Chapter 7 - The Arrival
Before Victoria could speak, the glass double doors at the front of the mansion were pushed open.
A gust of wet, cold autumn wind swept into the warm foyer, carrying the smell of damp earth and pine needles, causing the flames of the chandelier bulbs to flicker dramatically.
Three men stepped into the hall.
They were dressed in heavy grey trench coats, wet with rain, their boots leaving muddy, dark tracks across the pristine white marble. The man in the lead was mid-forties, short-cut grey hair, carrying a leather briefcase and wearing a golden badge pinned to his inner lapel.
Detective Miller of the State Homicide Division.
"Richard Sterling?" Miller called out, his eyes sweeping over the scene—the fallen cane, the scattered bank documents on the floor, and the pale woman standing frozen in her black leather dress.
"Detective," Richard said, stepping forward and extending his hand, offering the silver digital recorder to the officer. "She just confessed to the murder of my wife."
Miller took the recorder, pressing the playback button for a brief five seconds. Victoria's hysterical voice echoed out of the small speaker: "...I put the drops in Sarah's tea every night for two weeks! I did it for us!"
Miller stopped the recording, nodding slowly to the two officers standing behind him. "Victoria Sterling, you are under arrest for the first-degree murder of Sarah Sterling."
The two officers stepped forward, pulling steel handcuffs from their belts.
Victoria didn't fight them. She didn't scream or run. Her legs seemed to lose all their strength, her thigh-high leather boots sliding out from under her as she collapsed onto her knees on the cold marble floor, right beside the scattered bank statements showing Julian Vance's betrayals.
As the officers pulled her hands behind her back, clicking the cold steel cuffs around her wrists, Victoria looked up at Richard.
"Richard... please..." she whimpered, tears finally spilling over her lashes, ruining her dark eye makeup. "He made me do it... Julian made me..."
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Richard looked down at her with a face carved from stone.
"Julian was arrested at the border an hour ago, Victoria," Richard said quietly. "He gave the federal agents your name fifteen minutes after they pulled him over."
