Chapter 5 - Caleb Cracks
Inside the interrogation room of the Precinct 4 Police Station, Caleb Rourke looked like a broken man.
He was still wearing his rumpled, stained suit from the baby shower. His hair was greasy, his eyes bloodshot, and his wrists showed light red marks from the handcuffs.
Across the metal table sat Detective Sterling and District Attorney Evelyn Reed.
"Caleb," D.A. Reed said, opening a blue folder. "Your mother was re-arrested two hours ago at the hospital for violating a restraining order and harassing the victim. Your sister's phone was seized, providing us with even more evidence of premeditated intimidation."
Caleb put his head in his hands and groaned. "My mother... she told me Maya wouldn't press charges! She said Maya was soft! She said her father's estate wouldn't dare create a public scandal!"
"Your mother lied to you," Detective Sterling said, leaning forward. "Maya's legal team just handed us six months of bank statements. They show that you used a keylogger program installed on Maya's personal laptop to steal her trust fund access codes."
Caleb froze. His head snapped up. "Keylogger? I... I didn't know it was illegal! It was our joint home computer!"
"Installing spyware to access a third-party protected trust is a federal cybercrime, Mr. Rourke," D.A. Reed stated coldly. "Right now, you are looking at fifteen years in state prison. But your mother is claiming that you were the mastermind behind the entire theft."
"What?!" Caleb shouted, slamming his hands onto the table. "She said that?!"
"She told her court-appointed attorney that you stole the money to cover your own secret gambling debts, and that she merely held the envelope to protect it from you," D.A. Reed lied smoothly, playing on Caleb's deep-seated insecurity.
Caleb's face turned white, then bright red with fury. "That lying snake! It was all her idea! She was the one drowning in debt! She threatened to disown me if I didn't steal the $23,000 from Maya's trust!"
"If you want to survive this, Caleb," D.A. Reed said, pushing a blank pad of paper and a pen toward him, "you need to write down every single thing your mother forced you to do. Every forged signature, every unauthorized withdrawal, every hidden account."
Caleb snatched the pen without hesitation. "I'll give you everything. I'll tell you about the offshore account in the Caymans she opened using my father's old social security number. Just keep me out of state prison!"
In the observation room behind the two-way mirror, Marcus Vance stood watching Caleb scribble frantically on the notepad.
Marcus pulled out his cell phone and called me.
May you like
"Maya," Marcus whispered into the phone. "Caleb just broke. He’s signing a full confession that completely implicates Diane in a federal tax evasion and wire fraud scheme."
"Good," I replied from my hospital bed, staring out the window at the city skyline. "Make sure the court uses his confession to freeze every single dollar she tried to hide."
