Chapter 5 - The Interrogation
Two hours later, I watched Jessica through the two-way mirror in the interrogation room.
She was shivering in the sterile, air-conditioned room, still barefoot, her designer clothes wrinkled and stained. She looked pathetic.
Detective Vance walked in and dropped a massive file onto the metal table.
“I want my lawyer,” Jessica demanded instantly.
“Your lawyer dropped you thirty minutes ago when he found out his retainer check bounced,” Vance said smoothly, taking a seat. “Because your mother-in-law, Evelyn Sterling, enacted a notarized guardianship decree. You have no money, Jessica. You have no house. You have absolutely nothing.”
Jessica’s eyes went wide. “Evelyn? That old bat has no right! David left me the estate!”
Vance pulled out a photograph and slid it across the table. It was a picture of Lily in the ICU, bruised, tubed, and dying.
“This is your stepdaughter. You left her for two weeks without food, water, or life-saving medication so you could go drinking in Mexico.”
“She’s a teenager! She should know how to feed herself!” Jessica spat back, digging her own grave with her profound lack of empathy. “She’s trying to frame me because she hates me!”
Vance pulled out another document. “We pulled the smart-home logs from your house, Jessica. The digital deadbolt on the basement door was locked from your master iPad on the day you flew out. You locked her down there.”
Jessica froze. She hadn't realized the smart locks kept a digital footprint.
May you like
“We also have the wire transfers,” Vance continued relentlessly. “You tried to move two million dollars of David's life insurance into an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. That’s federal fraud.”
Behind the glass, I smiled coldly. She was trapped.
