Chương 5
“What did you tell him?” Priya asked.
“I said I had seen a guest put something in a drink.”
“And what did he do?”
“He asked whether I had seen exactly what it was.”
“I said no.”
“What happened then?”
“He told me not to invent trouble during a foundation event. He said I was probably looking at perfume or breath drops.”
Lionel frowned. “Into champagne?”
“He didn’t come to the monitor.”
“Did you tell him which guest?”
“I said a woman in an emerald gown at Mr. Vale’s table.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“Did he use his phone?”
Elena thought back.
The security desk, the hum of fluorescent lights, Derek’s hand resting near a paper cup of coffee. A basketball game had been playing silently on one of the small monitors.
“He looked at it.”
“Before or after you described Celeste?” Adrian asked.
“After.”
“Did he call anyone?”
“I left.”
“Why?”
“Because Mr. Vale had returned to the table.”
She said it simply. There had been no time to persuade a man who had already decided she was being dramatic.
Priya asked, “Why did you record the screen before speaking to him?”
Elena looked down at her bare hands.
“Because Mr. Keene deletes things.”
Marcus straightened.
“What things?”
“Small things. Staff things. Complaints.”
“Elena.”
“You asked.”
Priya’s tone remained even. “Tell us.”
Elena rubbed the place where her glove had pressed into her wrist.
“Three months ago, a banquet porter said a vendor shoved him near the loading dock. The camera covered the area. Mr. Keene said the footage didn’t show anything. The next day, the file was gone.”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
“Why wasn’t this reported?”
“It was.”
“To whom?”
“The banquet porter told his supervisor.”
“Which supervisor?”
“He quit.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the one I have.”
Marcus paced once to the linen cart and back.
Adrian watched him.
“You have a larger problem than my table.”
“I’m aware.”
“No,” Elena said quietly. “You’re becoming aware.”
Marcus stopped.
For a second she expected anger. Instead, he looked embarrassed.
It was a small reaction, but it lowered something in her chest.
Priya finished copying the recording and sealed the hotel device in a numbered evidence pouch. She returned Elena’s phone.
“Do not alter, delete, trim, forward, or post the file.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not let anyone else handle the device.”
“Mr. Vale already did.”
“I’ve documented that.”
“Do I have to give you my passcode?”
“Not now.”
The words not now stayed with Elena.
A hotel investigator arrived. Then the director of security. Then two executives from the Vale Foundation who had been pulled from their tables and told only that the program was delayed.
One was Adrian’s chief financial officer, Naomi Brooks, a compact woman with close-cropped hair and a direct way of listening. The other was Thomas Wren, the foundation’s communications director, who entered the corridor with his bow tie loosened and his phone already full of messages.
“What happened?” Thomas asked.
Adrian told him.
Thomas’s first response was not disbelief.
It was, “Who else has the video?”
Elena disliked him immediately.
Priya answered. “The employee, the hotel, and anyone who photographed the phone in the ballroom.”
Thomas looked through the curtain toward the guests.
“That means everyone.”
“No,” Priya said. “It means we don’t know.”
Thomas pressed his fingertips to his forehead.
“The livestream is still running.”
Adrian turned.
“What livestream?”
“The donor portal. We were broadcasting the stage and ballroom atmosphere before your remarks.”
“Was the table visible?”
“Possibly in the background.”
“Turn it off.”
Thomas was already typing.
Naomi looked at the abandoned flute, which a security officer had brought into the corridor on the entire place setting rather than touching the glass itself.
“Was anything consumed?”
“No,” Adrian said.
“Did anyone else drink from the bottle?”
Marcus answered. “The bottle was opened tableside. It served six glasses.”
Elena shook her head.
“She added it after the flute was poured.”
Naomi looked at her. “You’re sure?”
“I watched it four times before I went to security.”
“Why four?”
“I wanted to be wrong.”
That silenced the corridor.
Adrian lowered his eyes.
Naomi moved closer to the phone but did not ask to see it. “What did Celeste say?”
“That it was fabricated.”
Naomi’s mouth flattened.
“And then?”
“She asked Adrian if he had planned to do it tonight.”
Elena saw the moment Naomi understood the question.
Thomas did too.
He stopped typing.
Marcus looked between them. “Planned to do what?”
Adrian leaned one hand against the edge of the service table.
“The foundation board was scheduled to meet after the gala.”
Thomas spoke before Adrian could continue.
“That meeting wasn’t public.”
“It would have been after my speech.”
Naomi’s eyes remained on Adrian. “You were going to announce the review.”
“I was going to announce that the board had retained outside auditors and that Celeste would take a temporary leave from financial oversight.”
Marcus stared at him.
“And she knew?”
“She knew I had concerns.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Adrian’s expression cooled.
“No. She did not know the announcement was tonight.”
Thomas gave a humorless laugh.
“She knew.”
“How?” Naomi asked.
Thomas glanced at the hotel employees, then at Elena.
Adrian said, “Speak.”
“The draft remarks were printed in the foundation office at five thirty. Celeste arrived around six. She was alone in your office for several minutes.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed the seating chart.”
“The seating chart was in the event suite.”
“I know.”
Adrian looked away.
Naomi folded her arms.
“How many people had access to the remarks?”
“Six,” Thomas said.
Lionel, who had been silent for several minutes, sighed.
“Six appears to be a very unlucky number tonight.”
No one smiled except Elena, and even she stopped before it became visible.
Priya asked Adrian what the review concerned.
May you like
He did not answer immediately.
The foundation’s name appeared on banners inside the ballroom. Three hundred donors were eating soup less than thirty feet away. A public statement had been drafted. Somewhere in the building, Celeste was speaking to an attorney.
