Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR’S CONFESSION
Dr. Sterling’s glass of scotch slipped from his fingers, crashing onto the marble foyer floor and shattering into a hundred glittering shards. The golden liquid spilled across the white stone, mirroring the absolute ruin of his face.
“I... I don't know what you’re talking about,” Sterling stammered, backing away until his spine hit the mahogany staircase. “Andrew, your investigator is out of his mind! Get out of my house before I call the police!”
Marcus stepped forward, unbuttoning his suit jacket to reveal the Glock 19 resting in his shoulder holster. He didn't pull the weapon; he simply let the doctor see it.
“Call them,” Marcus invited calmly, leaning in close. “Let’s get the Suffolk County Police Department, the FBI, and the Medical Board in this room together. We can go over the Aegis Holdings transaction records from October 14th, the forged vertigo diagnosis, and the lack of a toxicology screen on Elyse’s body.”
Sterling’s breath hitched. Sweat broke out across his forehead, glistening under the chandelier light. He looked at me, his eyes pleading, desperate.
“Andrew... please,” Sterling choked out, trembling so hard he had to hold onto the banister. “You don't understand... she threatened me! Sophia threatened to destroy my practice!”
I closed the gap between us in two swift strides, grabbing Sterling by the lapels of his silk robe and slamming him violently against the wall.
“You poisoned my wife!” I roared, my face inches from his. “You gave Sophia the drugs to make Elyse look insane, and then you signed off on her death certificate while my seven-year-old daughter was left alone with a monster!”
“It wasn't supposed to end in death!” Sterling sobbed, tears spilling down his pale cheeks. “Sophia came to me three years ago... she had photos of me... mistakes I made with prescription distribution. She blackmailed me! She forced me to prescribe concentrated scopolamine drops! She said she just wanted to make Elyse compliant so she could control the family trust!”
“And the car accident?” I demanded, shaking him furiously. “What happened on that cliff in Montauk?”
“Sophia... Sophia put a lethal dose in Elyse’s morning tea that day,” Sterling confessed, his voice breaking into pitiful, ragged whimpers. “Elyse was driving Valerie to school... but Elyse realized something was wrong with her vision and brain function. She managed to pull over and drop Valerie off at a gas station convenience store... then she tried to drive herself to the emergency room. But the drug took over her central nervous system before she reached the coast. She went off the cliff because she lost total paralysis of her limbs!”
The revelation hit me like a physical blow to the chest.
Elyse hadn't been reckless. She hadn't been careless. Even as the lethal poison was shutting down her brain, her final act on this earth had been to save our daughter—pulling over at a gas station to drop Valerie off before driving away to die alone in the ocean.
I let go of Sterling’s robe, and he collapsed onto the floor in a heap, weeping uncontrollably.
“Where is the proof, Sterling?” Marcus asked coldly, pulling a digital voice recorder from his pocket and verifying the entire confession had been captured on high-bitrate audio. “Do you have the original medical records? Do you have communications with Sophia?”
“In... in my safe downstairs,” Sterling sobbed, pointing a shaking finger toward the basement door. “I kept audio recordings of her phone calls... the prescriptions... the offshore transfer confirmations... I kept them as insurance in case she ever turned on me!”
“Get up,” I growled, grabbing the doctor by his collar and dragging him toward the basement stairs. “Show us everything.”
Ten minutes later, Marcus had secured a thumb drive containing six recorded phone conversations between Sophia and Sterling, detailing the exact schedule of scopolamine dosages given to Elyse, along with forged prescription logs and wire transfer receipts.
It was the smoking gun. Ironclad, undeniable evidence of premeditated murder, conspiracy, and medical fraud.
Marcus looked at me, holding the thumb drive tightly in his gloved hand. “This is enough to put Sophia away for life, Andrew. I’m calling the State Police Homicide Unit right now.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was an urgent call from Dr. Thorne back at my Hamptons estate.
I answered instantly. “Dr. Thorne? What’s wrong?”
May you like
Static crackled over the line, followed by the panicked sound of shouting and shattering glass in the background.
“Andrew!” Dr. Thorne’s desperate voice screamed through the speaker. “She’s here! Sophia brought armed men! They cut the power to the main gate—they took Valerie!”
