Chapter 4 - The Assistant's Confession
In the sterile basement of the CPD 1st District precinct, Harriet Willis sat hunched over a metal table, shivering in a coarse gray fleece. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from hours of non-stop weeping. Across from her sat Detective Nathan Vance and Julian Harrington.
""I didn't know it was poison!"" Harriet screamed for the tenth time, clutching her temples. ""She told me it was a natural holistic fertility tincture! She swore it would cause mild cramping so Lily would seek bed rest and Marcus would realize how delicate she was! She said it was harmless!""
""Harriet,"" Julian said, his voice smooth but cutting like a scalpel. ""The lab found aconitine. It stops the human heart in minutes. You accepted twenty thousand dollars into an offshore escrow account last Tuesday, and another ten thousand in cash. That is conspiracy to commit aggravated first-degree murder. In Illinois, if a pregnant woman or an unborn child dies during a felony, that carries life without parole.""
Harriet broke down completely, her forehead slamming against the stainless-steel table. ""I was drowning in credit card debt! My gallery project failed, and Cassandra found out. She offered to clear my loans. She said she was Marcus's real soulmate and that Lily was trapping him with the pregnancy. She made it sound so simple... just three drops from the amber vial into Lily's afternoon tea.""
""Where is the amber vial now?"" Nathan demanded.
""Cassandra took it back immediately after the party,"" Harriet sobbed. ""She told me to leave town for two weeks until things blew over. She said if I ever mentioned her name, she would tell the police that I stole the Harrington family jewelry and poisoned Lily out of jealousy. She recorded me taking the money!""
Julian leaned back, exchanging a grim look with the detective. ""She planned Harriet’s fall as her backup insurance. A classic patsy maneuver.""
""Do you have anything in writing, Harriet?"" Nathan asked. ""Texts? Emails? Voicemails?""
""She was so careful,"" Harriet sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. ""She only used encrypted apps that auto-deleted messages after twenty-four hours. But... wait. The burner phone she gave me. She used a custom SIM registered to a shell company called 'Apex Holdings.' She had me take pictures of Lily’s daily schedule and text them to that number.""
Julian pulled out his iPad and began typing rapidly. ""Apex Holdings. I’ll run it through our corporate intelligence registry."" Within seconds, Julian’s eyes lit up. ""Apex Holdings is a Delaware LLC formed five months ago. The registered agent is a dummy law firm, but the primary funding came from an offshore account in the Cayman Islands... owned by Cassandra Morgan’s maternal trust.""
""That connects her money directly to the burner phone,"" Nathan noted with satisfaction. ""It’s enough for a search warrant, but we need more to guarantee an attempted murder conviction. A sharp defense attorney could claim Cassandra funded Harriet’s business venture and Harriet acted as a lone, jealous actor.""
At that moment, the door to the interrogation room opened. Marcus walked in, his presence commanding instant silence. Harriet cowered back into her metal chair, unable to meet the eyes of the man whose family she had nearly destroyed.
""Marcus... Mr. Harrington... please,"" Harriet whimpered. ""I am so sorry. I swear I never wanted to kill her. I swear to God!""
Marcus stood over her, his expression unreadable. He felt neither pity nor rage toward the broken girl; she was merely an instrument wielded by a far more dangerous hand.
""You want to stay out of a maximum-security prison for the rest of your life, Harriet?"" Marcus asked coldly.
Harriet nodded frantically, tears streaming down her chin. ""Anything. I'll do anything you want.""
""Tomorrow morning, you are going to call Cassandra from this room,"" Marcus instructed. ""You will tell her that you ran out of cash in Indiana, that the police are sniffing around your apartment, and that you need fifty thousand dollars to disappear across the Canadian border. You will tell her you kept the amber vial as leverage.""
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""She’ll kill me,"" Harriet gasped.
""No,"" Marcus replied, leaning in until his shadow swallowed her entirely. ""She will try to buy your silence. And when she opens her checkbook, she will sign her own life sentence.""
