Chapter 7 - THE GREENHOUSE FOOTAGE
Forensic technicians recovered deleted files from the greenhouse recorder.
Elena had installed a second hard drive inside the irrigation controls.
Victoria removed the visible drive.
She never found the hidden one.
The footage began eight months before Elena’s death.
Victoria and Gideon entered the greenhouse after midnight.
They spread property documents across a table.
Gideon said:
“Arthur’s sedative level is still too low.”
“He remembers too much.”
Victoria answered:
“I cannot make him visibly ill.”
“The board will notice.”
“Then use exhaustion.”
“Send him to Singapore.”
“Keep him moving.”
Arthur remembered the sudden expansion schedule.
Victoria personally encouraged each trip.
She called his ambition attractive.
He believed she supported his work.
She was creating the symptoms used against him.
Another recording showed Elena entering after they left.
She photographed the documents.
Then Victoria returned unexpectedly.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking the heaters.”
“You are lying.”
Elena stood her ground.
“You are drugging him.”
Victoria moved closer.
“No one will believe a housekeeper over a wife.”
Elena answered:
“Then I will make sure they do not need to.”
The footage ended when Victoria covered the camera.
The final recovered clip came from the night Elena died.
Rain struck the greenhouse roof.
Gideon stood beside Charles Vale, Victoria’s older brother.
Charles rarely visited the estate.
He controlled Vale security companies.
Elena entered carrying a folder.
She said:
“I sent copies.”
Gideon asked:
“To whom?”
“You will find out.”
Charles grabbed her arm.
She fought him.
Victoria entered.
For several seconds, she watched.
Then she said:
“Take her phone.”
Elena shouted Arthur’s name.
He was in Tokyo.
No one came.
Charles dragged her toward the rear exit.
The footage ended.
Police searched Charles’s security company.
His employees had collected Elena’s damaged car before local investigators arrived.
A company mechanic altered the brake line and destroyed the original onboard data.
Elena may have been alive when placed in the car.
The official report said she drove from the estate alone.
Traffic cameras showed a Vale security vehicle following closely.
Charles was arrested at his office.
He claimed Elena attempted blackmail.
He called her death an accident during escape.
The prosecutor charged him with murder.
Victoria’s charge was upgraded to murder conspiracy.
Arthur watched the footage once.
Then he left the room.
He walked into the rear garden and became sick beside the greenhouse wall.
Noah followed but remained several feet away.
Arthur wiped his face.
“You shouldn’t see me like this.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah looked toward the greenhouse.
“My mom was scared too.”
Arthur nodded.
“She was brave.”
“She was both.”
Arthur sat on the stone path.
May you like
Noah sat beside him.
For a long time, neither spoke.
