Chapter 23 - THE RED LIGHT WAS STILL BLINKING
Rosemont Imperial released the original ballroom footage.
The public saw Warren plant the phone.
They saw him strike Lila.
They saw Naomi point toward the camera.
They also saw something no one noticed that night.
Before Warren approached Lila, Gideon stood beneath the ballroom camera.
He looked directly at its blinking red light.
Then Adrian joined him.
Their conversation had no audio.
Lila watched their hands.
“Uncle Warren does that when he lies.”
“What?” Evelyn asked.
“He touches his bow tie.”
In the footage, Gideon touched his cuff.
Adrian touched his wedding ring.
A pattern repeated between them.
Ethan recognized it.
Gideon used physical signals whenever microphones might be present.
Touching the cuff meant the plan should continue.
Touching the ring meant abort.
Adrian had warned Gideon that the camera was still active.
Gideon continued anyway.
“Why?” Naomi asked.
Adrian answered from police custody.
“My father wanted Warren recorded.”
Gideon had planned to sacrifice him.
The footage would destroy Warren publicly while Gideon escaped with the trust.
Warren had never been a partner.
Only another piece of planted evidence.
Celeste visited Adrian.
She placed their annulment papers between them.
“I warned him about the camera,” he said. “That has to matter.”
“It matters.”
Adrian looked hopeful.
“It means you knew a child was about to be framed.”
His hope disappeared.
Celeste signed the papers.
“My feelings were real,” he whispered.
“So were your choices.”
At the hotel, Evelyn discovered that Gideon had scheduled the camera footage for deletion.
The command would run at midnight.
She canceled it.
A second command appeared.
If the footage survived, every security file from Saint Alden would be released to the press under Ethan’s name.
Those files had been altered.
They portrayed Ethan as a violent patient.
Gideon was still building a public defense from jail.
Naomi studied the deletion program.
Its password hint contained one sentence.
THE CAMERA ONLY SHOWS WHAT I ALLOW.
Lila stood beneath the camera again.
“No.”
Naomi looked at her.
“The camera showed what he did.”
The child pointed toward the witnesses listed in the police report.
“And two hundred people saw it too.”
The camera had exposed Warren.
The guests could expose Gideon.
Naomi asked every person at the wedding to testify.
May you like
One hundred and ninety-nine agreed.
The two-hundredth guest disappeared.
