Chapter 4 - THE WEDDING GUEST WHO DISAPPEARED
Lucas ordered the mansion gates closed.
No guest was permitted to leave until security reviewed every camera.
Vanessa remained in the bridal suite with two guards outside the door.
Richard Bennett was nowhere to be found.
He had attended the ceremony.
Several guests remembered seeing him near the back of the ballroom when Lily screamed.
No one saw him leave.
Lucas entered the security office with Margaret and Lily.
The head of security, Daniel Price, searched the footage.
Richard appeared on a hallway camera ten minutes before the ceremony.
He was carrying a black briefcase.
A second video showed him entering the service corridor beside the kitchen.
After that, he disappeared.
“There is an exit behind the wine cellar,” Daniel said.
“It does not appear on the public floor plan.”
Lucas looked at him.
“Who has access?”
“Family members and senior staff.”
The camera outside the bathroom revealed another detail.
Vanessa had led Lily down the hallway by the hand.
Lily tried to pull away.
Vanessa looked around before forcing the child into the bathroom.
She locked the door.
Then Richard appeared.
They argued.
The camera had no sound, but Richard pointed angrily toward the staircase.
Vanessa gave him a small object.
He placed it inside the briefcase.
Margaret leaned toward the screen.
“That is Emily’s necklace.”
Lucas remembered the sapphire pendant.
It had disappeared after Emily’s funeral.
Vanessa claimed she found it in an old jewelry box and wanted to wear it during the wedding as a tribute.
Lucas had foolishly believed her.
Lily pointed toward the footage.
“She took something else.”
“What?”
“The letter.”
Lily explained that she had found Emily’s envelope beneath Vanessa’s wedding gown.
She recognized her mother’s handwriting.
Before she could bring it to Lucas, Vanessa caught her.
Vanessa locked Lily in the bathroom and threatened to tell Lucas that she had destroyed the wedding on purpose.
“But Margaret had the letter,” Lucas said.
Lily shook her head.
“That was a different letter.”
Margaret looked confused.
Lily reached into the pocket of her dress.
She removed a torn corner of an envelope.
Across it were two handwritten words.
MY DAUGHTER.
Margaret’s expression changed.
“Emily wrote a second letter.”
Lucas turned toward the screen.
Richard had taken it.
Daniel received a call from the front gate.
A delivery truck had struck one of the security vehicles and forced its way through the exit.
The driver abandoned it two miles away.
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Inside the empty truck, police found the black briefcase.
The second letter was gone.
