Chapter 3 - Claire Had Hidden The Party Cameras
Doctors confirmed Emma had no fracture. The injury was painful but
superficial.
At the hospital, Detective Bennett told Nathan that the mansion’s
second-floor cameras had gone offline at 6:12 p.m., shortly before the
party began.
Someone used an administrator account registered to Claire.
Claire claimed guests had complained about privacy. No guest remembered
doing so.
Three minutes before the cameras went dark, a man entered through the
service entrance.
Emma identified him from a still image.
Richard Vale.
Nathan knew him well.
Richard had been chief financial officer of Westbridge Development until
Nathan fired him eighteen months earlier over unexplained accounting
irregularities.
Claire admitted Richard contacted her two months earlier. He claimed
Nathan had concealed assets belonging to Sophia’s estate.
She let him into the mansion because she wanted proof before confronting
Nathan.
Then Emma saw him.
Emma ran. The vase broke. Claire panicked.
The chain, Claire admitted, had come from a magician’s escape prop
prepared for the party.
“I only wanted her to stay in the suite.”
Nathan stared at her through the interview-room glass.
The explanation described how she did it.
It did not excuse why.
Claire admitted nobody told her to restrain Emma.
That choice was hers.
Then Nathan’s phone buzzed.
His bank had detected an attempted login to Sophia’s dormant trust
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account.
Someone was still looking for whatever Sophia had hidden.
