Chapter 2 - THE MAN WITH THE ENVELOPE

Police arrived twenty minutes later.

The gala ended immediately.

Guests were escorted from the mansion.

Vanessa refused to answer questions without an attorney.

Adrian remained in the security room with Emily and Detective Laura Bennett.

Security technicians replayed the hallway video frame by frame.

The stranger’s face remained partly hidden.

Then one technician paused the footage.

A silver cuff link reflected light beneath the man’s coat sleeve.

Adrian leaned forward.

“Zoom in.”

The technician enlarged it.

A black shield surrounded by three silver lines.

Adrian knew the symbol.

“So do I.”

Detective Bennett looked at him.

“Who?”

“Martin Shaw.”

Emily had heard the name.

Everyone who worked at Caldwell Industries had.

Martin Shaw had served as the Caldwell family’s private attorney for twenty-seven years.

He managed trusts.

Estates.

Board agreements.

Property records.

Even Charles Caldwell’s will.

Detective Bennett asked the obvious question.

“Where is he tonight?”

Adrian checked his phone.

“He was invited.”

“But he never arrived.”

Emily looked toward the screen.

“He was here.”

Adrian nodded.

“Just not where anyone was supposed to see him.”

Police searched the mansion.

The envelope Vanessa received was gone.

So was Martin Shaw.

Vanessa sat in another room with her attorney.

She claimed the man in the footage was impossible to identify.

She claimed the necklace incident was a misunderstanding.

She even claimed she had moved the necklace because she believed Emily had already stolen it.

No one believed her.

But proving why she framed Emily was harder.

Then Detective Bennett asked Emily about the pendant.

Emily removed it carefully.

“My mother’s name was Rose Carter.”

“What did she do?”

“She worked as a home-care nurse.”

“For Charles Caldwell?”

Emily shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“My mother never talked about him.”

“Then why do you have the photograph?”

“She gave me the pendant three days before she died.”

“When?”

“Two years ago.”

“What did she say?”

Emily remembered the hospital room.

Her mother had been weak.

Barely able to speak.

Yet she had pressed the pendant into Emily’s palm.

“She said if I ever worked for the Caldwells, I shouldn’t let anyone take it.”

Adrian looked confused.

“Your mother knew you would work here?”

“No.”

“I didn’t apply until last year.”

Detective Bennett opened the pendant.

Behind the photograph was a piece of folded paper Emily had never removed.

She frowned.

“I didn’t know that was there.”

Using tweezers, Bennett pulled it out.

Three handwritten numbers appeared.

214.

215.

216.

Adrian stared.

Emily asked, “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.”

Then Adrian’s phone rang.

His chief financial officer, Nathan Cole.

Adrian answered.

“What happened?”

Nathan spoke quickly.

Adrian’s expression changed.

“Say that again.”

He listened.

Then slowly looked at Emily.

“What?”

She asked.

Adrian ended the call.

“Someone accessed the Caldwell family trust server fifteen minutes ago.”

Detective Bennett straightened.

“Who?”

“Martin Shaw.”

“What did he open?”

Adrian’s voice became quiet.

“A file created by my grandfather.”

Emily felt cold.

“What file?”

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Adrian looked directly at her.

“CARTER.”