Chapter 12 - The Cell At MCC
The interrogation room on the ninth floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center smelled of industrial disinfectant and stale institutional air.
Sophia Carter sat on the far side of the bolted steel table, wearing an unadorned orange jumpsuit. Her blonde hair, once styled by the most expensive salons on the Gold Coast, hung limp around her shoulders. Her face was hollowed, stripped of makeup, but when the heavy steel door buzzed and swung open, a venomous, triumphant smirk twisted her lips.
"Well, well," Sophia rasped, rattling the chain connecting her handcuffs to the steel hoop in the center of the table. "The happy couple returns from the vineyard. Did you enjoy the vintage, Vincent? Or did it taste a little like ash?"
Vincent remained standing by the door, his broad shoulders squared, radiating an aura of lethal restraint. He didn't look at her face; he looked at her eyes, searching for the slightest shred of humanity and finding only the black, bottomless pit of a parasite whose host had finally severed the vein.
Anna walked to the table, pulling out the steel chair opposite Sophia with a screech that echoed off the cinderblock walls. She sat down, crossing her legs, and placed a single sheet of paper on the metal surface.
"You look thin, Sophia," Anna said with chilling politeness. "I suppose the commissary menu lacks the caviar service you enjoyed on Vincent’s corporate accounts."
"Enjoy your little victory while it lasts, Anna," Sophia hissed, leaning forward as far as the belly chain allowed. "The judge received the Aegis filings this morning. Your precious merger is dead in the water. That fourteen million dollars is mine. Antonio Moretti made sure of it. He knew Vincent was too weak to do what was necessary to secure the family legacy, so he made a deal with my father."
"A deal to assassinate me?" Anna asked, her voice dangerously level.
"A deal to clear the board!" Sophia spat, her voice rising in the small room. "You were never supposed to be on that plane! Vincent was supposed to fly to Aspen alone with me to sign the secondary holding contracts. You showed up unannounced because you wanted to play the dutiful pregnant wife! When the valve blew, I didn't care! I thought God was finally doing me a favor!"
Vincent took two slow, heavy strides toward the table. The sheer physical presence of the man made Sophia flinch, her smirk faltering for a fraction of a second.
"My father is dead, Sophia," Vincent said, his voice dropping into a terrifying, resonant growl. "And his signature on that trust is worth less than the paper it’s printed on."
"You can't void a Swiss trust, Vincent!" Sophia laughed, an ugly, cracked sound. "My lawyers are the best in Zurich! The funds were irrevocably settled before he died!"
"They were settled under Swiss banking laws, yes," Anna interjected, tapping the paper on the table. "Specifically under the Federal Act on Private International Law. But under Article 147, any trust established using the proceeds of active maritime smuggling or state tax fraud is declared ab initio void by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission."
Sophia’s eyes narrowed in sudden, sharp suspicion. "What are you talking about?"
"Your brother Marcus didn't just keep the chemical manifests," Anna explained, leaning in until her face was inches from the wire-mesh glass. "He kept the encrypted communications between your father and Antonio Moretti. Marcus traded the encryption keys to the Department of Justice forty-five minutes ago in exchange for avoiding a transfer to a maximum-security penitentiary in Florence, Colorado."
Sophia’s skin turned the color of damp parchment. "Marcus... he wouldn't."
"He already did," Vincent said coldly. "The Swiss authorities froze the Aegis accounts at noon European time. The fourteen million dollars has been seized by the international asset recovery unit. And the federal prosecutor just filed an superseding indictment against you for conspiracy to commit premeditated murder."
The word hung in the room like a executioner's blade.
"Murder?" Sophia choked out, her voice shrinking into a high, panicked squeak. "No... no, nobody died! Anna survived!"
"Captain Miller didn't," Anna whispered, her eyes turning into dark, merciless stones.
Vincent’s head snapped toward his wife in shock.
"Captain Miller passed away at six o'clock this morning at Rush University Medical Center," Anna stated, each syllable falling like a lead sinker. "The pulmonary fibrosis he suffered from inhaling your burning chemical solvent finally claimed his lungs. Under Illinois state law, if an individual dies as a direct consequence of a felony you committed, you are charged with first-degree felony murder. There is no bail. There is no plea deal. There is only life without the possibility of parole."
Sophia’s breath left her in a ragged, pathetic wail. She scrambled backward in the metal chair, the chains shrieking against the table as she stared at the two people who had once been her protectors, her marks, and her playground.
"Vincent... please..." Sophia sobbed, the tears carving lines through the grime on her cheeks. "You loved me! We were kids together! You can't let them lock me in a cage for the rest of my life! Tell them it was an accident! Vincent!"
Vincent looked down at her, feeling only the profound, clean silence of a man who had finally excised the cancer from his soul.
"I don't know who you are, Sophia," Vincent said quietly. "And neither does the state."
May you like
He reached out, took his wife’s hand in his, and turned toward the steel door.
As the buzzer sounded and the door swung open, Sophia’s shrill, hysterical screams echoed down the concrete hallway behind them, fading into the dark, subterranean depths of the prison.
