Chapter 3 - The Frame Job
The cold steel handcuffs clicked painfully tightly around my wrists.
"You are making a massive mistake, my father is setting me up!" I screamed as the detective patted me down.
Dad covered his face with his hands and let out a loud, fake sob.
"I cannot believe my own daughter would try to freeze her sister to death for money," Dad cried for the entire waiting room to hear.
Detective Miller pulled my current cell phone from my jacket pocket.
He then reached into the deep inner pocket of my winter coat.
My breath caught in my throat as Miller pulled out a small, heavy object.
It was the spare brass key to the padlock that had trapped Clara in the garage.
Dad had planted the physical evidence on me when he grabbed my arm earlier that evening.
"You have the right to remain silent," Miller recited in a monotonous voice.
I realized I was completely trapped in a perfectly executed web of lies.
They escorted me out of the hospital and into the back of a freezing police cruiser.
I watched through the barred window as Dad stood on the sidewalk, smirking victoriously.
The drive to the police precinct felt like an absolute eternity.
I knew Clara was completely defenseless in that hospital bed with him nearby.
When we arrived at the station, they placed me in a small, concrete interrogation room.
Hours passed before the heavy metal door finally swung open.
It was not Detective Miller who walked into the room.
It was Officer Davis, the young cop who had first responded to our house.
He closed the door quietly and turned off the recording camera mounted on the wall.
"I know you did not do this," Davis whispered urgently.
He pulled a small ring of keys from his uniform pocket and unlocked my handcuffs.
"I checked the hospital security footage from the rear entrance," Davis explained.
He told me that my father had briefly stepped outside to meet with a mysterious woman in a black SUV.
"The woman handed him a syringe before driving away," Davis revealed.
My blood ran absolutely cold.
"He is going to kill her tonight to finish the job," I realized in sheer panic.
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"We have to get you out of here right now," Davis said, handing me a police radio.
Just as we stepped out of the interrogation room, the precinct fire alarm began blaring deafeningly loudly.
