Chapter 8 - The Midnight PleaTwo weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin, my private phone rang at midnight.
It was a secure, recorded line from the King County Detention Center. I answered, putting it on speaker as I sat in the study of our family’s estate.
"Adrian..." a broken, raspy voice whispered through the speaker. It was Victor. "Please... you have to listen to me."
"I am listening, Victor," I said, my voice completely flat and cold.
"The prosecutors are offering a plea deal," he wept, his voice shaking with a raw, desperate panic. "They say if I plead guilty to the federal charges, they’ll drop the state kidnapping charges. I’ll only have to serve twelve years instead of life. But they need your approval, Adrian. They need your sister to sign the agreement. Please. Talk to Elena. Tell her I’m sorry. I was stupid. I was under stress. I’ll do whatever she wants. Just don't let them lock me up forever."
"You stood over my sister while she hung from a ceiling beam, Victor," I said, my voice dropping into a register that made him gasp on the other end. "You laughed while she suffocated. You told me she belonged to you. Now, you belong to the federal prison system. And I’m going to make sure the prosecutor demands the absolute maximum sentence without parole."
"Adrian, please!" he screamed, his voice cracking with a terrifying, primal panic. "My mother... she’s seventy! She won't survive five years in that block! Have some mercy!"
May you like
"Mercy is for the innocent, Victor," I whispered, and pressed the red button on my screen.
The line went dead, leaving nothing but the quiet, beautiful hum of the winter night. I looked out the window at the garden, feeling the absolute peace of a job completely finished. The monster was finally broken, and the book was closed.
