Chapter 31: A Room Full of Seats
The inspection took less than fifteen minutes.
Shah returned with Lorraine and explained that the cabinet contained portable viewing equipment, folding audience stools, and an unopened box of printed programs.
Nothing inside required an emergency response, but the contents supported the claim that the room had been prepared for a preview.
Lorraine had allowed the items to remain after the installers removed the camera mount.
Shah asked Colin to identify the equipment through the company’s regular contact process.
He agreed to arrange collection with Hsu and Elena at a later date.
Peter returned from the curb as the last disappointed guest left.
He looked tired, but he was no longer avoiding Lorraine.
“I don’t want you to tell me that everything happened for a reason,
” he said.
Lorraine shook her head.
“It didn’t.”
“I want you to tell June what you told us,” he continued.
“And I want Bell to hear it when he answers questions tomorrow.”
Lorraine said she would.
Elena looked at the house across the street.
Its upstairs window had been turned into a place for people to watch someone else disappear.
The idea made her uneasy in a way that the hidden track alone had not.
A movement at the end of the block caught her eye.
A dark sedan had stopped behind the minibus.
A man wearing a gray coat stood beside it, speaking sharply into his phone.
Colin recognized him and went rigid.
“That’s Graham Bell,” he said.
Bell saw the group on Elena’s porch.
He ended the call,
glanced at the closure notices, and began walking toward them.
Shah stepped into the path between the sidewalk and the gate.
“Mr. Bell,” she said.
“We’ve been trying to speak with you.”
Bell smiled without slowing.
“I came to make sure nobody damaged my equipment,” he answered.
Elena stood up.
“Then you’ve arrived at the right place,” she said.
“Because we’re finally going to talk about who has been damaging mine.”
My Neighbor Vandalized My House, Which Belonged to a New Woman, and She Noticed the Tattoo on the Woman’s Arm
PART SEVEN: THE SIGNATURES UNDER THE FLOOR
Chapter 45: Friday’s Inventory
The first problem on Friday morning was not the equipment in Elena Ward’s workshop.
It was the man who arrived to remove it.
He wore a Westbridge Events jacket, carried a cordless drill, and introduced himself as Daniel Price.
The inventory Inspector Hsu had approved listed two transport workers and a supervisor named Randall Keene.
Elena held the gate closed while Daniel searched his phone for an explanation.
“Keene called in sick,” he said.
“Who authorized you to replace him?” Elena asked.
“My dispatcher sent me.”
“Then your dispatcher can send the authorization.”
Daniel stared at the gate as though her refusal were a personal insult.
“I’m getting paid by the hour.”
“So am I when somebody allows me to work in my own house,” Elena replied.
Behind her, contractor Luis Serrano checked the temporary braces around the workshop door.
He had agreed to witness the removal because Elena wanted someone present who knew the condition of the building.
Daniel walked to his truck and made a phone call.
Ten minutes later Hsu arrived with an amended authorization from Westbridge’s insurer, not from Bell.
Keene’s replacement had been approved, but the paperwork had never reached Elena.
Hsu apologized for the oversight and reminded Daniel that nothing outside the numbered inventory could leave the property.
His attitude changed when he saw her inspection badge.
The crew began with folding screens and a motorized rail that had been bolted into a temporary platform.
Luis photographed each mounting point before anyone loosened it.
Elena watched from the doorway and tried to picture the room as it had looked during her first tour of the house.
Sunlight had reached the back window then.
A battered workbench had stood under the shelf, and the room had smelled of sawdust instead of hot electrical insulation.
One of the movers lifted a narrow black case from beneath the platform.
“This isn’t on the list,” he said.
Daniel stepped forward too quickly.
“It’s probably our controller.”
Elena looked at the inventory.
The controller already had an entry and a matching serial number.
“Leave that case where it is,” she said.
Daniel reached for it anyway.
Luis put one hand against the platform without touching the case.
“The homeowner asked you to stop,” he said.
Hsu came over and examined the unmarked container.
A strip of green tape crossed its handle, and someone had written a date from seventeen years earlier on the plastic.
The year was the same as the Lantern Room incident.
Daniel said it was old scenery and offered to throw it away.
Hsu refused to let him make that decision.
She photographed the case in place and asked the crew to move the surrounding equipment instead.
When Elena saw how carefully Daniel avoided looking at it, she knew the inventory problem was no longer a clerical mistake.
