had a reputation for being brilliant at creating new identities and moving people across borders without leaving traces.
Sterling called Captain Koker immediately.
"Talk to me," Koker said, picking up on the first ring.
"Your daughter hired a professional. A man named Everett Clearwater. He specializes in making people vanish."
Sterling could hear Koker’s sharp intake of breath. "What does that mean? Is she running from something?"
"I don’t know yet. But Clearwater doesn’t work cheap, and he doesn’t work for teenagers on vacation. Whatever Mira’s involved in, it’s serious enough that she felt she needed professional help staying hidden."
"From who? From me?"
"Maybe. I need to dig deeper into Clearwater’s background, see if I can figure out what kind of operation he’s running."
Before Koker could respond, Sterling heard voices in the background. "Hold on," Koker said.
Sterling waited, hearing muffled conversation. Then Koker came back on the line, his voice tight.
"Sterling, I just received a message. Someone claiming to know where Mira is. They want to meet."
"Don’t," Sterling said immediately. "Not until we know who they are and what they want."
"They mentioned Singapore."
Sterling’s pen froze mid-note. "What about Singapore?"
"They said something about settling old scores from Singapore. What does that mean?"
Sterling’s mind raced through everything he knew about Captain Koker’s business history. The Singapore branch closure, the families that had been ruined, the partners who’d been pushed out.
"Captain, years ago when you shut down your Singapore operations, did you make enemies? People who might want revenge?"
Koker was quiet. "There were some who weren’t happy with how things ended. But that was years ago."
"Still, that is plenty of time to plan revenge. And if someone’s tracking your daughter, if they’re using her to get to you, this could be very dangerous."
"So what do I do? Ignore them while my daughter’s out there?"
"No. But we do this smart. Set up the meeting in a public place, bring security, and let me be there. If this is legitimate information about Mira, we’ll get it. If it’s a trap, we’ll be ready."
Sterling heard Koker breathing hard on the other end of the line. "Fine. Set it up. But Sterling, if these people have touched my daughter, if they’ve hurt her in any way..."
"We’ll deal with that when we know what we’re dealing with. Right now, let’s focus on finding her."
After the call ended, Sterling went back to his research. He pulled up everything he could find on the Singapore situation, cross referencing names of former employees and business partners. Three names kept appearing together in old business filings and news articles. Three men who’d been at the center of Koker’s Singapore operations and who’d lost everything when it shut down.
He was about to dig deeper when his phone buzzed with an alert. One of his contacts in Mumbai had sent him something. A video file with a timestamp from two days ago.
He opened it and watched as surveillance footage showed a street in Mumbai. A black SUV was parked along the curb, its windows tinted. The camera angle shifted, and Sterling saw three teenagers walking down the sidewalk. Even in the grainy footage, he recognized Mira from the photos Koker had given him.
She walked between a tall boy and a shorter girl, all three of them looking around nervously as they approached an apartment building. They disappeared inside, and minutes later, the SUV’s driver door opened. A man got out, looked up at the apartment building, then got back in the vehicle.
Sterling grabbed his phone and called Koker back.
"We have a problem," he said as soon as Koker answered. "There are some people watching your daughter in Mumbai. This isn’t random surveillance. They’re targeting her specifically."
"How bad is it?"
"Bad enough that you need to authorize me to bring in additional resources. If they’re planning to grab her or hurt her to get to you, we need people on the ground in Mumbai now."
"Do it. Whatever it costs. Just get my daughter out of there."
Sterling was already packing his laptop. "I’m booking the next flight to Mumbai. But Captain, you need to prepare yourself. Whatever Mira’s involved in, whatever reason she had for running, it just became secondary. Right now, the priority is keeping her alive."