Chapter 17
The Date on the Release
Ravi had signed away Wren House without signing anything away.
The forged release used his real signature, copied from the attendance sheet and stretched six percent to fit. It also carried a witness date when Ravi was in hospital visiting his father.
Beatrice called it clerical error. Her assistant called it impossible. Asha called the assistant back after Ravi found a council backup tape stored off-site.
The tape preserved the deleted access log. Beatrice's account opened the attendance sheet, the release and the scanner application within nine minutes.
"Shared password," Beatrice said.
"Against council policy," Asha replied.
"Against practice? Hardly."
She was right. Twelve employees knew it.
June returned to the date. Arthur had marked the same day in his ledger, but the ink looked darker than the other entries. Elsie photographed the ledger after Arthur died for the police record.
In her image, the date was absent.
Someone added it between discovery and evidence collection.
The potting room had been sealed, but four people crossed the threshold during the confusion: Owen, Mabel, Beatrice and Elsie.
Elsie's scholarship pen wrote in exactly that shade of violet.