Chapter 12 - A Photograph Taken Too Soon
The photograph changed everything.
Not because it showed Corinne pushing Junie.
It didn't.
Instead, it showed Junie standing alone on the yacht's bow, her yellow dress lifting in the breeze.
Behind her, the two loungers sat empty.
The metal edge was visible.
And in the upper corner was a timestamp generated by the camera.
Twenty-three minutes before the fall.
Adrian held the print without touching its surface.
“Who took this?”
Helen studied it.
“That's what investigators need to establish.”
“Why would Corinne send it?”
“Maybe she wanted to intimidate you. Maybe she wanted Junie to remember the day. Or maybe she didn't understand what it revealed.”
Adrian stared at the picture.
There was something wrong.
At the bottom, partly obscured by Junie's dress, he could see the reflection of a person in the polished metal surface of a nearby fitting.
Only a fragment appeared.
A sleeve.
A hand.
A phone.
Someone had been photographing his daughter before the incident.
Later that afternoon, Detective Rebecca Sloan arrived at the house.
She was forty-three, with tired eyes, practical shoes, and the calm manner of someone who had spent years interviewing people who wished she'd go away.
Adrian handed her the package.
Sloan examined the documentation.
“Did you open anything besides the outer box?”
“No. My mother handled it first.”
“Did Junie see it?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Adrian gestured toward the photograph.
“Can you identify who took it?”
“We'll work on that.”
“There's a reflection.”
“I see it.”
“Can you enlarge it?”
“We can examine the original image if we obtain it. This print may not contain enough detail.”
He hated the answer.
It was careful.
Reasonable.
Not nearly fast enough.
Sloan closed the evidence bag.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Your wife claims Junie became upset after an argument about her mother.”
Adrian frowned.
“What argument?”
“Corinne says Junie accused her of trying to replace Elise.”
Adrian let out a sharp breath.
“Junie wouldn't say that.”
“Children sometimes say things adults don't expect.”
“She's five.”
“I understand.”
“No, I don't think you do. My daughter doesn't talk like that.”
Sloan nodded.
“That's useful context. We will still consider all the accounts and evidence.”
Adrian looked away.
Sloan softened slightly.
“Mr. Whitmore, I believe your daughter experienced something terrifying. My job is to determine exactly what occurred, not to decide whose story sounds more convincing.”
He knew she was right.
He still wanted someone to say Corinne was guilty.
Wanted it desperately.
After Sloan left, Adrian sat alone in the kitchen.
Mara called.
“I heard the detective came by.”
“How?”
“Tomas told me investigators were following up on a package.”
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
“Corinne sent Junie a photograph from the yacht.”
There was silence.
Then Mara asked, “What time was it taken?”
He told her.
Mara was quiet again.
“Adrian, that was during the crew briefing.”
“So?”
“Corinne told me she was staying inside until the guests arrived.”
“And?”
“I remember seeing someone near the bow with a phone that morning.”
Adrian sat upright.
“Who?”
“I couldn't see their face. They were wearing a dark blue shirt.”
“Graham wears blue.”
“So do half the people who come aboard.”
Adrian exhaled.
“Right.”
“But the person went down the starboard passage afterward. I remember because I had to move a service trolley out of the way.”
“Could it have been Nathan?”
“Possibly.”
Adrian looked at the photograph again.
A new question took shape.
If someone had photographed Junie standing near the edge before the guests arrived, had they been documenting a dangerous spot?
Or choosing one?
He called Helen.
“Check whether Nathan was on the yacht that morning.”
“Already asking.”
“Get the marina access records.”
“We're doing that.”
He almost ended the call.
Then Helen said, “Adrian, there's something else.”
“What?”
“The pending restructuring includes a clause that would allow Harborstone to obtain temporary voting control if certain financial covenants were breached.”
He frowned.
“Whose covenants?”
“Yours. More precisely, those of the family holding company.”
“And what would trigger a breach?”
Helen paused.
“Among other things, a failure to deliver the pledged assets or a significant interruption of executive management.”
Adrian looked at the photograph of Junie.
His daughter had been almost killed.
He'd abandoned a signature meeting to save her.
And the same afternoon, Graham had tried to rush through a document transferring control of the company.
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For the first time, Adrian wondered whether the attack on Junie had been more than Corinne's sudden rage.
Whether someone had expected his world to fall apart.
