Sarah: Officer, please! Before you take them away, you need to look beneath this wooden floor plank!
The young house maid, Sarah, stepped forward from the server station, her navy blue uniform slightly disheveled as she pointed down at the gap in the wooden platform near the head dining table.
Officer Hayes: What is down there, young lady?
Sarah: When Richard stepped on the board earlier to hide his phone, I saw a metallic flash under the subfloor construction gap.
Richard: Don't touch that floor! That is structural property belonging to the venue!
Officer Hayes: Quiet down, Sterling. Deputy, grab a crowbar from the maintenance kit near the door.
Victoria: This is an illegal search! You don't have a search warrant for the subfloor architecture!
Eleanor: What are you so afraid of, Victoria? If you didn't hide anything else down there, why are you shaking?
The police deputy wedged the steel crowbar into the gap beneath the wooden plank, levering the heavy board up with a loud wooden crack that echoed through the silent hall.
Dust rose into the air as the deputy reached down into the dark opening with a high-powered flashlight.
Deputy: Officer Hayes, you are going to want to see this. It's not just a phone down here.
Officer Hayes: What did you find, deputy?
The deputy pulled out a heavy steel lockbox wrapped in thick plastic insulation, placing it directly onto the white marble floor.
Eleanor: That... that lockbox has my late husband's corporate seal stamped on the front brass latch!
Richard: That's mine! I placed that box in legal storage three years ago!
Eleanor: You lied to the probate court! You claimed my husband's private business ledgers and bearer bonds were destroyed in the office fire!
Sarah: I saw Mr. Sterling crouching near this exact floorboard two hours before the guests arrived for the gala.
Officer Hayes: Pry the lock open, deputy.
With a quick twist of the crowbar, the brass latch snapped open. Inside the box lay stacks of original bearer bonds, high-value land titles, and a signed amendment to the estate trust fund.
Eleanor: Look at the date on these land titles! My husband left fifty percent of the Sterling Enterprise shares directly to Mia!
Mia: To me? Dad left those for me?
Eleanor: Yes, sweetie! Richard stole these documents from our home safe the night your father died in the hospital!
Richard: That trust amendment is invalid! He was not in his right mind when he signed those corporate shares over to a child!
Officer Hayes: The probate judge will decide that, Mr. Sterling. But right now, you are looking at federal charges for wire fraud, document theft, and embezzlement.