Chapter 5 - The Waiter Who Knew Too Much
Victor asked for immunity.
Detective Quinn refused.
“You tried to poison a man in a crowded restaurant,” she said. “You don’t get immunity. You get the chance to tell the truth before someone else tells it first.”
Victor’s shoulders collapsed.
He had worked for Celeste before.
Not as a waiter.
As a driver.
Eleven years earlier, Celeste had hired him to follow Lily Vale.
Lily had discovered irregular transfers from Adrian’s investment company. Millions were being moved through shell corporations controlled by Celeste’s brother.
Lily confronted Celeste privately.
Celeste responded by creating forged records in Lily’s name.
“She told Mr. Vale his daughter had stolen the money,” Victor said. “Then she told Lily that her father wanted her arrested.”
“Why didn’t Lily go to police?” Quinn asked.
“Celeste threatened the man Lily loved.”
That man was Daniel Bennett, a junior accountant at Adrian’s company.
Celeste had evidence that could make Daniel appear responsible for the fraud.
Lily believed surrendering herself would destroy both Daniel and her father’s company.
So she fled with Daniel while searching for proof.
Victor had followed them.
He reported their location to Celeste.
“What happened next?” Quinn asked.
Victor’s lips trembled.
“There was a crash.”
Adrian, listening through the observation glass, felt his stomach turn.
Victor explained that Celeste ordered him to force Daniel’s car off a rural road.
He claimed he only intended to frighten them.
The car rolled into a ravine.
Daniel died at the scene.
Lily survived with serious injuries.
Victor thought she was dead until Celeste later learned Lily had escaped the hospital under another name.
“She kept moving,” Victor said. “Celeste kept paying people to find her.”
“Why poison Adrian now?”
“Because Lily mailed something before she died.”
“What?”
Victor looked toward the glass, as though he could see Adrian behind it.
“A copy of the original company ledger.”
Adrian entered the room.
“Where was it mailed?”
Victor swallowed.
“To you.”
But no package had reached Adrian.
Someone inside his own home or office had intercepted it.
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And only one person controlled both.
👉 The ledger could prove Lily’s innocence and expose Celeste’s fortune—but it had vanished somewhere inside Adrian’s heavily guarded estate.
