Chapter 4 - The Hidden Backup
The fluorescent lights of the police precinct buzzed overhead as I walked out the front doors.
My new attorney, Ms. Vance, had secured my release in less than an hour.
She walked me to a sleek black town car waiting at the curb.
I asked her who was paying for her extremely expensive hourly rate.
She refused to answer, simply opening the car door and motioning for me to get inside.
The tinted windows rolled up, plunging the back seat into shadows.
A woman was sitting in the corner, holding a paper cup of coffee.
It was Sarah.
Preston’s new bride.
She still wore her extravagant wedding dress, though the delicate lace was now wrinkled and stained.
She handed me the coffee, her hands shaking slightly.
Sarah confessed that she was the one who hired the attorney to get me out.
She explained that she had seen the whole thing happen from the sweetheart table.
She saw Mark plant the phone, and she saw Preston swing the wooden board.
I asked her why she didn't say anything when the police arrived at the hotel.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she pulled down the collar of her wedding dress.
Faint, yellowish bruises dotted her collarbone, barely concealed by heavy makeup.
She whispered that Preston had a terrifying temper and had threatened her family's business if she left him.
Sarah revealed that the AV company filming the wedding ran an independent backup server.
The flash drive my lawyer gave the police only contained a small teaser clip.
We needed to get to the AV company's headquarters to download the full, unedited raw files before Preston found out.
Sarah handed me a set of car keys and told me she had a rental car waiting in the alley.
We slipped out of the town car and hurried through the damp, narrow streets.
As we pulled up to the AV company’s glass-front building, my blood ran cold.
The front glass doors were completely shattered.
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The alarm system was blaring into the empty street.
And sprinting out of the broken doorway, clutching a silver hard drive, was Mark.
