Chapter 10 - The File Hidden in Plain Sight
Nina met us at a diner outside town after closing time.
She was Tatum's former office manager.
Her hands trembled around a cup of coffee she never drank.
“I quit when she told me to backdate invoices,” Nina said.
“She told everyone I couldn't handle pressure.”
She gave Melanie a shipping ledger and copies of three emails sent from Tatum's business account.
One email directed staff to scan the identification cards collected at a charity fundraiser.
Another attached a file named D_MARLOWE_LICENSE.
The third requested that the lender send all guarantor notices to a new email address controlled by the catering office.
Dahlia gripped the edge of the booth.
“That's how she did it.”
“It's a strong lead,” Melanie said.
“We still need the lender's records.”
Nina had more.
On the morning of the graduation, Tatum texted her asking whether she could retrieve an older event contract from the university portal.
Nina refused.
Tatum replied with a sentence Nina had saved.
If Dahlia asks about the guaranty before Tuesday, make her family look like the problem.
Nobody spoke.
Then Harper called Dahlia.
She had noticed something else in the graduation footage.
A microphone on her camera had recorded Tatum's voice just before the fountain fell.
We put the call on speaker.
There was laughter, clinking silverware, and the dean's assistant thanking the graduates.
Then Tatum's voice, very close to the microphone:
“Severin, keep recording. Your mother always explodes when someone hurts the baby.”
A chair scraped.
The fountain crashed.
Dahlia shut her eyes.
May you like
My son hadn't simply watched his wife destroy the party.
He had been told to film what came next.
