Chapter 10: The Interrogation
Vance didn't flinch. He kept his hand resting casually near his holster, his eyes locked onto Sterling’s face. “What are you doing in my station after hours, Sterling? This is an active operational zone.”
Sterling smiled, though his eyes remained as cold and flat as winter ice. “This is a municipal facility, Commander. I have full jurisdiction over all department property. Including the personnel currently resting in your back office.”
“Maya stays where she is,” Vance said, stepping forward until he was just six feet away from the younger man.
“Maya is a minor, Vance, and her legal guardian—her aunt—has already signed the protective custody transfer forms,” Sterling said, pulling a folded white document from his breast pocket and holding it up between two fingers. “Child services is outside right now. They’re taking her to a secure facility downtown until the investigation into Captain Miller’s disappearance is concluded.”
“Disappearance?” Vance’s voice dropped into a dangerous growl. “You mean murder, Sterling. Your name is on the zoning audit found in Miller’s kitchen. You and the real estate board cleared that building while my men were still humping hose inside.”
Sterling’s smile didn’t falter, but the skin around his eyes tightened imperceptibly. He took a slow step forward, lowering his voice so it wouldn't carry across the open bay.
“Tom Miller was a good firefighter who didn’t know when to stay in his lane,” Sterling said softly, his tone dripping with casual menace. “He went rogue, Vance. He stole departmental property—that helmet you’ve got locked in the back—and he tried to blackmail the city. He died because he didn't know how to follow a simple order.”
“He was my brother,” Vance said, his hand tightening around the grip of his pistol.
May you like
“And you’re five years from a comfortable pension, a gold watch, and a house in Florida,” Sterling replied, tilting his head. “Don't throw thirty years of service away over a dead man and a ten-year-old kid who doesn't even know what her father was mixed up in. Hand over the binder, Vance. Give me the files from the house, and I’ll make sure Maya goes to live with her aunt in Ohio, completely untouched by any of this unpleasantness.”
Vance stared at him, feeling the immense weight of the choice pressing down on his shoulders. He could take the deal, protect his pension, and walk away into a quiet retirement. Or he could draw the line right here on the concrete floor of Station Four.
