Chapter 20 - The Interrogation Room
The sterile, painfully bright interrogation room at the downtown police precinct smelled heavily of stale coffee and bitter desperation. Clara sat handcuffed to the metal table, her expensive silk robe replaced by a harsh, scratchy orange jumpsuit. Her blonde hair was a messy, tangled disaster, and her eyes were red and swollen from hours of frantic crying.
Detective Thorne sat across from her, calmly opening a thick, heavy manila folder.
"I want my lawyer,"
Clara repeated for the fiftieth time, her voice hoarse and trembling.
"Your high-priced lawyer is currently sitting in the lobby,"
Thorne replied, sliding an 8x10 glossy photograph across the metal table.
"But he requested to review the evidence before speaking with you. I showed him this."
Clara looked down at the photograph. It was a perfectly clear, high-definition still image of her holding the lethal syringe over her mother-in-law’s arm, captured directly from the hidden camera.
"I also showed him the banking records,"
Thorne continued relentlessly.
"The offshore transfers, the forged power of attorney signatures, and the twenty-million-dollar life insurance policy. Oh, and your lover, Julian Vance? He cracked after twenty minutes in the other room. He has completely confessed to everything and offered to testify against you in exchange for a slightly reduced prison sentence."
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Clara buried her face in her handcuffed hands, letting out a long, agonizing wail of complete, utter defeat. There was no lie left to tell, no manipulation left to execute. The overwhelming, crushing mountain of evidence had buried her alive.
Daniel watched the entire interrogation through the one-way glass in the observation room. He felt no joy, no sense of glorious victory. He only felt a profound, heavy exhaustion. He had successfully excised the deadly cancer from his home, but the incredibly difficult journey of healing his broken family was only just beginning. He turned away from the glass, walking out of the precinct to finally go home to his mother.
