Chapter 6 - The Rattled Sister
Z
The rain began falling in heavy, relentless sheets around four in the afternoon, turning the dirt roads around the orchard into thick brown mud. Inside the county jail’s visitor center, the air smelled of floor wax, damp wool, and industrial bleach.
I sat behind a thick pane of bulletproof glass, waiting in small Booth 4. Across from me sat Vanessa.
Unlike Daniel, who was being held in maximum security, Vanessa had been granted a temporary holding cell while her court-appointed lawyer tried to negotiate a plea deal. She was wearing an oversized gray jumpsuit that hung loosely off her frame, her makeup entirely washed away, revealing deep, dark circles under her sunken eyes.
She stared at the orange plastic telephone receiver resting on the cradle between us. She refused to pick it up.
I picked up my receiver, tapped on the glass with my fingernail, and waited.
Vanessa’s jaw clenched. Slowly, reluctantly, she reached out her trembling hand, lifted the phone to her ear, and glared at me through the smudged glass.
“Came to gloat, Claire?” Vanessa hissed, her voice crackling through the cheap static of the intercom system. “Came to see the poor, desperate sister-in-law behind bars?”
“I came to offer you a choice, Vanessa,” I said calmly, resting my elbow on the metal counter.
Vanessa let out a harsh, dry laugh. “A choice? You ruined my life! You set us up!”
“No,” I corrected her, my voice turning dropping into cold steel. “Daniel ruined your life. You just helped him build the gallows. Do you really think he was ever going to share that trust money with you?”
Vanessa stiffened, her eyes darting sideways for a split second before returning to mine. “What are you talking about? Daniel loves me. He promised me half of the estate.”
I pulled a folded piece of paper from my coat pocket and pressed it flat against the bulletproof glass so she could read every line. It was a printout of a wire transfer instruction found on the technician’s encrypted laptop in the basement.
“This is the secondary distribution agreement Daniel created three days ago,” I explained, pointing to the highlighted line at the bottom. “Once the nine million dollars from my mother’s trust cleared the offshore account in the Cayman Islands, eighty-five percent was scheduled to be transferred directly to a private bank account in Zurich under Daniel’s name alone. The remaining fifteen percent was designated for Elena and the document technician.”
I paused, letting the silence stretch between us.
“Your name isn't on the document, Vanessa. Anywhere.”
Vanessa stared at the paper, her breath fogging up the glass as her eyes scanned the numbers over and over again. “No... no, that’s wrong. That’s a fake. You made that!”
“I’m a fraud analyst, Vanessa. I don't make fakes; I expose them,” I said quietly. “Daniel used you. He used your connections to the underground forgery network in Miami to get the equipment and the impersonator. He knew that if the police ever caught onto the scheme, your name was the one on all the shell company registration papers. You were his human shield. If things went wrong, you were the one going to prison for thirty years while he fled to Switzerland with a new passport.”
Tears began welling up in Vanessa’s eyes. Her arrogant facade was completely evaporating, revealing the fragile, terrified woman underneath.
“He told me... he told me we were a team,” she whispered, her voice trembling violently through the receiver. “He said after our parents died, we were the only ones left who mattered.”
“Daniel matters to Daniel,” I said softly. “That’s it. Right now, Richard Sterling is in his cell telling him to place the entire blame on you. Sterling is going to argue that Daniel was manipulated by his greedy, estranged sister who masterminded the entire plot.”
Vanessa slammed her small fist against the glass, making the plastic pane rattle in its metal frame. “That lying bastard! It was his idea! He’s the one who found out about your mother’s trust! He’s the one who ordered the poison from that site on the dark web!”
I leaned in closer to the glass. The dark web.
“Where did he order the poison, Vanessa?” I asked, keeping my voice smooth, gentle, and completely unthreatening. “Where did he keep the digital wallet key?”
Vanessa wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her sleeve, her breathing ragged. “In his office... at his downtown firm. In the hollowed-out book on the third shelf. It’s a hardware cryptocurrency wallet. It has all the chat logs with the supplier in Russia, the tracking numbers for the chemical shipment, and the transfer receipts.”
I took a deep breath. That was the missing link. The physical proof of premeditated attempted murder that Maya needed to seal Daniel’s fate forever.
“If you give that information to Deputy Attorney General Ortiz right now,” I told her, “she will offer you a reduced sentence for full cooperation against Daniel. You won't walk free, Vanessa. You committed severe crimes. But you won't die in prison.”
Vanessa stared at me through the glass, her lips trembling. For months, she had lived in my home, worn my mother’s clothes, drank my wine, and smiled to my face while planning my death. But looking at her now, I didn't feel anger. I only felt a deep, profound sense of pity for someone who had sold her soul to a monster for promises that were never real.
Slowly, Vanessa nodded.
“Get your prosecutor,” she whispered. “I’ll tell her everything.”
I hung up the telephone receiver, stood up from the small wooden stool, and walked out of the visitor room.
As I stepped out into the rainy courtyard of the facility, Maya was waiting under an umbrella, holding two cardboard cups of hot coffee.
“Did she break?” Maya asked.
“She broke,” I replied, taking a sip of the warm coffee. “The hardware wallet with the poison receipts is hidden in a hollowed-out book in his downtown office. Third shelf.”
Maya let out a low whistle, pulled out her phone, and immediately dialed her lead investigator. “Team Two, get a search warrant for Montgomery & Associates downtown suite. Focus on the library bookshelves. Look for a ledger hardware wallet.”
She hung up, looking at me with a mixture of awe and deep respect. “You know, Claire... you haven't lost a single step since you left the department.”
“I didn't want to play this game again, Maya,” I said, looking up at the gray, rain-swept sky. “I just wanted a quiet life on the farm.”
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“Sometimes the game comes to you,” Maya said gently. “Come on. Let's go secure that office before Sterling’s people realize what Vanessa just gave us.”
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