Chapter 4 - The Interrogation in the Dark
The basement of the Bennett estate was not a damp cellar; it was a reinforced concrete vault, designed as a severe-weather safe room with thick steel doors, independent air filtration, and no windows.
It was also where Arthur kept his most sensitive architectural archives—and tonight, it served as an interrogation chamber.
At 9:45 PM, the heavy steel door slammed open.
Marcus Vance and two of his operatives marched Dr. Julian Voss down the concrete stairs. The esteemed cardiologist looked disheveled, his silver-rimmed glasses crooked, his expensive silk tie loosened around his collar.
“This is an outrage!” Voss protested, stumbling as Marcus shoved him into a heavy leather armchair in the center of the room. “I am a respected member of the board of regents at North River! I will have you arrested for kidnapping!”
Arthur sat across from him at a steel drafting table. A single overhead lamp cast a harsh, glaring light downward.
Arthur didn't stand up. He simply stared at the doctor with a gaze so devoid of human warmth that Voss actually choked on his own words.
“You killed my wife,” Arthur said quietly.
Voss swallowed hard, forcing a tight, nervous smile. “Arthur... you’re grieving. The stress of Matthew’s condition is making you delusional. Let me examine him—I have an updated stabilization protocol—”
Arthur stood up so fast his chair crashed backward onto the concrete floor.
Before Voss could blink, Arthur crossed the room in two strides, grabbed the doctor by his silk lapels, and slammed him against the concrete wall with enough force to rattle the medical instruments in Voss’s coat pockets.
“Don't you ever say my son’s name,” Arthur whispered, his voice trembling with a rage that shook his entire frame. “Ten years ago. Eleanor’s cake. The cardiac glycoside compounds. You murdered her for the North River land grant.”
Voss’s eyes darted wildly. He looked at Marcus, then back at Arthur. Seeing the absolute void of mercy in the billionaire’s eyes, the doctor’s forced composure completely shattered.
“She... she wouldn't cooperate!” Voss gasped, his breath hitching against Arthur’s grip. “She was going to give the land to the city! Do you know how many millions of dollars in federal research grants we would have lost? The hospital board needed that expansion! I merely... accelerated a natural baseline weakness.”
Arthur’s grip tightened until his knuckles turned white. “And Matthew? What did my son do to you?”
“He was... curious,” Voss wheezed, a pathetic, desperate grin twisting his lips. “He found the old pharmacy logs in my desk at the clinic last month. He was going to go to the authorities. So... I adjusted his regimen. A slow, untraceable systemic failure. Just like his mother. In two weeks, his heart would have stopped naturally, and the Bennett family tragedy would have been complete.”
The confession hung in the air, echoing off the concrete walls.
Marcus Vance stepped forward, his hand resting on his sidearm. “Shall I dispose of him, Mr. Bennett? Deep woods outside Austin? No one will ever find him.”
May you like
Arthur looked at Voss—the man who had stolen his wife, poisoned his son, and smiled in his face at charity galas for a decade.
“No,” Arthur said, his voice turning ice-cold. “Disposal is too easy. We are going to use his own medicine.”
