Chapter 5 - The Police at the Door
Darren staggered backward until his spine hit the glass-framed law diplomas hanging on the wall. “No... no, no! I was just... I was just organizing her doses! I was helping her!”
“You were killing her,” I said, tears finally welling in my eyes as the phantom pain of losing my grandmother washed over me again.
“You were broke. Your gambling debts were mounting, the bank was threatening to foreclose on your current house, and you knew Grandma’s life insurance policy had a quick payout. You couldn't wait for her kidneys to fail naturally, could you?”
“You can’t prove that!” Darren shrieked, his voice turning high-pitched and hysterical. “It’s a setup! You fabricated those lab reports! You modified the video! Mom, tell them! Tell them I would never do that!”
My mother stood up slowly from her chair. She looked at Darren—the son she had spent thirty years defending, the son she had allowed to bully the rest of the family under the guise of 'family tradition.'
Tears ran down her aged cheeks, but her eyes were no longer blind.
“Mom... please!” Darren begged, reaching out to her. “You know me!”
“I don’t know you at all,” Mom whispered, her voice trembling with a profound, soul-shattering grief. She turned her back on him and walked over to sit beside me, taking my hand in hers and holding it tight.
Darren looked around the room, finding only cold, unyielding faces staring back at him.
“You think you won?” Darren sneered, trying to rally a final wave of bravado. “You think a piece of paper and a fake lab test can destroy me? I’m leaving. And if any of you try to enforce that fake debt, I’ll drag this estate through probate court for the next ten years! You won’t see a dime of her money, Leah!”
Darren turned and grabbed the brass handle of the heavy conference room door, yanking it open.
Standing directly on the other side of the threshold were two uniformed officers from the County Sheriff’s Department and a plainclothes detective holding a leather badge.
“Darren Caldwell?” Detective Miller asked calmly.
Darren froze, his hand glued to the doorknob. “What... what is this?”
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“I have a warrant for your arrest,” Detective Miller announced, stepping into the doorway. “Charge: Attempted murder of an elderly person, grand larceny, and corporate financial fraud.”
Detective Miller looked over Darren’s shoulder at me and nodded slightly. “Thank you for transmitting the audio stream, Ms. Caldwell. We have everything we need.”
