Chapter 2 — Nine Cameras

She noted the timestamp: 7:11 PM.Conrad Vane died at 8:47 PM.One hour and thirty-six minutes.She continued watching.The evening progressed. Speeches. Toasts. The art world circulating with the particular combination of genuine appreciation and competitive awareness that characterized these rooms. Elise Hartwell moved through the gala with the hostess fluency of someone who had been doing this for twenty-two years, and she was — Priya confirmed this now, cross-referencing every camera — visible in the main gallery or at the bar or in conversation groups for the entire period between seven PM and eight forty-seven.Not once did she go to the terrace.When Conrad collapsed at 8:47, camera eight caught Elise in the main gallery, twenty feet from the terrace doors, in conversation with a man Priya would later identify as the gallery's insurance broker. Three witnesses standing within arm's reach. Two cameras with clear sightlines.The alibi was not just solid. It was crystalline.Priya sat back in her chair.She had worked homicide for eleven years. She knew alibis — their textures, their tells. A weak alibi was a door waiting to be opened. A strong alibi was a wall. An alibi like this — documented, multi-sourced, incidentally verified by nine cameras and forty-seven witnesses who weren't even trying to provide an alibi — this was something else.This was a glass box. You could see through it in every direction and there was nothing inside it that shouldn't be there.Which was, in her experience, exactly the kind of alibi that was built rather than happened.She picked up the phone. She called the ME's office."Dr. Kim," she said, when Sandra Kim answered. "The Vane case. I need to talk about your toxicology order."A pause. "It was a standard panel.""I know. I want an expanded one. Specifically—" She looked at her notes. "I want you to run for aconitine, batrachotoxin, and any compound in the veratrum alkaloid family. And I want dermal absorption assays on his hands and forearms."A longer pause. "That's a very specific list for a cardiac arrest.""Yes," Priya said. "It is."