Chapter 6 - The Lie at the Gate
The red and blue lights of two Seattle Police cruisers painted the rain-slicked stonework of the Vance mansion in violent strokes of color.
Before I could take another step toward Ricardo, Adrian sprinted between his brother and the patio steps. With a sickening thud, Adrian drove his shoulder into Ricardo’s ribs, knocking the wind out of him and sending the fireplace poker clattering into the bushes.
"Officers! Over here!" Celeste screamed, her voice instantly transforming into the terrified, trembling soprano of a victim. Tears—real or practiced—streamed down her face mixed with rain. "Thank God you're here! The nanny we fired tonight broke down our gate and tried to abduct my stepdaughter!"
Four uniformed officers drew their tasers, their boots pounding across the gravel.
"Drop what's in your hands! Everyone freeze!" the lead sergeant barked, his flashlight blinding me as I shielded Vianey’s eyes against my shoulder.
"She's not kidnapping me!" Vianey screamed, twisting in my arms to look at the police. "My Uncle Adrian locked me in my room! Celeste tried to poison my dad!"
"You see what she's done to the child's head?" Adrian panted, kneeling beside Ricardo on the patio as if he were helping him up, while subtly pressing his forearm against Ricardo’s throat to keep him disoriented. "My brother fell down the patio steps trying to stop her! My brother has a concussion—he needs paramedics immediately!"
"Get off me... Adrian..." Ricardo choked out, blood dripping from his temple into his eyes, making him look dazed and unstable under the harsh glare of the police floodlights.
"Ma'am, put the child down slowly and step away from her," the female officer ordered, her hand on her holster as she approached me.
"Officer, look at my car," Mara’s calm, razor-sharp voice cut through the chaos. She walked forward with her hands held comfortably in plain sight, holding her Washington State Bar ID badge between two fingers. "I am Mara Chen, legal counsel for Elena Rostova. I am the one who called 911 twenty-two minutes ago to report child endangerment and an active poisoning attempt at this address."
The sergeant frowned, glancing between the smashed gate, the bleeding billionaire on the patio, and the seven-year-old girl clinging to my neck like her life depended on it.
"If you called 911," the sergeant said, "why did you ram a fifty-thousand-dollar security gate?"
"Because the child called us from a hidden phone inside that treehouse while those two were drugging her father's Scotch inside the study," I said clearly. "Walk into the study right now, Sergeant. Look at the crystal decanter on the mahogany bar and the shattered glass by the fireplace. Run a toxicology screen on the liquid on the rug."
Celeste’s breath hitched. Just for a second, her eyes darted toward the open French doors of the study.
I didn't know that the man in the grey raincoat had already slipped back inside the study thirty seconds ago while everyone was watching the driveway.
When the sergeant motioned for his partner to check the study, the young officer walked inside, spent forty seconds looking around, and stepped back out onto the porch.
"Sarge," the officer called out, shaking his head. "The bar is completely clean. There's no broken glass and no decanter in here."
Adrian stood up slowly, wiping the rain from his face as a cold, victorious look settled in his eyes.
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"Like I said, Sergeant," Adrian murmured. "The woman is delusional. We fired her at six o'clock for stealing a forty-thousand-dollar sapphire necklace. And if you check the trunk of that lawyer's car or Elena's pockets, I bet she hasn't gone far without more of our property."
"Put the girl down, Ms. Rostova," the sergeant said, stepping forward with open handcuffs. "You're being detained for criminal trespass and attempted custodial interference."
