Chapter 6 - Martin Shaw Leaves the Gala
Adrian ordered security to find Martin Shaw.
He was gone.
His coat remained.
His car remained.
But Martin had disappeared from the ballroom.
Sophia felt panic rise.
“What happened to him?”
Security checked cameras.
Martin had entered a service corridor twelve minutes earlier.
A second person followed.
A tall man in a catering jacket.
Nobody recognized him.
Adrian called police again.
Then Sophia noticed Eleanor staring at the screen.
“You know him.”
Eleanor shook her head.
Sophia stepped closer.
“You reacted.”
Eleanor whispered:
“His name is Daniel Price.”
Sophia stared.
“Price?”
“My husband.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Eleanor continued.
Daniel had once worked security for Charles Sterling.
He knew Ravenwood.
He knew Anna.
And five years earlier, after Anna died, he took control of Eleanor’s
consulting company.
Sophia’s stomach dropped.
“The account.”
Eleanor nodded.
“The money came into my company.”
“Then where did it go?”
“Daniel moved it.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
Eleanor began crying.
“Because he told me Anna’s death wasn’t an accident.”
Sophia went still.
Her mother had died after a late-night highway crash.
Police said she lost control in heavy rain.
Sophia had accepted that for five years.
Eleanor whispered:
“Daniel said if I went to the police, you would be next.”
Adrian looked toward the security screen.
The man following Martin wore a catering uniform.
May you like
Daniel Price had come to the gala.
And he had not come for the champagne.
