Chapter 5 - No Cameras, One Microphone
Detective Torres visited the Meridian Crown at dawn. The rooftop security system hadn't simply been switched off. Someone had disabled the recorder using an administrator's code twenty minutes before Eleanor fell.
"Who has that code?" she asked.
Blake Keene listed three employees. The fourth name belonged to a temporary security consultant assigned to the wedding by Victoria's planning office.
"Who hired him?"
Blake cleared his throat. "Mr. Harker approved the vendor."
Videographer Mina Ellis called Rose from an unfamiliar number.
"I saw your interview clip online," Mina said. "They're making you look like you pushed Eleanor. That's not what I remember."
"Did you film the terrace?"
"My main camera was on the dance floor. But Victoria kept a wireless microphone after the vows. She refused to have anyone touch her dress. The receiver might have caught something."
Mina asked Rose to meet her at a coffee shop. At the cafe, a paper envelope waited beside a cooling cup.
Inside was a torn corner of a wedding program and a storage-card number written in pencil.
Rose called Mina. No answer.
A man watched from the window, then hurried out when she moved. Rose remembered his face and took the envelope to Torres.
The detective listened, then requested the production company's backup records.
"If the microphone was live, it may explain what happened right before the fall," she said.
A second officer entered the room carrying a tablet.
"Detective, you need to see this."
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The screen showed a viral video of Rose rushing toward the railing, clipped to begin after Eleanor was already falling. Across the image ran a headline: SERVER QUESTIONED AFTER BILLIONAIRE'S MOTHER FALLS.
The account that posted it belonged to Victoria's publicist.
