Chapter 2 - The Broadcast

The silence in the boardroom was absolute. You could hear the faint hum of the city traffic fifty stories below.

Brenda finally snapped. She leaped up from her chair, pointing a trembling finger at me. "You can't do this! You're bluffing! We have lawyers!"

"Your lawyers are going to be very busy keeping you out of a federal penitentiary, Brenda," Luke said calmly, leaning against the wall. He pulled out a small, clear plastic evidence bag from his inner pocket. Inside was the empty vial Brenda had used to drug my soup the night before. "Especially since embezzlement is only your second-biggest problem today."

Brenda stared at the bag, all the blood draining from her face.

"Attempted murder is a much messier charge," I said softly, walking around the table until I was standing just a few feet away from her. "Did you really think my son wouldn't notice the strange deliveries to your apartment? Did you really think he wouldn't test the food you kept pushing on me?"

Christopher turned to Brenda, his eyes wide with genuine panic. The embezzlement they had planned together. But the poisoning? That was a step Christopher, for all his greed, had been too cowardly to take directly.

"Brenda, what the hell is she talking about?" Christopher hissed, backing away from her.

"She's lying!" Brenda shrieked, looking frantically between Christopher and the board members. "Christopher, tell them she's lying! I only did what you told me to do!"

It was the oldest trick in the book, and Brenda fell right into it. She turned on him to save herself.

"I never told you to poison her!" Christopher roared, his carefully constructed image entirely shredded. "I told you to keep her docile so she wouldn't check the accounts! You crazy bitch, you tried to kill my wife?!"

"You wanted her out of the way!" Brenda screamed back, tears streaming down her face, her perfect makeup ruined. "You promised me we'd take the money and leave! You said she was a dead weight!"

The board members watched in stunned silence as the two lovers tore each other apart, confessing to multiple felonies in a room full of witnesses.

Arthur Pendelton cleared his throat, pulling out his cell phone. "I believe I will call the authorities now. We need the police up here immediately."

As if on cue, the glass doors of the boardroom swung open again. Three men in dark suits flashed FBI badges, accompanied by four uniformed LAPD officers.

"Christopher Albright? Brenda Vance?" the lead agent said, stepping into the room. "We have warrants for your arrest regarding federal wire fraud, corporate embezzlement, and suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Place your hands behind your backs."

Christopher collapsed into his leather chair, holding his head in his hands, completely broken. Brenda tried to run for the secondary exit, but two female officers caught her instantly, slamming her against the wall and clicking the handcuffs around her wrists.

As they marched Brenda past me, I reached out and gently unclasped my grandmother's gold bracelet from her wrist. It slipped off easily.