Chapter 4 - The Interrogation
Daniel leaned over, his eyes scanning the photograph on the phone screen. His jaw tightened so hard the muscles along his temples bulged.
“Evan forged your name,” Daniel said, his voice deadly low. “He knew your dad left the Grandview plaza equally between the two of you. But that property is worth almost four million dollars now that the transit expansion was approved.”
“He wouldn’t,” Rachel insisted weakly, tears welling up in her uninjured eye. “He’s my brother, Daniel. We grew up together. When our parents died, he walked me down the aisle at my college graduation. He can be an idiot, he can be greedy, but he wouldn't try to mutilate me for real estate.”
“He didn't just try to mutilate you,” Daniel countered, pointing directly at the paper on the screen. “Read the clause, Rachel. ‘Permanent total incapacitation.’ If those metal staples had gone into your eye, or severed an artery in your neck... you wouldn't just be scarred. You could have bled out on his dining room carpet.”
Before Rachel could answer, the hospital room door swung open. Detective Kim stepped inside, removing her trench coat and hanging it over the back of an empty chair. Her expression was solemn.
“How are you feeling, Rachel?” the detective asked gently.
“Like my face was hit by a weed whacker,” Rachel murmured. “Did you find anything at Evan’s house?”
Detective Kim pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning forward with her forearms resting on her knees. “We found a great deal. In your brother’s workshop, our crime scene techs recovered an industrial air-powered staple gun. The feeder tray contained fragments of stainless-steel staples that had been manually snipped with wire cutters into small, jagged, barbed hooks. We found metal shavings on his workbench.”
Rachel closed her eyes. A heavy tear leaked out from beneath the bandage, stinging the raw flesh. “Why would he do that?”
“We also searched the garage refrigerator,” Kim continued, her voice steady and clinical. “Inside the crisper drawer, wrapped in a blue plastic grocery bag, was a piping bag filled with homemade cream-cheese frosting. We sent it for rapid testing. It tested positive for powdered fiberglass and crushed fragments of automotive glass.”
Daniel stood up, knocking his chair backward against the wall. “Fiberglass? In the frosting?”
“It was designed to cause internal hemorrhaging if ingested, or severe lacerations upon the slightest pressure,” Kim said grimly. “Whoever prepared that cake didn’t just want to ruin a birthday party. They wanted Rachel to swallow it. The only reason she’s alive and talking to us right now is because the first bite hit a staple that sliced her cheek before she could swallow.”
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Rachel gripped the bedsheets until her knuckles turned ghostly white. “Did Evan admit to it?”
“No,” Kim replied. “Evan is currently sitting in Interrogation Room B down at Central Patrol, demanding a lawyer and claiming he’s being framed. But his wife, Melissa... she just asked to speak with me alone.”
