Chapter 5 - What the Second Camera Proved
Police collected Aaron’s original memory cards and the memory-card case containing the fragment he found on the ballroom floor.
They also collected the confetti cannon after venue staff located it in a service closet.
Derek had told everyone he discarded it.
He had not.
The second-camera footage was clearer than Rachel wanted it to be.
Vanessa appeared first.
She looked furious, not drunk.
Derek opened the rear of the cannon.
Vanessa poured several small pieces from a paper cup into his hand.
“Not too much,” she said.
Derek answered, “Enough so she remembers.”
Then Vanessa said the sentence Rachel had already heard.
“Aim for her left eye. Then everyone will believe it was just confetti.”
Neither looked playful.
Neither hesitated.
The police detective asked Rachel whether she knew why Vanessa specified her left eye.
Rachel did.
Three years earlier, Rachel had undergone minor surgery on that eye after a retinal tear.
Vanessa drove her home from the appointment.
She knew Rachel still experienced occasional flashes of light when exhausted.
That knowledge turned cruelty into something even more personal.
But Aaron’s earlier footage created another question.
Why had Derek entered Rachel’s changing area?
The missing hardware token authenticated large payments within Mercer Event Group’s accounting software.
Rachel had reported it missing as soon as she noticed.
The accounting firm froze the token ID.
Then its audit specialist called Monica.
The token had been used Saturday morning.
At 8:14 a.m., while Rachel was at the salon with the bridal party, her credentials approved three Sloan Event Fabrication invoices totaling $186,000.
Rachel had approved none of them.
Vanessa’s account had created the invoices.
Rachel’s token released the payments.
Police now had evidence of an intentional assault.
The company had evidence of unauthorized financial activity.
Diane still resisted connecting the two.
“Vanessa may have approved legitimate invoices. Derek may have taken your token for convenience. That doesn’t mean the cannon was about money.”
Rachel stared at her mother.
“You really need those things to be separate, don’t you?”
Diane looked away.
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For the first time, Rachel understood that her mother was not simply afraid of scandal.
She was afraid of what the financial records might explain.
