Chapter 5 - THE RED FOLDER
The red folder was never found.
Evelyn denied taking it.
She admitted entering the office.
Why?
To retrieve auction certificates.
Why use Natalie’s safe code?
“I didn’t.”
The electronic log showed Natalie’s code.
Lauren Pierce argued someone else could have used it earlier or the hotel system could have mapped users incorrectly.
The hotel’s security contractor disagreed.
The timestamp was precise.
Then Thomas remembered something from the gala.
Evelyn approached Natalie about twenty minutes before the attack.
They argued quietly.
Thomas heard only one line.
Natalie:
“You don’t get to call exploitation compassion.”
At the time Thomas assumed they were arguing about fundraising style.
Now the words landed differently.
Rachel interviewed staff.
One coordinator remembered Natalie carrying a red folder at 7:50.
Another saw her place something inside the event office.
At 9:20, after the ambulance left, the folder was gone.
Motive began to exist.
But motive was not murder.
Thomas kept reminding himself.
Then forensics returned a new result on Evelyn’s silver purse.
The original purse still existed.
Evelyn had turned over her wedding belongings after the spear incident, and police obtained the older purse through a warrant because Toby specifically identified it.
Inside one inner seam, technicians found trace adhesive residue from a pharmacy label.
Too degraded to identify a prescription.
But enough to show a sticker had once been pressed there.
Evelyn’s lawyer said many labeled items could have touched the purse.
True.
Then investigators found an archived photograph from the gala.
Evelyn standing beside Natalie.
Natalie’s blue inhaler visible in her hand.
Evelyn’s silver purse open beside them.
The photograph timestamp:
8:35 p.m.
Six minutes before Evelyn left through the service hall.
Eight minutes before Natalie’s attack.
And someone had written a single word on the back of the printed event photo:
May you like
WATCH.
The handwriting belonged to Natalie.
