She had found the discarded drafts weeks earlier, she explained, in Sabetha’s home office, along with notes about installing hidden cameras in the ballroom to capture the “altercation” from several angles.

When she had confronted her employer, she had been fired within the hour and accused of stealing to discredit her before she could speak.

“And there was one more thing Mrs.

Ashworth asked me to do,” Ophelia said, and now the trembling was grief.

“The night of the party.

She told me to move the heavy accent table — the marble-topped one, the one with the flowers — right up beside the foyer doors.