Chapter 15 - The Jailhouse Bargain
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Two days later, I sat in a private visitation room at the county correctional facility, separated from Beckett by a thick pane of bulletproof glass.
He looked pitiful. The tailored suits and slick hair were gone, replaced by an oversized orange jumpsuit. His face was pale, his eyes sunken, dark circles underscoring his complete ruin.
He picked up the silver intercom phone with trembling hands. I picked up mine.
"Sarah," Beckett pleaded, his voice breaking through the speaker. "Please. You have to tell the prosecutor I didn't want to hurt you. It was my mother! It was Arthur! They forced me into this!"
"Nobody forced you to put your hands around my neck, Beckett," I said, my voice dead and emotionless.
"They promised me I'd be CEO!" Beckett wept, pressing his hand against the glass. "They told me you were soft, that you didn't deserve the company! My mother threatened to disown me if I didn't help them upload the key!"
"Where is Mary now?" I asked.
"She's in the women's holding wing," Beckett whimpered. "She won't talk to anyone. She keeps saying Arthur will fix it, but Arthur's being held without bail on federal conspiracy charges!"
I leaned closer to the glass, looking into the eyes of the man I had slept beside for three years. "I came here to give you one chance, Beckett. One chance to save yourself from serving twenty years in a maximum-security prison."
"Anything, Sarah!" he begged desperate. "I'll testify against Arthur! I'll tell them everything about the forged medical records!"
"I want the location of the secondary hardware drive," I said firmly. "The one Arthur used to store my father's personal audio journals."
Beckett hesitated, his eyes darting nervously toward the guard standing in the corner of the room.
"If I give you that drive," Beckett whispered, "you have to promise to drop the attempted murder charge down to simple assault."
"You don't get to bargain with me, Beckett," I replied, my voice dropping into an icy register. "Give me the location, or I walk out that door right now and let the District Attorney seek the maximum sentence."
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Beckett swallowed hard, his spirit completely broken.
"It's in a safe deposit box at First National Bank," Beckett confessed in a hushed whisper. "Box number 412. The key is hidden inside my mother's jewelry box at her apartment."
