Chapter 16 - THE SECOND PAGE
I called the housekeeper covering Grace’s absence.
“Is the recycling from the office still in the locked storage room?”
“Yes, Mr. Whitfield.
Grace asked us not to clear it until after the wedding.”
Grace’s orderly habits had preserved something nobody considered important.
Leah obtained police approval to collect the contents.
Among old schedules and duplicate invitations was a failed copy of the trust waiver.
My signature was only half complete.
The pen had run dry.
The replacement page Elise gave me looked identical at the top.
It wasn’t identical at the bottom.
The first version waived a routine meeting.
The second added authority to approve transactions during incapacity.
I had signed without reading it again.
Leah placed both pages side by side.
“This shows how the valid signature was obtained.”
“Will it stop the vote?”
“Combined with the other evidence, it gives the directors a reason to refuse reliance on the waiver.”
Then I remembered something else.
The photograph from the west gate showed Elise’s gown catching on the open case.
A narrow strip of pale-pink satin hung from the corner.
At the hospital, the police had bagged my jacket.
I called the investigator.
“Was there anything on the back of it?”
He checked the property record.
A small piece of satin had been caught under the rear collar button.
Pink.
That wasn’t enough on its own.
But Elise had told police she never came near me before the fall.
The fabric gave them a reason to challenge that account.
By eight-thirty, she asked through her attorney to provide another statement.
This time without conditions involving me.
Leah and I waited while the investigator interviewed her.
At nine-fifteen, he called.
“Elise admits being on the landing.
She says Owen was there too.”
“Who pushed me?”
“She says Owen.”
“Do you believe her?”
“We’re testing her statement.”
He explained what she had provided.
A location.
A sequence.
And the name of a device Owen had taken from my office.
My father’s old dictation recorder.
I used it occasionally for private notes.
That evening, I had left it running while reviewing a speech.
Owen apparently thought it contained the only copy of something important.
“What speech?” Leah asked.
“The wedding toast.”
The investigator spoke again.
May you like
“Elise says Owen kept the recorder.
And she knows where he’ll bring it this morning.”
