Chapter 5 - Playing the Trap
The silence that fell over the living room was so absolute you could hear the tick of the wall clock in the hallway.
Vanessa froze. The color drained from her face so fast it looked as if she had been struck by lightning. Her arm slipped away from mine.
Colin’s eyes narrowed instantly, his professional composure shattering into sharp, defensive hostility. "What are you talking about, Ethan? What blood panel?"
"Dr. Sarah Jennings," I said, leaning back against the sofa, crossing my legs calmly. "Pediatric toxicologist at Rady Children's Hospital. Yesterday, after I canceled my flight, I didn't drive to Solano Beach. I took Nora straight to Louise’s, where a mobile forensic lab drew her blood. Her Dexmethylphenidate levels were four times the safe adult limit."
Vanessa stumbled backward off the sofa, her hands flying to her mouth. "Ethan... Ethan, that’s crazy! I don't know what you're talking about! Louise must have given her something—"
"Shut up, Vanessa!" Colin barked, stepping between her and me. His hands were trembling slightly as he realized the trap had sprung. "Ethan, this is a misunderstanding. If Nora was exposed to medication, it was an accidental ingestion. You can't make absurd allegations without—"
"Without evidence?" I interrupted, pulling my phone from my pocket and tapping the screen.
The high-definition audio of their midnight conversation at the Coronado house blasted through the living room speakers:
"...I doubled her liquid dose yesterday morning. Her hands were shaking so bad she dropped her cereal bowl. By tomorrow morning, her anxiety will be so high she’ll throw a massive tantrum... In ninety days, the trust liquidates, the funds transfer to the Cayman account, and we drop Ethan like a hot rock..."
Vanessa let out a horrific, strangled shriek, dropping to her knees on the rug.
Colin went wild. He lunged across the glass table, grabbing for my throat. "Give me that phone!"
I stood up, stepped to the side, and smashed my right fist directly into Colin’s jaw with three years of built-up grief and fury behind it.
CRACK!
Colin flew backward over the coffee table, shattering the glass top as he crashed onto the floor, blood sprouting from his split lip. He groaned, clutching his face in agony.
Vanessa tried to scramble toward the front door on her hands and knees.
"Where are you going, Vanessa?" I asked, standing over her. "Don't you want to pack your small brown dropper bottle from the master bathroom vanity?"
Before she could reach the doorknob, the front door was kicked wide open.
"POLICE! DON'T MOVE!"
Four armed San Diego Police officers, flanked by Caleb Price and detectives from the Special Victims Unit, swarmed into the foyer with weapons drawn.
"Get on the ground! Hands behind your head! NOW!"
Vanessa screamed, burying her face into the rug as officers tackled Colin to the floor, pinning his arms behind his back and snapping steel handcuffs around his wrists.
A senior detective walked up to me, holding an evidence bag containing the small brown glass bottle that Caleb’s search team had just secured from the bathroom vanity.
"Ethan Vance?" the detective asked.
"Yes," I replied, breathing heavily as I looked down at Vanessa weeping hysterically on the floor.
"We have the physical evidence, the blood toxicities, the audio recordings, and the financial paper trail," the detective said grimly. "Vanessa Vance and Colin Radford are under arrest for aggravated child abuse, poisoning, real estate fraud, and grand theft conspiracy."
As the officers dragged Colin to his feet, he glared at Vanessa with pure venom. "You stupid bitch! You said he was clueless!"
Vanessa was pulled up by her arms, her makeup smeared with tears, her hair wild. She looked at me, her eyes begging for mercy. "Ethan! Please! He made me do it! Colin forced me! I love you! I love Nora!"
May you like
I looked at the woman who had spent ten months torturing my six-year-old daughter for money.
"Get her out of my house," I said.
