Chapter 7 - The Interrogation
By 8:00 a.m., the gray morning clouds had broken over the Atlantic, giving way to a pale, cold November sun that illuminated the quiet hallways of the Sussex County Detention Center.
I sat in a private observation room behind a two-way mirrored glass, accompanied by Margaret Hayes and Assistant United States Attorney James Vance.
On the other side of the glass sat Derek Caldwell, stripped of his cashmere coat, gold watch, and designer shoes, wearing a standard orange inmate smock that hung loosely over his slumped shoulders.
His hair was uncombed, his eyes were bloodshot and swollen, and his hands shook uncontrollably as he stared down at the metal table bolted to the concrete floor.
Special Agent Miller placed three thick manila folders on the table in front of him with a heavy thud that made Derek jump in his chair.
"Let's make this simple, Derek," Agent Vance spoke through the intercom system into the room. "We have the original forged deed, the IP address traces from the server you used to upload the fraudulent filings, and twenty-eight hours of wiretapped phone conversations between you and our undercover operative in Dover."
Derek buried his face in his cuffed hands, his breathing shallow and rapid.
"I didn't steal the money," Derek whimpered, his voice muffled by his palms. "I owed three million dollars to private lenders in Manhattan from a bad crypto arbitrage fund. They were going to break my legs if I didn't produce the capital by Wednesday. I had no choice!"
"You always had a choice, Mr. Caldwell," Agent Miller countered calmly, opening the first folder. "You chose to forge a signature on a fourteen-million-dollar commercial asset. You chose to load four trucks with two million dollars worth of private property. And you chose to bring Richard Bennett's daughter into a federal conspiracy."
Derek looked up, his expression twisting into a pathetic, desperate snarl.
"Vanessa was the one who pushed it!" he blurted out, his voice rising in panic. "She hated the old man! She told me Richard was hoarding Eleanor's estate and that she deserved every dime right now! She was the one who stole the notary seal from the lawyer's office in Wilmington two months ago!"
Behind the glass, Margaret Hayes scribbled a note on her legal pad and glanced at me with raised eyebrows.
"Charming young man you had for a son-in-law," Margaret whispered dryly. "They haven't been in custody for four hours and they're already competing to see who can confess first."
In the adjacent interrogation room, Vanessa was seated across from a state prosecutor, sobbing hysterically into paper napkins.
She had already signed a voluntary sworn statement admitting that she knew the deed was forged, that she had helped inventory the resort's private art collection for the Dover liquidator, and that she had taken Eleanor's jewelry from the office safe.
She claimed Derek had coerced her through psychological abuse, but the prosecutor quietly pulled out a stack of text messages recovered from her confiscated phone.
One text from Vanessa to Derek, sent three nights before the raid, read: Make sure the movers take the silver service and the antique chandeliers. If the old man has a heart attack when he sees the empty lobby, we get the rest of the life insurance payout by next week.
Agent Vance turned to me in the observation room, his face somber.
"Mr. Bennett, given the severity of the evidence and the direct interstate commerce violations, the Department of Justice is declining any pretrial diversion or plea negotiations that do not include significant federal prison time," Vance stated firmly. "Derek Caldwell is facing a minimum of twelve to fifteen years in federal custody. Vanessa is facing eight to ten years as an active co-conspirator."
I looked at Derek through the one-way glass, watching him weep over his ruined, hollow life.
May you like
Then I looked at the door leading to Vanessa's room, where my own flesh and blood had plotted to leave me destitute, broken, and dead.
"Let justice run its course, Mr. Vance," I said, my voice quiet but entirely steady. "I spent my life protecting people who wanted to work and build. I have nothing left to give to those who only exist to destroy."
