Chapter 3 - The Bracelet
The west salon filled with servers who looked terrified to sit on furniture meant for donors.
"Sit," I said. "All of you."
Rachel, the server Vanessa had mocked for her accent, lowered herself onto the edge of a chair.
Lily, nineteen and red-eyed, held both hands together in her lap.
I had seen Vanessa accuse her of stealing a diamond bracelet earlier.
"Tell me what happened," I said.
Lily glanced toward Howard.
"You won't be fired," I told her.
"She said I took it."
"Did you?"
"No."
Marcus spoke. "She made me empty Lily's coat-check drawer in front of everybody."
Rachel added, "Then the bracelet appeared in Ms. Carlisle's purse."
"Appeared?"
Rachel nodded. "Her friend Celeste found it."
"How convenient," Daniel said.
"Ms. Carlisle said she forgot she'd put it there."
I remembered Vanessa smiling while Lily cried in the pantry.
"I should've stopped it sooner."
"Yes," I said. "You should have."
Daniel placed a tablet on the table.
"We pulled the ballroom feeds. The fountain camera shows the fall clearly."
"Good. Preserve it."
"There is another camera."
"Where?"
"Service hall outside the donor office."
Daniel frowned. "That camera wasn't on the floor plan."
"It was installed last month after liquor inventory started disappearing."
"I saw Mr. Carlisle go into the donor office at seven-fifteen."
Grant had told our board he never entered restricted offices at events.
"Was he alone?" I asked.
"No."
"He was with Dr. Peter Lang."
Peter Lang was Lakeshore Memorial's chief financial officer.
He was also the man who had spent two months insisting the missing pediatric grant money was a bookkeeping mistake.
"Amelia."
"What?"
"The service-hall camera was deleted twelve minutes ago."
May you like
Daniel turned the screen toward me.
"Deleted using an administrator account assigned to your office."
