“I only know what he told me,” she said.
It was the first crack.
A few minutes earlier, the pearls had belonged to his family.
Now she only knew what Grant told her.
Vivian let the difference hang in the air.
Then she reached into the folder again.
“Mrs.
Caldwell reported this necklace missing.”
Grant’s attorney objected again, but Vivian was prepared.
She established the date of the report and the fact that it had been made before Sloane appeared in court wearing the necklace.
Sloane’s face changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
The careful frightened-woman expression vanished.
In its place was calculation.
“When did Grant give you those pearls?” Vivian asked.
“I don’t remember the exact date.”
“Before or after December 14?”
“I said I don’t remember.”
“Before or after Mrs.
Caldwell filed the police report?”
“I didn’t know there was a police report.”
“I didn’t ask whether you knew.”
Grant’s attorney rose once more.
The judge instructed Sloane to answer the question if she could.
“I don’t remember,” she repeated.
Vivian stepped back.
For a second, I thought she might move on.
Instead she asked, “Do you know how Grant accessed the safe where the necklace had been stored?”
Grant looked up sharply.
There it was.
The reaction I had been waiting for.
His lawyer immediately objected, but the damage had already begun.
Vivian explained that the question related directly to the ownership and disappearance of the item Sloane had just testified was a legitimate gift.
The judge allowed a narrower line of questioning.
Vivian turned to Sloane.
“Did Grant ever tell you that the necklace had been kept in Mrs.
Caldwell’s private safe?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he had access to that safe?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he opened it at 2:16 in the morning?”
Sloane’s lips parted.
Grant whispered something urgently to his lawyer.
Vivian opened the next document.
The digital safe kept an access log.
Grant had always known that.
He had helped choose the safe.
He had complained about the fingerprint reader when it was installed.
He had used it often enough to know exactly how it worked.
What he had apparently forgotten was that every successful entry was time-stamped and linked to the fingerprint profile that opened it.
At 2:16 that morning, the recorded profile was his.
Vivian did not need to dramatize it.
She simply stated the time.
Then she produced the corresponding security footage from the hallway.
The judge allowed the relevant portion to be identified for the record.
