Chapter 2 - The Missing Crown
Detective Velez did not waste a second.
She took the phone from my hand only after asking permission and identified herself to Owen.
His whisper became even more nervous.
He was somewhere outside the venue, possibly sitting in a car, and he refused to say exactly where until he knew officers were coming.
Detective Velez asked him one question at a time.
“Do you have any footage in your possession?”
“Maybe.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I copied part of the reception to my laptop before Hayes collected the cards.”
“Where is the laptop?”
“With me.”
“Do not alter anything.”
“I haven’t.”
“Do not email it.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not send clips to Ms. Mercer.”
“Okay.”
“Stay where you are and tell me your location.”
There was a long pause.
Then Owen gave her an address.
Detective Velez motioned to the younger officer, who immediately left the room.
When the door closed, she handed my phone back.
“Your sister’s wedding venue is still active, but patrol is heading there now.”
“To get the tiara?”
“To preserve the scene and identify witnesses.”
“And the tiara?”
“If it is there, we will try to locate it.”
I looked at her.
“If?”
She did not soften the answer.
“The object has been out of your sight for hours.”
That truth sat heavily in my chest.
While the officers drove back to the ballroom, the wedding continued as though I had simply left early.
I learned that later from the time stamps on social media posts.
At 10:42 p.m., Delaney posted a photograph of herself and Hayes cutting the cake.
At 10:51 p.m., one of her bridesmaids posted a video of guests dancing beneath silver lights.
At 11:03 p.m., my mother appeared in the background of a livestream raising a champagne glass.
I was in surgery preparation at the time.
The contrast was almost impossible to process.
I had four metal fragments in my scalp and my family was doing the electric slide.
Detective Velez returned after speaking to officers at the venue.
Her expression was different now.
Not alarmed.
More focused.
“They have begun identifying members of the production crew.”
“Did they find the tiara?”
“No.”
My pulse jumped.
“Did they ask Hayes?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He says he handed it to a production assistant named Connor Reed.”
“And Connor?”
“Connor says Hayes never gave him anything.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“Someone is lying.”
“Yes.”
“Did Delaney say where it is?”
“She says she does not know.”
“What about my mother?”
Detective Velez hesitated just enough for me to notice.
“What did my mother say?”
“She told officers the object was a cheap costume piece that broke when it caught in your hair.”
I almost sat up too fast.
“Caught in my hair?”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t what happened.”
“I know what you reported.”
“She watched Delaney force it down.”
“Then the witness accounts differ.”
“No.”
My voice rose.
“She’s covering for her.”
Detective Velez lifted one hand.
“I understand why you believe that.”
“Believe?”
“I cannot write your conclusion as fact until we verify it.”
Her calm irritated me, but it also kept me from spiraling.
She was right.
The truth would have to survive more than my anger.
It would have to survive lawyers, denials, edits, missing objects, and whatever story Delaney built before morning.
My phone vibrated again.
This time it was my aunt Marissa.
I nearly rejected the call.
Then I remembered she had been seated three tables from the dance floor.
I answered.
“Sloan?”
“Yes.”
Her voice was shaking.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m alive.”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Those two words almost broke me because they were the first words of genuine concern I had heard from anyone in my family all night.
“What happened after I left?”
Aunt Marissa lowered her voice.
“Your mother told everyone you had a panic attack.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course she did.”
“She said the tiara scratched you and you overreacted because you were overwhelmed.”
“Did anyone believe her?”
“Some did.”
“And Delaney?”
“She cried.”
I gave a bitter laugh.
“Was she hurt?”
“No.”
“Then why was she crying?”
“She said you called the police to punish her.”
Detective Velez was listening now.
I switched to speaker.
“Aunt Marissa, did you see what happened with the tiara?”
“Yes.”
“Exactly?”
“I saw Delaney push it down.”
“With both hands?”
“Yes.”
“Did it look accidental?”
A pause.
“No.”
My throat tightened.
Detective Velez leaned closer.
“Ms. Marissa, this is Detective Velez.”
My aunt gasped softly.
“I need you not to discuss what you saw with other witnesses.”
“I understand.”
“I also need to know whether you took photographs or video.”
“No.”
“Did anyone near you?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Half the room.”
That was the first encouraging thing I had heard.
Guests had been holding phones everywhere.
Even if Hayes controlled the documentary crew, he did not control three hundred guests.
Detective Velez asked my aunt to save anything sent to her and not edit it.
Then Marissa said something that changed the direction of the night.
“Sloan, there was a woman arguing with Hayes after you left.”
“What woman?”
“One of the crew members.”
“What did she look like?”
“Short blonde hair, black jumpsuit, headset.”
I remembered her.
She had been standing beside the floral wall before Delaney called me forward.
“What were they arguing about?”
“I only heard part of it.”
“Tell me.”
“She said, ‘That wasn’t what we agreed to.’”
Detective Velez’s pen started moving again.
“And Hayes?”
“He told her to stop being dramatic and get the card from camera three.”
My skin prickled.
“Camera three?”
“Yes.”
“Where was camera three?”
Marissa thought for a second.
“Near the bar, I think.”
That camera would have been facing the side of the dance floor.
It might have captured Delaney’s hands.
It might have captured Hayes.
It might have captured the person who took the tiara.
Detective Velez ended the call after getting Marissa’s contact details.
Then she contacted the officers at the venue.
I listened to only her side.
“Locate camera three.”
“No, do not accept a verbal assurance.”
“I want the operator identified.”
“And find the woman with short blonde hair and a headset.”
She listened.
Then her expression hardened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Understood.”
She ended the call.
“What?”
“The production company packed up early.”
“How early?”
“Approximately fifteen minutes after patrol arrived.”
“They left while police were there?”
“They were not detained.”
I stared at her.
“And camera three?”
“Missing from the equipment inventory.”
I felt nauseated.
Detective Velez continued before I could speak.
“There is more.”
Of course there was.
“There is always more,” I whispered.
“The venue manager says one member of the wedding party removed a silver case from the production area shortly before officers arrived.”
“Who?”
“He did not recognize the person.”
“Man or woman?”
“Woman.”
My first thought was Delaney.
Then my mother.
Then every bridesmaid who had smiled at me while I bled.
“Did the manager describe her?”
“Dark formal dress, shoulder-length hair.”
That described half the women at the reception.
Detective Velez’s phone rang.
She answered.
She listened for less than a minute.
Then she looked at me.
“Owen’s laptop is in police custody.”
Relief hit so hard I almost cried.
“Does it show what happened?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because the copied folder is encrypted.”
“Can he open it?”
“He says yes.”
“Then open it.”
“He is trying.”
The detective’s face remained tense.
“What is he not telling you?”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“Owen says he copied the footage because he thought Hayes was planning something before the tiara incident happened.”
I stopped breathing.
“What kind of something?”
“He heard Hayes give a direction during rehearsal.”
“What direction?”
Detective Velez read from a note on her phone.
“Make sure Sloan is in frame when Delaney puts the crown on her.”
I stared at her.
Then she read the second line.
May you like
“And don’t cut if she cries.”
THE JEWELED TIARA
