Chapter 4 - THE ELEVEN MISSING MINUTES
The estate's security system had three layers.
Exterior.
Residential.
Executive.
Turning off executive cameras required administrator access.
Only four people had it.
Vincent.
Marcus.
Facilities director Thomas Keene.
And Enzo.
Marcus handed his phone and passwords to investigators voluntarily.
Thomas Keene did not.
He disappeared Friday morning.
That was not subtle.
His car was found at the New Orleans airport.
No sign of him aboard any flight.
Then financial investigators discovered a transfer.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Paid to Keene through Delta Recovery Infrastructure.
One of the companies in Vincent's ledger.
Now the shape sharpened.
Keene disabled cameras.
Someone cloned Camille's badge.
But who entered the office after Enzo left?
The hallway camera across the courtyard provided part of the answer.
At 3:46, Enzo entered Vincent's office.
At 3:50, he left.
At 3:51, Camille's badge registered.
The executive camera went dark seconds later.
At 4:02, Adeline entered.
If Enzo had attacked Vincent personally, he would've needed to return without being seen.
Possible.
Not proven.
Then Camille remembered something.
The afternoon before the attack, she had been polishing silver in the breakfast room.
Thomas Keene stopped to speak with her.
He asked for a pen.
Her cardigan hung on the adjacent chair.
Her badge clipped to the pocket.
He stood beside it for perhaps twenty seconds.
Long enough?
Investigators said yes.
Modern access cards could be copied quickly with the right equipment.
Camille felt sick.
“He used me.”
Marcus nodded.
“To create a false trail.”
Rosalia Castellano remained suspicious anyway.
“Or she is saying what clears her.”
Vincent heard about that from the hospital.
His response was simple.
“Rosalia doesn't question Camille without counsel present.”
His aunt was furious.
Camille was more surprised than grateful.
She didn't need Vincent declaring her innocent because he liked her daughter.
She needed evidence.
Evidence came from a vending machine camera.
Strange place.
Useful angle.
The camera faced a maintenance corridor reflecting partly in the machine's polished metal side panel.
At 3:48, Thomas Keene appeared.
At 3:52, someone else entered the corridor.
Black trousers.
Brown shoes.
Distinctive silver buckle.
Only legs visible.
Marcus enlarged the frame.
He knew those shoes.
So did half the Castellano family.
May you like
They belonged to Enzo's personal assistant.
Calvin Shaw.
