Chapter 4
The event had happened in the same historic archive where Alex spoke eight months later.
A smaller evening reception.
Twenty-seven donors.
Six foundation staff.
Andrew had arrived late because a business meeting across town ran long.
Elena had been there from the beginning.
So had Lucinda.
So had Marcus.
Andrew interviewed the archive staff with Rachel present.
Not because he distrusted them.
Because he no longer trusted himself to hear only facts.
One technician remembered Elena seeming tired.
Another remembered her complaining that her wine tasted bitter.
The bartender remembered Lucinda carrying Elena’s glass away from the bar.
“Why?”
“She said Mrs. Caruso didn’t want to stand in line.”
“Did you see Lucinda put anything into it?”
“No.”
A maintenance supervisor remembered Marcus near the service corridor shortly before Elena fell.
Marcus had told him to take his break early.
That might have meant nothing.
Then the archive’s former sound engineer, Harold Price, asked Andrew a strange question.
“Did anyone ever find Elena’s recording?”
Andrew looked at him.
“What recording?”
Harold frowned.
“She used Booth Three that afternoon.”
“For the broadcast?”
“No.”
Harold shook his head.
“She asked everyone to leave her alone.”
Andrew felt his attention sharpen.
“What did she record?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
Harold explained that Booth Three had an isolated workstation used to digitize rare recordings.
Temporary project files were automatically copied to an internal storage server before being cleared.
Most were deleted after ninety days.
But preservation projects were often backed up separately.
Elena had been chairing an oral-history campaign.
Her folder might still exist inside the long-term archive.
Andrew nearly ordered every technician in the building to search immediately.
Then he stopped.
“Can you find it without changing anything?”
Harold smiled faintly.
“Finally asking the right question.”
Andrew looked at him.
Harold had worked for the Caruso Foundation for twenty-eight years.
He had never spoken to Andrew that way before.
Apparently people were becoming less frightened of him.
It was uncomfortable.
Andrew was beginning to suspect discomfort was useful.
The search started.
Meanwhile, Julian Keller, Elena’s former assistant, produced the reception schedule.
Andrew scanned it.
At 8:35 p.m., Elena had planned to address donors.
She never made the speech.
She fell at 8:21.
“What was she going to announce?”
Julian hesitated.
“I don't know.”
“You were her assistant.”
“She changed the speech that afternoon.”
“Did you see it?”
“No.”
“She took the pages herself.”
Andrew looked toward Harold.
A private recording.
A changed speech.
A drink Lucinda admitted tampering with.
And Marcus clearing someone from the corridor shortly before Elena fell.
May you like
For eight months Andrew had believed his wife’s death was a tragic accident.
Now the accident had acquired a timetable.
