Chapter 8 - The Second Bracelet.
The recording proved that Grant had discussed deceiving Vivian, but it created a new question.
Vivian's father had made the audio months before the clasp was modified.
Someone else had copied it onto the hidden memory card.
Daniel believed that person might be Miles.
Savannah remembered that Grant had handed his assistant several jewelry boxes during the week before the gala and asked him to arrange insurance paperwork.
If Miles was planning to turn on Grant, the bracelet had given him a perfect hiding place.
The next morning, Grant's attorney held a press conference and attacked the entire investigation.
He claimed Grant was the victim of a family dispute and announced that a second diamond bracelet had been recovered from a bank box registered to Vivian.
Photographs showed a piece nearly identical to the one seized from Savannah.
"That's the replica," Vivian said.
Daniel was careful.
Forensic testing had not yet established which setting was original because several genuine stones could have been transferred between bracelets.
Grant's defense had found exactly the ambiguity it needed.
Within hours, commentators were asking whether Vivian had staged the gala confrontation.
Richard Vale publicly demanded that she resign from the foundation board.
Savannah then received a message from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph taken through the hotel window that morning.
The image showed Savannah sitting beside Vivian.
Beneath it were five words.
"You chose the wrong woman."
Savannah dropped the phone.
Vivian did not.
She asked the technician to check the lining, hinges, and false bottom before anyone removed a single document.
After everything they had uncovered, she refused to let one dramatic discovery become another shortcut to the wrong conclusion.
"They want us separated."
Daniel asked both women to write down every important statement Grant had made about the other during the previous six months.
The lists looked like mirror images.
Grant told Vivian that Savannah was obsessed with him.
Grant told Savannah that Vivian refused to accept a divorce.
Grant told Vivian he traveled for foundation meetings.
Grant told Savannah he traveled to protect their future.
Every lie served the same purpose.
The women were never supposed to compare stories.
One detail appeared on both lists.
Grant repeatedly mentioned a house on Lake Harrow.
Vivian believed it belonged to a donor.
Savannah believed Grant had bought it for them.
Property records showed it belonged to a company connected to Miles.
Investigators searched the house.
An upstairs cabinet contained copies of Vivian's financial records, Savannah's appointment schedules, access cards, jewelry tools, and photographs of foundation board members.
A seating chart from the gala hung on the wall.
Vivian, Grant, and Savannah were circled.
Beside the ballroom entrance someone had written, "Mercer arrives 8:47."
Daniel's exact arrival time had been confidential.
Only Daniel, Vivian, the supervising Marshal, and Elaine Porter had known it.
Investigators found a second phone beneath a floorboard.
Its outgoing records showed a four-second call to Daniel at 8:44 on gala night.
Daniel admitted his phone had rung.
He had ignored the call because he did not recognize the number.
Someone had used it simply to confirm his location.
Vivian looked at the evidence from the house.
Miles had known too much, yet some of that information should have been beyond his reach.
Then technicians recovered deleted messages from the hidden phone.
May you like
Several were addressed to a contact identified only by one letter.
"P."
