Chapter 3 - The Bitter Diagnostic
While Maya’s fingers flew across the keyboard, tracing the unknown number through a maze of proxy servers in Eastern Europe, William took the small plastic bottle of vitamins from Victoria’s pocket. He dropped three of the translucent capsules into a sterile glass vial and handed them to a waiting courier.
"Take this to Dr. Chen at the forensic lab," William ordered. "I want a full toxicology report on my desk by 8:00 AM. If there is even a trace of arsenic or heavy metals in these pills, we won't need to wait for the midnight deadline to lock Marcus away."
Victoria sat on the leather sofa, her hands resting on her stomach. The baby was quiet now, as if she knew the sanctuary had been reached.
"Why would he do this, Dad?" Victoria asked, her voice cracking. "The house, the life insurance... we have money. My trust fund—"
"That’s exactly why, sweetheart," William said, sitting across from her and taking her hands. "Your trust fund is structured so that if you pass away without a will, the entire principal reverts to your living spouse to care for your children. If Marcus and Sloan can remove you before the baby is born, or ensure the baby doesn't survive the... accident, Marcus inherits forty million dollars outright. If you divorce him, he gets nothing but a standard settlement. His real estate firm is bankrupt, Tori. He’s been using Sloan’s boutique agency to launder money for a local cartel, and the cartel wants their cut by the end of the month."
May you like
Maya suddenly looked up from her monitors, her face grim. "Mr. Sterling, I’ve bypassed the proxy. The texts sent to Victoria’s phone weren't sent from a burner. They were dispatched via an encrypted web-portal registered to an IP address inside the Hammond luxury hotel suite downtown. The billing name on the suite belongs to Sloan Carmichael."
William stood up, his eyes turning to ice. "So they didn't just hire a hitman. They are running the communications themselves. They want to scare you into fleeing, Tori. They want you on the road tomorrow night, isolated, so they can stage a fatal car accident."
