The Missing Red Envelope
Chapter 03 - The Missing Red Envelope
Security sealed the gymnasium.
Parents demanded answers. Reporters gathered outside the building. Students were moved into classrooms while police searched the academy’s halls and service tunnels.
Celeste was found ten minutes later in her office.
She claimed someone struck her from behind and stole the envelope.
Detective Lena Ortiz listened without expression.
“No injury is visible.”
“I was shoved,” Celeste said. “I lost consciousness.”
“For ten minutes?”
Celeste folded her arms.
“I cannot control how long unconsciousness lasts.”
Evelyn watched from the doorway.
Celeste’s cream jacket carried a thin streak of red sealing wax near the pocket.
The envelope had been closed with red wax.
Evelyn pointed it out.
Celeste looked down and brushed at the mark.
“I touched the envelope before the lights failed.”
“No,” Noah said. “You were holding the star map.”
Everyone turned toward him.
He had recorded the observatory opening for his science project. The video showed Celeste holding the brass map in both hands when the room went dark.
The red wax could not have reached her jacket then.
Celeste called him confused.
Lena asked for Celeste’s phone.
The principal refused until officers produced a warrant.
Meanwhile, Marcus Reed opened the first film canister.
It contained Samuel Hart’s original telescope footage of the Aurelia Comet. The star field matched archived sky conditions from 1999. Independent experts could authenticate the date.
The second canister contained audio recordings.
Samuel’s voice filled the physics laboratory.
“Arthur, you cannot announce the comet without Evelyn’s orbital calculations.”
Arthur Ward answered, “The academy needs a name donors can trust.”
“You mean a man’s name.”
“I mean a name without controversy.”
The recording stopped.
Noah looked at his grandmother.
“You calculated the orbit?”
Evelyn nodded.
Samuel had located the comet’s first light. Evelyn calculated its trajectory and proved it was previously unknown.
Together, they made the discovery.
Arthur Ward copied their work after the fire.
The third canister was empty.
Someone had removed its contents before the observatory opened.
Marcus examined the leather notebook.
A section had been cut out with a blade.
The final remaining page contained only a sequence of coordinates and a line in Samuel’s handwriting:
THE COMET WAS NOT THE REASON FOR THE FIRE.
Lena returned with Celeste’s phone.
At 6:42 p.m., three minutes before the hidden room opened, Celeste sent a message to an unknown number.
THE HART WOMAN BROUGHT THE KEY. BEGIN PHASE TWO.
Evelyn felt cold.
May you like
The gala humiliation had not been spontaneous.
Celeste had been waiting for the star map.
