She built the timeline on a whiteboard in the conference room that had become the operational center of the case.— ◆ —
GLASS ALIBI — Case Timeline
November 4 — Elise contacts personal attorney re: exposure
November 14 — Elise learns Conrad has arranged docs to implicate her
January (exact date TBD from Kerr statement) — Elise contacts Dr. Thomas Kerr
January — Kerr prepares veratramine compound, glycol carrier. Provides to Elise.
February 28 — Conrad files internal memo establishing Elise as authenticating authority (the 'sacrifice' document)
March 11 (Wed) — Conrad and Elise have lunch. Conrad reveals his position.
March 11 — Conrad returns to office 'resolved.' Has warned Elise.
March 14 (Gala day) — Elise applies compound to single program (interior centerfold surface)
March 14, 7:04 PM — Elise arrives at Meridian
March 14, 7:11 PM — Elise hands treated program to Conrad in reception alcove
March 14, 7:11 PM onward — Compound absorbs transdermally through chest skin, ~90 min delivery window
March 14, 7:11 PM — 8:47 PM — Elise is visible on all cameras, surrounded by witnesses
March 14, 8:31 PM — Prepaid text to Conrad: 'It's done. No going back.'
March 14, 8:43 PM — Conrad goes to terrace
March 14, 8:47 PM — Cardiac arrest. Conrad Vane dies.
March 14, 8:47 PM — Elise Hartwell is on camera, in view of 50+ witnesses, 40 feet from Conrad.— ◆ —She stood back from the whiteboard and looked at the whole thing.The glass alibi was not a single moment. It was a structure built over three months. Elise Hartwell had understood, with the precision of someone who had spent twenty-two years in a world where attribution and provenance were everything, that the question was not just how to kill someone but how to be unimpeachably visible when it happened.She had used the gala itself. The most documented evening of Conrad Vane's professional life, filmed from nine angles, witnessed by two hundred people, was the mechanism of her alibi. Every camera that would confirm Conrad was dying alone would also confirm that Elise Hartwell was not near him.The glass box.You could see through it in every direction. That was the point.Webb came in with coffee. He looked at the whiteboard for a while."Kerr's statement locks the compound," he said. "The lab results lock the delivery vehicle. The phone records establish she was in a position to send that prepaid text.""She didn't send the text," Priya said.He looked at her."The text went to Conrad's phone. It's addressed to Conrad." She turned away from the whiteboard. "Think about why you'd send a text saying 'It's done. No going back.' to the person you're killing. He can't stop it — you've told us the absorption was eighty minutes in by then. You're not warning him. You're not asking anything of him." She paused. "That text was sent to Conrad's number to go on record. To document his knowledge of whatever 'it' referred to."Webb looked at the timeline. "The February memo. The provenance fraud. Conrad had arranged everything to point at Elise. So Elise—""Arranged a text in his phone records that could be read as his acknowledgment of the fraud. 'It's done. No going back.' From an untraceable number. If the fraud investigation started after his death, that text — combined with the memo, the documentation — looks like Conrad communicating with a co-conspirator about the cover-up being complete." She looked at Webb. "She wasn't just killing him. She was framing him. For the thing he'd tried to frame her for."Webb was quiet for a moment. "That's— comprehensive.""Yes." Priya put the cap on her marker. "She had three months and a great deal of motivation."
