Chapter 8 - The Part They Cut Out
The ballroom was closed when I arrived, but Maureen met me in a public hotel cafe downstairs. We kept our meeting in plain sight. I wasn't interested in becoming somebody else's missing person.
She slid a tablet across the table. "The hotel has official footage. This is my own recording from a sound check."
The video showed Isabella speaking with Victoria by the stage. Victoria leaned across the wheelchair to reach a dropped program. For a second, her hand disappeared beside the right wheel. Then Isabella spoke, and Victoria's face hardened.
"I can't vote until the safety audit comes in," Isabella said clearly.
Victoria replied, "The audit is finished when I say it is."
"Those are people's lives."
"Don't lecture me about your passengers."
The room seemed to tilt around me. In the next frame Victoria raised her hand and I stepped forward to stop her.
"This is what they edited out," Maureen said.
"Did you see her touch the brake?"
"I saw her bend down. I didn't know why."
She showed me the file's original timestamp and agreed to give a copy directly to an investigator. I didn't ask her to change or crop anything.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"Because when my mom needed a ride to chemo, BridgeLine showed up," she said. "If someone is breaking those vans, that's not gossip."
May you like
At the end of the recording, while the camera drifted toward the soundboard, Victoria spoke again. It was quiet, but we could hear every word.
"You want to keep talking about Daniel Carter?" she asked Isabella. "Then ask your own office what happened to his letter."
