Chapter 10 - The Interrogation Room
The federal holding facility smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and stale coffee. The harsh fluorescent lights overhead flickered rhythmically, casting a sterile glare over the metal interrogation table bolted to the center of the concrete-walled room. Elena sat rigidly in the metal chair on one side of the table, her hands cuffed loosely not by police restraint, but by her own sheer exhaustion as she stared across at her husband.
Julian sat on the opposite side of the table in a standard orange jumpsuit, his head bowed, his hands locked together on the cold metal surface. The confident, wealthy executive who had hosted the dinner party just hours earlier was completely gone, replaced by a broken, shivering man who looked ten years older.
"You took her," Elena said, her voice dangerously quiet, cutting through the humming of the overhead vent. "You and your associates took my little girl."
Julian slowly raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, and a dark bruise was forming along his jawline—evidence of how poorly his intake processing had gone in the general holding cells. He looked at Elena, but there was no defiance left in his expression, only a profound, hollow terror.
"I didn't order them to take Lily, Elena," Julian whispered hoarsely, his voice cracking. "I swear to God, I never wanted her involved in this."
"Don't lie to me!" Elena slammed both palms down onto the metal table, making Julian flinch violently. "Your partner—the scarred man who broke into our house tonight—he told me you made promises you couldn't keep. He took Lily from her bedroom because you left the ledger behind!"
Julian squeezed his eyes shut, a single tear escaping and tracking down his stubbled cheek.
"His name is Viktor," Julian muttered, shaking his head slowly. "And he's not just a business partner, Elena. He's the man who financed the entire operation behind the Heritage Foundation. When I tried to back out of the money laundering last month... they threatened to kill you and Lily. The embezzlement wasn't my idea; I was just their puppet from the very beginning."
Elena stared at him, her chest heaving with fury and disbelief. "And you thought the best way to protect us was to sit at our dinner table, sipping fine wine, while your partners planned to murder my father and steal our entire life?"
"I was trying to buy enough time to get us out of the country," Julian pleaded, his voice rising in desperate panic as he leaned across the table toward her. "I had passports, I had cash hidden in the safe... but Viktor found out. He knew you found the medical notes in my journal. He took Lily to force you to hand over the original hard drives with the encryption keys."
"Where is she, Julian?" Elena demanded, leaning forward until her face was inches from his, her eyes blazing with absolute fury. "Where is Viktor taking her?"
Julian opened his mouth to answer, but before a single word could escape, the heavy steel door of the interrogation room burst open with a loud, metallic bang.
Marcus Vance rushed into the room, holding a ringing secure tablet in his hand, his face pale and urgent.
"Mrs. Vance, you need to look at this right now," Marcus said, spinning the tablet around to face her. "An anonymous video file was just uploaded to our secure precinct server from an untraceable IP address."
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Elena looked down at the screen, and her breath caught permanently in her throat. The video showed Lily sitting blindfolded and crying in the back of a moving car, while a scarred hand held a pocket watch swinging slowly back and forth right in front of her face.
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