Chapter 5 - THE CONFESSION IN THE CAGE
I needed a nail in Vance’s coffin, something irrefutable that tied the billionaire directly to the murder and the smuggling ring. Digital files could be dismissed as hacked or fabricated by a high-priced defense team. I needed human testimony. I needed my brother to flip.
Through Officer Miller, I managed to secure a private, unrecorded meeting with Derek at the county jail. The interrogation room was cramped, smelling of stale sweat and cheap floor wax. Derek sat handcuffed to the metal table, wearing an orange jumpsuit that hung loosely off his frame. The bruising on his face had darkened into an ugly purple mask. He looked terrified, exhausted, and remarkably pathetic.
I walked in, closed the heavy steel door, and stood on the opposite side of the table. I didn't sit down.
"Alex," Derek choked out, his eyes darting nervously around the room. "Man, you gotta help me. You gotta tell them it was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. Clara was screaming, Mom was yelling at me to keep her quiet, I just... I just put my hand over her mouth, I swear to God!"
"Shut up," I said, my voice so quiet it made him flinch. "I am not your brother anymore. You are the animal who took my wife's life. You are the reason my daughter wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. If there wasn't a reinforced glass window in that door, I would tear you apart with my bare hands."
Derek began to sob, his shoulders heaving. "Vance made me do it! I owed the Chicago syndicate eighty grand, Alex. They were going to break my legs. Vance came to me. He said Clara found a ledger. He said if I got it back and made sure she kept her mouth shut, the debt was gone."
"So you agreed to terrorize your sister-in-law to save your own skin."
"I didn't know she was going to die!" he wailed. "Mom helped me! Mom unlocked the front door for me. She told me Clara was alone upstairs. Mom hated her, Alex. She always thought Clara looked down on us, thought she was too good for this family. When Vance offered Mom a cut of the money to keep quiet, she jumped at it."
The betrayal cut so deep I felt physically nauseous. My mother had sold her daughter-in-law's life for blood money and petty jealousy.
"Vance is going to hang you out to dry, Derek," I said coldly. "He already told me you're an impulsive idiot who acted alone. He wiped the company servers. He's destroying the evidence. When this goes to trial, his lawyers are going to paint you as a deranged addict who attacked his brother's wife. You will get life in prison, or worse, the death penalty. And Vance will be sipping scotch on his yacht."
Derek’s eyes went wide with pure panic. "No! No, I have proof! I'm not taking the fall for him!"
I leaned forward, planting my hands on the metal table. "What proof?"
"Vance didn't just call me. He sent a fixer to oversee the operation. A guy named Silas. Silas was sitting in a black SUV down the street when I went into your house. When... when it was over, I gave Silas Clara's laptop and the paper ledgers she had printed. Silas paid me in cash right there in the car."
"Where is Silas now?"
"He runs Vanguard's central warehouse hub in Cleveland! He keeps everything there. The guns, the money, the blackmail files. If you get Silas, you get Vance."
I stepped back, staring at the pathetic, broken man who used to be my flesh and blood. "If you're lying to me, Derek, I'll pray they give you the chair."
"I'm not! Alex, please, tell the cops I cooperated! Please!"
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I turned around and banged on the metal door for the guard. As the door swung open, I looked back at Derek one last time.
"You're dead to me," I said, and walked out into the corridor, my path finally clear. I was going to Cleveland.
