Chapter 12 - The Silver Tin|
With Patricia in custody, the game was halfway won. But Daniel was still in the wind.
Carter arrived back at the safe house an hour later, his uniform dusty. He handed me a bottle of water. “You did good, Sarah. Patricia is sitting in an interrogation room demanding a lawyer, but we’ve seized her phone. The texts between her and Daniel are a goldmine.”
“Did you catch him at the bank?” I asked, taking a shaky sip.
Carter shook his head in frustration. “He got there ten minutes before we did. Emptied the vault. He’s got at least half a million in untraceable cash and a fake passport.”
“So he’s running.”
“He’s trying to,” Carter corrected. “But I dispatched a team to your house while you were dealing with Patricia. We found the silver tin in his office.”
He pulled out his phone and showed me a photo. There it was—the heirloom tin sitting on an evidence table, surrounded by plastic baggies filled with a strange, grayish powder mixed with tea leaves.
“The lab confirmed it an hour ago,” Carter continued. “Lethal levels of arsenic and crushed benzodiazepines. We have the murder weapon, Sarah. The DA has enough to issue a federal warrant for his arrest.”
A wave of relief washed over me, so heavy I had to sit down. For seven years, I thought I was losing my mind. Every doctor’s visit, every blackout, every tearful argument where Daniel convinced me I was the crazy one—it was all a calculated lie.
“I want to see Lily,” I said firmly.
Carter smiled for the first time. “She’s waiting for you at the precinct.”
The reunion with my daughter was a blur of tears and tight hugs. Lily clung to me, smelling of strawberry shampoo and innocence. I promised her she would never have to go to her father’s house again.
May you like
But as I rocked her to sleep in a secure hotel room that night, my burner phone buzzed with a text message.
“You think you won, Sarah? Check your bank account.”
