Chapter 9 - EVELYN'S STORY
Evelyn finally gave a detailed statement.
She admitted taking the inhaler.
Thomas nearly collapsed when he heard.
But she denied murder.
Her story:
Natalie had been drinking wine and arguing.
Evelyn worried she would overuse the inhaler while agitated.
She removed it briefly intending to hand it to the event medic.
Then she became distracted by the red-folder dispute.
She put the inhaler in her silver purse.
When Natalie’s attack began, Evelyn panicked.
She claimed she forgot the inhaler was in her purse until later.
Why not give it to medics once she remembered?
“I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That everyone would blame me.”
Why claim the old inhaler from hotel lost property two days later?
Evelyn said she believed it might be Natalie’s and wanted to create the impression the missing inhaler had simply fallen under a chair.
Thomas read the transcript.
That was an admission of concealment.
But still not necessarily murder.
Then Rachel asked:
“Why did you remove the red folder?”
Evelyn refused to answer on advice of counsel.
The board complaint and the death were now connected by her own silence.
Then prosecutors found a deleted text Evelyn had sent herself at 8:40 p.m.
Just one line:
Take folder. Take blue. Five minutes.
Evelyn claimed it was an event reminder:
take the blue auction packet.
May you like
But there had been no blue auction packet.
And the message was sent one minute before she entered the service hall.
