Chapter 6 - The Missing Twelve Minutes.
The officer’s hand stopped inches from Elena’s bag when Adrian stepped between them.
“That belongs to her.”
The taller officer looked at him.
“And you are?”
“Adrian Mercer.”
Daniel answered before Adrian could say more.
“He’s the controlling shareholder.”
The officer’s expression changed slightly.
Adrian hated that it did.
“Elena still owns the bag.”
The officer nodded and turned to her.
“Ma’am, did you take anything from a locked office?”
“No.”
“Did you threaten Mr. Hale for money?”
“I asked for wages he promised me.”
Victor stepped forward.
“She said she would ruin me if I didn’t pay.”
Elena stared at him.
“That is a lie.”
The younger officer opened his notebook.
“What time did she arrive?”
Victor glanced at the clock.
“About seven.”
The officer checked his dispatch screen.
“That’s interesting.”
Everyone waited.
“The complaint about an aggressive woman attempting extortion was called in at 6:49.”
Elena looked at Victor.
“I wasn’t here at 6:49.”
Maribel spoke from behind Adrian.
“She came through the side door at 6:58.”
Victor’s face tightened.
Daniel immediately intervened.
“Then someone anticipated a confrontation.”
Adrian turned toward him.
“Someone anticipated a crime report before the alleged crime happened.”
Daniel’s eyes went flat.
The taller officer asked for security footage.
Victor said the cameras had been unreliable all week.
Caleb laughed under his breath.
Victor snapped toward him.
“What?”
Caleb pointed toward the ceiling.
“They worked fine when you wrote me up for taking a bread roll home.”
A few employees exchanged looks.
Adrian asked Maribel to show the officers the security station.
The system contained footage from every camera except the service corridor.
That camera had a twelve-minute gap.
The missing interval began at 6:52.
It ended at 7:04.
Exactly when Elena entered, was confronted, and was thrown to the floor.
Victor blamed a system reset.
Daniel blamed old equipment.
Then the hostess raised her hand.
“My phone was recording.”
Victor’s head snapped toward her.
The hostess, a college student named Paige, looked terrified but kept speaking.
“I was filming the pastry cart for the restaurant’s social page.”
She unlocked her phone.
“The camera caught the hallway behind it.”
The video was shaky and partially blocked by flowers.
But it showed Elena entering calmly.
It showed Victor approaching her before she reached his office.
It showed him pointing toward the side exit.
And it showed one security guard seize Elena’s arm and shove her away when she refused to leave.
The fall itself happened outside the frame.
The baby bottle could be heard striking the marble.
The officer looked at Victor.
“That doesn’t look like extortion.”
Victor’s mouth went dry.
Daniel moved closer to him and whispered something too quiet to hear.
Adrian watched Victor’s face.
Whatever Daniel said frightened him more than the police did.
Paige scrubbed backward through the recording.
“Wait.”
She zoomed into the background.
At 6:54, before Elena entered, someone walked out of Victor’s office carrying a laptop.
The figure wore a dark overcoat.
Silver hair showed above the collar.
Paige looked up slowly.
Every face turned toward Daniel.
Daniel did not blink.
“That could be anyone.”
Adrian stared at the charcoal overcoat Daniel was still wearing.
Then he looked at the timestamp.
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Daniel had told him on the phone that he was on his way home.
But twelve minutes before Elena arrived, he had already been inside the restaurant.
