Chapter 9 - A Promise from the Wrong Person
I asked Frances to repeat the last sentence. She didn't. She said she'd been speaking emotionally, and a hotel's internal security policy was complicated.
"If the footage exists, preserve it," I said. "The police are involved. You have already received that request in writing."
Frances exhaled. "Your family has been very clear about what it expects from us."
"My family doesn't speak for me."
The next morning Detective Dana Price met me in a quiet room at the Newport police station. She was a measured woman with a notebook full of tiny handwriting. She asked me to explain the fall from the beginning, then watched Talia's video without interrupting. When it ended, she replayed the second before Sloane pushed me.
"Did you have an argument beforehand?"
"About a document I saw in the carriage suite."
I told her how I'd spotted the words EMERGENCY GROUP HOUSING on a receipt beneath a flower arrangement. I'd asked Sloane whether the venue was hosting evacuees. She'd snatched the paper away and told me to mind my own business. I hadn't understood until the bank notification came through after my fall.
Price wrote that down. "The shove and the financial activity may be related, but I can't assume they are. I'll pursue the assault evidence. Your company's counsel should coordinate the financial records with the appropriate investigators."
After the interview I found thirteen missed calls from Dad. His voicemail said he would sell a truck to make things right, that I was endangering jobs, that my mother hadn't slept. The last message was quiet.
"Come to the old workshop tonight. Alone. I can tell you where the money actually went."
Nia didn't want me going. Neither did Price. Instead I called Dad and suggested a meeting in the lobby of my hotel, where staff and cameras were present.
He arrived at six with his shoulders rounded and his familiar work jacket buttoned to the throat. For an instant he looked like the father who had once taught me to change a tire in the rain.
May you like
He sat across from me, placed an envelope on the table, and said, "Your sister was supposed to give this back before you ever noticed."
Inside lay the missing backup codes from my emergency folder and a handwritten plan for three more charges.
