Chapter 13 - The Missing Server
Jules Carter was twenty-one years old, a pastry apprentice, and no relation to Naomi despite the shared surname.
She had worked exactly three Hale events.
At 8:52 p.m., camera footage showed her carrying a silver tray toward the west dessert station.
At 8:54, Vanessa entered the frame.
At 8:55, Camera Fourteen went dark.
At 8:59, Vanessa kicked Naomi.
At 9:03, guests surrounded them.
Jules disappeared in the confusion.
"Her car is still here," Owen said.
Naomi stood in the security room watching service-camera footage on twelve monitors.
"Phone?"
"Off."
"Emergency contact?"
"Mother in New Jersey. She hasn't heard from her."
Dominic leaned over the console.
"Was she abducted?"
Naomi hated the word because it created drama before facts.
"We don't know."
She rewound a loading-dock camera.
9:11.
A laundry van left the property.
Scheduled departure was midnight.
"Whose van?"
Owen checked.
"Northstar Event Logistics."
The fake vendor.
Police issued an alert.
Naomi asked for the route map.
Twenty-five minutes later, a patrol officer found the van abandoned behind a closed garden center.
No Jules.
But her phone was under the passenger seat.
The last unsent message was addressed to Mara Reed.
Three words:
I found originals.
Naomi looked at Dominic.
"Jules knew Mara?"
Mara answered by phone.
"I hired her."
The room froze.
"You what?" Dominic asked.
"After I saw Vanessa announce the engagement, I knew the foundation records would be cleaned before the wedding. I needed someone inside events. Jules was the daughter of a former staff accountant I trusted."
Naomi almost laughed at the symmetry.
Everyone had been running an operation inside the same house.
Vanessa.
Victor.
Mara.
And Naomi had walked into it because she wanted a quiet job.
"What originals?" Naomi asked.
"Payment authorizations. Victor's consulting renewals. The donor leverage files. The original report from your incident might have been in the archive box too."
Naomi's pulse changed.
"Where would Jules take them?"
"She was supposed to leave them in a locker at Grand Central tomorrow."
"She never made it."
Owen turned from another monitor.
"We have footage from the garden center."
A black SUV pulled beside the laundry van.
Jules climbed out voluntarily.
No struggle.
She carried the cream envelope.
The SUV driver stepped into view.
Dominic whispered, "Martin?"
His CFO opened the passenger door for Jules.
She got in.
The SUV drove away.
Owen reached for his phone.
Naomi stopped him.
"Wait."
"Why?"
Naomi zoomed the image.
Jules wasn't frightened.
She was smiling.
Naomi looked at Dominic.
"Martin didn't take her."
"Then what happened?"
"I think he helped her disappear."
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