Chapter 10 - The Photograph
Hannah had been gone for three years. I still knew every expression on her face. In the photograph she wore a blue scarf and held a folder against her chest. Celia stood two feet away, speaking to Victor with the ease of someone who belonged beside him.
"She told me she'd never met Hannah," I said.
Vera zoomed in on the event program. It was a fundraiser for a nonprofit that helped families leaving unsafe residential facilities. Hannah had been volunteering her expertise in accounting. She was meticulous about where charitable money went.
Vera checked her archive. Weeks before she died, Hannah had complained that payments to Wren Harbor were being routed through a confusing chain of vendors. She'd requested invoices from the board. The nonprofit hadn't given her a satisfactory answer.
"Do you think they hurt her?" I asked.
"I don't know," Vera said carefully. "Hannah died after surgery. We have no reason to turn that into something else. But Celia may have known what Hannah was investigating."
That distinction mattered. I could feel my grief hunting for a person to blame. I wouldn't make a new tragedy out of an old one without evidence.
Rebecca arrived with an update from the evidence specialist. The photographer's complete footage showed Celia striking June, Tessa recording, and me blocking the second hit. Celia's representatives had already circulated a trimmed clip that began when I crossed the room.
"We can challenge the edit," Rebecca said. "The original exists."
May you like
Then she played a second recording recovered from an automatic upload. Before the incident, Tessa had filmed Celia near the dressing table.
Celia looked straight at the camera and said, "After the ceremony, take June's blue bird box. There's something Hannah hid in it."
