Chapter 7 - PAUL'S CHOICE
Paul Danner called Leah from a prepaid phone. He wanted to speak at a public diner, not the hotel. Detective Ellis agreed to meet him there with an investigator. Owen stayed at the hospital with me.
Paul was sixty, with a careful voice and hands rough from twenty years of fixing things other people broke. Leah put the call on speaker after confirming he understood I was listening.
"Serena told me to reset the rooftop cameras at eight seventeen," he said. "Said it was a privacy request from a donor."
"Did you know a woman had gone into the pool?" Ellis asked.
"I found out after. I didn't reset them then. I was scared."
He admitted he'd accepted a yellow envelope containing five thousand dollars. Serena had threatened to fire the maintenance crew if he refused. He had deleted the local copy, then tried to pretend the outage was routine.
"Why speak now?" Leah asked.
Paul breathed into the receiver. "My daughter saw the news. She asked what kind of man lets somebody drown to keep his job."
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Ellis asked, "Is the recording recoverable?"
"Maybe. Our backup isn't on the same system. It sends snapshots to a contractor every fifteen minutes. I've given you the address."
Owen closed his eyes. Relief and shame crossed his face together.
"Paul," I said, "did Serena ever tell you to touch my chair?"
"Not directly. But the morning of the gala, she asked who would be setting out the pool furniture. She wanted the wheelchair parked near the west edge."
My stomach tightened. The west edge was where the railing ended and the pool deck dropped straight into water.
Paul's voice fell.
"There's one more thing. She used Mr. Bennett's master login. She's had it for years."
May you like
Owen's hand went still on mine.
"And the authorization isn't the only thing she signed with his name."
