Chapter 4 - The Rat in the Cage
The glass of the two-way mirror was dark, reflecting my own hollow, exhausted face back at me. On the other side, Lucas sat hunched over, clutching a paper cup of water like it was a life preserver.
Detective Chen walked into the room, sitting across from him and pulling out a yellow legal pad.
"Mr. Vance," Chen said flatly. "Your attorney states you wish to make a voluntary statement regarding the events at 144 Elm Street."
"I didn't know she was going to poison them!" Lucas blurted out instantly, his eyes bugging out of his head. "I swear to God, Detective! I thought she was just using a heavy sedative! She told me it was just a mild sleeping aid to keep Maya quiet while we secured the legal documents!"
"Who purchased the Phos-Kill 50, Lucas?" Chen asked, her voice entirely devoid of emotion.
"Mother did! She used my Apex Holdings card, but she gave me the cash for it! She said she needed it for the termites at her country house! I had no idea she was putting it in the water supply!"
"And the $84,000 transferred from Aaron’s account?"
"That was my fee!" Lucas yelled, slamming his hand on the table. "She promised me twenty percent of the trust fund once Maya was committed! She said Aaron was weak, that he didn't deserve Dad’s money! She told me Dad meant for me to have the business, but Aaron stole it!"
Behind the glass, my fist clenched so hard my fingernails bit into my palm.
"What about your father, Lucas?" Chen’s voice lowered, dropping like a guillotine. "What happened in June 2014?"
Lucas froze. The nervous sweating seemed to stop instantly, replaced by a sudden, icy stillness. His eyes darted toward the two-way mirror, almost as if he could feel my gaze burning through the glass.
"I... I don't know what you’re talking about," Lucas stammered, his voice dropping an octave.
"We checked the storage unit upstate," Chen lied masterfully, leaning closer to him. "We found the old ledgers, Lucas. We know your mother didn't work alone twelve years ago."
"I was nineteen!" Lucas screamed, his composure completely shattering. He grabbed his hair with both hands, pulling at the roots. "I didn't do anything! She made me drive her car to the bridge! She told me Dad was going to ruin us! She said if he filed for divorce, we’d be living on the street! I just followed her car! I didn't push him into the river!"
A sharp gasp echoed through the observation room behind me. Marcus Vance, who had just arrived at the precinct, covered his mouth in absolute horror.
Lucas had just confessed to being an accessory to my father’s murder.
"She kept the money in the Panama accounts," Lucas whimpered, tears finally streaming down his slick cheeks. "The ledgers Aaron found... they had the routing numbers. Mother freaked out when she saw Aaron reading old files in his office last month. She knew if he tracked those accounts, he’d see the monthly transfers she’d been making to herself since 2014."
"Where is the wooden box now, Lucas?" Chen asked, her tone razor-sharp. "Where did your mother take the ledgers she stole from Aaron’s floorboard last night?"
Lucas swallowed hard, his throat making a dry clicking sound.
"She didn't take them to her apartment," he whispered. "She gave them to her lawyer, Victor Sterling. He’s holding them in his safe in Midtown. They’re burning them at noon today."
I looked at my watch.
May you like
It was 11:15 AM.
I turned on my heel, ignoring Marcus’s calls behind me, and sprinted out of the police precinct toward my car.
