Chương 5 - When the Lights Went Out
Evelyn reacted before she thought.
She drove her elbow backward and heard a grunt.
The hand released her.
Around her, chairs scraped and people shouted. The chandelier was dead. Emergency lights had not come on.
Someone had killed more than the ballroom power.
“Evelyn!” Ethan's voice came from somewhere to her left.
She crouched instinctively, clutching the envelope against her chest.
A body brushed past her.
Then she heard Claire cry out.
“Stop!”
Glass shattered.
Evelyn moved toward the voice and collided with a cocktail table.
“Claire?”
“I'm here.”
A phone flashlight snapped on.
Then another.
The ballroom filled with floating beams.
Ethan appeared beside Evelyn and grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He searched her face. “The envelope?”
She stared at him.
Of course.
Again.
“The envelope is fine.”
His jaw tightened. “That isn't what I meant.”
“Then stop asking like it is.”
The emergency lights suddenly flickered on.
Claire was five feet away, holding her forearm. A thin red line crossed the skin where broken glass had grazed her.
Nothing serious.
Martin was near the ballroom entrance.
One officer was on his radio.
The other was gone.
“Where's Officer Daniels?” Martin asked.
No one knew.
The ballroom manager rushed in. “The building's security system was manually shut down from the service corridor.”
Evelyn looked at the doors.
“Can guests leave?”
“Not yet. Police are locking down the floor.”
Ethan swore under his breath.
Claire stared at him. “You expected this.”
“No.”
“You told me this event was too public for anyone to try something.”
Evelyn turned sharply. “You two discussed this event?”
Claire looked guilty.
Ethan said, “We thought whoever was moving the money might make contact tonight.”
“With whom?”
Claire answered. “Me.”
Evelyn looked at her.
Claire lowered her voice. “I told Halston I still had copies of old compliance files. Three days ago someone emailed me and offered two hundred thousand dollars for them.”
“You came here as bait?”
“Yes.”
“And I was what? Decoration?”
Ethan stepped in. “We were trying to keep you out of danger.”
“By bringing danger into my father's charity gala?”
Before he could answer, Martin called out from across the room.
“Evelyn.”
He held something in his hand.
The beige envelope.
Evelyn looked down.
Her hands were empty.
She had been clutching nothing but folded ballroom linen.
Somebody had switched it in the dark.
Martin opened the envelope.
The bank records were gone.
The photographs were gone.
The clinic page was gone.
Only one card remained.
May you like
Typed in black ink were six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED IGNORANT, EVELYN.
