Chapter 6 - What the Backup Showed
The police secured the building, but Monica and Grant were gone.
One side exit had been propped open with a folded catalog.
The security guard assigned to that door insisted he had gone to the restroom for less than five minutes.
Sophia did not believe in coincidences that convenient.
At midnight, a detective named Lena Ortiz allowed Edward and Sophia to review the portable drive on an isolated police laptop.
The first folder contained ordinary footage.
Clients arriving.
Alterations.
Deliveries.
Then came a folder called PRIVATE.
The first clip showed Monica taking cash from a bride in the fitting-room hallway.
The second showed Grant entering the stockroom after closing.
The third showed two men loading garment bags into an unmarked van.
Edward leaned closer.
“Pause.”
On the wall behind the men was a calendar.
The date matched the night gown AC-1847 was supposedly destroyed in transit.
Ortiz wrote something in her notebook.
Sophia kept watching.
The next clip made her stomach turn.
A young employee stood in Monica’s office crying.
Monica blocked the door.
Grant sat behind the desk.
The sound was weak, but clear enough.
“You signed the inventory sheet,” Grant said. “So if anything is missing, that’s on you.”
“I didn’t sign that.”
Monica slid a page across the desk.
The employee looked down.
“That isn’t my signature.”
Grant smiled.
“It is now.”
Sophia’s hands curled into fists.
“Who is she?”
Edward whispered, “Rachel Kim. She quit three weeks ago.”
The final clip in the folder was different.
It had been recorded only forty-eight hours earlier.
Grant stood alone in Edward’s office.
He opened the bottom drawer, removed a sealed envelope, and photographed every page inside.
Edward went completely still.
“What was in that envelope?” Sophia asked.
He did not answer right away.
May you like
When he finally did, his voice was barely audible.
“The paperwork transferring another twenty percent of the company to you next month.”
