Chapter 2 - The Evidence Locker
Before taking Lily to the regional hospital where the local police couldn't tamper with the medical report, we made a stop at a secure medical facility thirty miles outside Pine Crest.
Pine Crest was a town built on Sterling money. The local police chief, Chief Miller, owed his mortgage to Richard Sterling Sr.’s real estate firm. The local judge played golf with Eleanor Sterling every Sunday. If I took Lily to the Pine Crest ER, her medical records would mysteriously vanish by morning, replaced by a file claiming she fell down the stairs.
I brought her to Dr. Marcus Reed, an old military surgeon who owed me his life from a mission in Eastern Europe twenty years ago. Marcus locked the clinic doors the moment we arrived.
"My God, Arthur," Marcus muttered, adjusting his glasses as he examined Lily under the harsh fluorescent lights. "Who did this?"
"Her husband," I said, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed, watching every movement of the examination.
Marcus spent two hours meticulously documenting every single injury. He took high-resolution photography of the throat-shaped bruising around her neck, the hairline fracture on her left cheekbone, and the defensive contusions along her forearms. He logged her cracked phone, which was still holding the crucial audio recording of the entire assault—including Richard’s voice mocking her as he struck her.
"This isn't just domestic battery, Arthur," Marcus said, pulling me aside into his private office while a nurse comforted Lily with tea. "The strangulation marks indicate deliberate restriction of airway. In this state, that’s aggravated assault with intent to commit severe bodily harm. It’s a felony carrying up to twenty years."
"In a normal court, yes," I replied, pulling up a secure tablet connected to my Phoenix network. "But in Pine Crest, Richard Sterling thinks he owns the courtroom."
"Then change the venue," Marcus said simply.
"I’m doing better than that," I said, tapping the screen to initiate a cloud transfer of the entire medical file and audio recording directly to the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District. "I'm changing the jurisdiction entirely. The Sterlings operate across state lines through offshore tax havens. The second federal charges are dropped on them, local corrupt cops won't be able to touch this case."
My phone vibrated. It was a text message from an unknown number.
May you like
Arthur, bring Lily back to the house right now and we won't press charges for trespass and assault on my mother. Let's settle this like gentlemen. — Richard.
I looked at the message, a dark, cold smile touching my lips. I didn't reply. I didn't need to. The trap was already set.
