Chapter 19 - daphne remembered the envelope
Daphne came into my office two days later.
"I may remember something."
I closed the financial file.
"What?"
"An envelope."
Her face had gone pale.
"What kind of envelope?"
"Brown. Thick. Sealed."
"When?"
"About six months before Elena disappeared."
I sat forward.
"Who gave it to you?"
"Nobody."
She shook her head.
"I saw Corinne carrying it."
"Where?"
"The old study."
Daphne closed her eyes.
"I remember because she told me never to clean the desk that night."
I looked at her.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"I didn't know it mattered."
"Do you remember what happened afterward?"
She nodded slowly.
"She left the house around midnight."
"Alone?"
"I thought so."
"Where did she go?"
"I don't know."
Then Daphne's expression changed.
"Wait."
"What?"
"The next morning, there was a driver."
"Which driver?"
"Mr. Ellis."
Our former estate driver.
I immediately called Marcus.
Ellis had retired two years earlier.
We found him living in Florida.
He agreed to speak.
His answer changed everything.
"Corinne asked me to drive her to a storage facility."
"Which one?"
He gave me the address.
I wrote it down.
Then he added:
"She told me it was personal."
"Did she take anything?"
"A box."
"What kind?"
"Metal."
I looked at Daphne.
She was staring at me.
The storage unit might have nothing to do with Elena.
It might contain old paperwork.
It might contain nothing.
But we couldn't ignore it.
May you like
Because the strangest thing about Corinne's story was how many pieces she had hidden in places she assumed nobody would ever search.
---
