Chapter 10 - The Interrogation Room
The interrogation room inside the state police precinct was windowless, its cinderblock walls painted a dull, oppressive shade of institutional gray. A single overhead fluorescent light hummed softly, casting harsh shadows across the scarred metal table bolted to the center of the floor. Daniel Sterling sat rigidly in the metal chair, his wrists no longer bound by handcuffs, but his posture remained as rigid and defensive as ever. His black polo shirt was slightly wrinkled, and for the first time, visible fatigue shadowed his dark eyes.
Across the table sat Detective Miller and a federal prosecutor named Hayes, whose expression was a mask of cold, unyielding professionalism. Between them on the table rested the manila envelope Clara had rescued from the sub-basement, its contents spread out meticulously: bank statements, encrypted email printouts, and the damning brake-line forensic report.
"Let's go over the timeline one more time, Mr. Sterling," Prosecutor Hayes said, tapping a pen against the metal tabletop. "According to our financial forensic analysis, exactly forty-eight hours before Sarah Sterling’s car went off the coastal highway, a wire transfer of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was routed from a shell corporation controlled by your mother to the personal account of the chief mechanic who serviced Sarah's vehicle."
Daniel didn't flinch. He kept his hands folded neatly on the table, his breathing slow and controlled. "My family’s corporate holdings manage hundreds of subsidiaries and charitable trusts," Daniel replied smoothly, his voice devoid of emotion. "Routine financial disbursements are handled by accounting departments without my direct oversight. That transfer proves nothing."
"It proves a direct financial link to the mechanic who altered the brake lines," Miller countered, leaning forward into the light. "And we have the mechanic's full confession, recorded this morning after he realized you and your mother abandoned him to take the fall alone."
A microscopic twitch in Daniel’s jaw betrayed the impact of the statement. The loyalty he had bought and paid for over the years was crumbling under the weight of federal indictments. But Daniel remained silent, knowing that a seasoned defense team could still dismantle circumstantial links if the primary conspiracy could not be tied directly to his personal authorization.
Suddenly, the heavy metal door of the interrogation room swung open, and an investigator stepped inside, placing a secondary tablet on the table right in front of Daniel.
"We just decrypted the cloud backup from Arthur Vance’s personal tablet," the investigator announced quietly. "There's an audio recording dated three days before Sarah's death. It features your voice instructing the head mechanic to ensure the failure looks like driver error."
Daniel stared down at the tablet screen, where the audio waveform pulsed brightly in green and red. The color drained entirely from his face, leaving him looking hollow and defeated.
"You still don't understand how this family survives," Daniel whispered hoarsely, looking up with a dead, terrifying smile. "Stopping me doesn't end what's already in motion."
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Before Hayes could ask what he meant, the precinct’s emergency power grid suddenly failed, plunging the entire building into sudden, pitch-black darkness.
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