Caleb Was Accused of Stealing From a Business Executive — Then Security Footage Showed Someone Secretly Planting It in His Backpack
Chapter 3 — Elias Grant
Elias had joined Dawson Instruments when the company was still operating from a converted warehouse.
He was a mechanical engineer.
Quiet.
Meticulous.
Almost invisible outside his department.
Maria remembered him coming home with grease on his sleeves and graph paper folded in his pockets.
“He loved that company,” she said.
Mr. Dawson looked uncomfortable.
His father, Henry Dawson, had founded the business.
Today, Henry’s photograph dominated the anniversary displays.
The official company story credited Henry with creating the firm’s first successful precision-control system.
That invention had transformed Dawson Instruments.
Richard looked toward Maria.
“Did Elias ever talk about the Model Seven project?”
Maria laughed softly.
“All the time.”
Mr. Dawson frowned.
“Why?”
Maria answered:
“Because he worked on it.”
Silence.
Richard nodded.
“That’s what the archive box suggests.”
Mr. Dawson stared at him.
“Suggests?”
Richard had discovered Elias’s box three weeks earlier while clearing a storage room scheduled for renovation.
Inside were sketches.
Test photographs.
Audio cassettes.
And one VHS tape labeled:
MODEL SEVEN — FINAL DEMO — 1989.
The tape had been digitized the previous afternoon.
Richard planned to watch it before the anniversary dinner.
He never got the chance.
“Lydia knew about it?” Mr. Dawson asked.
Richard nodded.
As chief of staff, Lydia coordinated the anniversary presentation.
She knew exactly what had been scanned.
Maria looked toward the empty memory-card slot.
“Then whatever she took has something to do with my father.”
Richard nodded slowly.
“I think so.”
Then security called.
Lydia had not left the building.
She was upstairs.
Inside the private executive records room.
