Chapter 4 - THE INTERROGATION ROOM SHOWDOWNAt the county precinct, Arthur and Eleanor sat in separate interrogation rooms, confident that their wealth and slick defense attorneys would bail them out within twenty-four hours. They had underestimated Detective Vance's relentless drive.
In Room A, Arthur sat slouching in a metal chair, tapping his fingers nervously. His smug, arrogant demeanor cracked the moment Detective Vance slammed the heavy manila folder onto the steel table, sliding a high-resolution still frame across the surface.
It was the image of him holding the glowing red iron bar over my pregnant belly.
"Recognize this, Arthur?" Vance asked, his voice low and icy. "This is Exhibit A in your upcoming capital murder trial. Along with your mother's voice on the audio recording instructing you on how to make sure neither your wife nor your child breathes another breath."
Arthur turned pale, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "It... it was an accident. She was unstable! She tried to harm herself!"
"Self-inflicted cigarette burns on her back and abdomen? Self-inflicted red-hot iron trauma?" Vance leaned in close. "Your neighbor captured every second of audio. And by the way, your mother in the next room is already pointing the finger directly at you."
In Room B, Eleanor was experiencing a very different reality.
Faced with the audio of her telling Arthur, 'If she dies, the house, the money, and the insurance go to you,' Eleanor's facade of polite suburban matriarch completely dissolved. Spitting pure venom, she turned on her own son.
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"He did it! It was all Arthur's obsession!" Eleanor shrieked at the two detectives across the table, her fingernails clawing at the wooden armrests. "He brought the woman into our lives! He told me if I didn't help him manage her, he’d cut me out of the will! I was just trying to keep my family together!"
Within two hours, their united front completely crumbled, each monster desperately trying to throw the other under the bus to save themselves from a lifetime behind bars.
