Page 32 of Hacker Betrayed

“Fine.” Felicity leveled the gun right at my head. Her hand didn’t even waver as she moved her finger to the trigger. I had to move fast, or I wasn’t going to make it out alive.

CHAPTER11

Paxton

“You’ve kept my client locked in this interrogation room for an hour. I bet I’ll hear him ask for a phone call when I review the audio tape of this room. You can’t say you didn’t detain him, because you drove him down here. Now let’s get started.”

Officer Fredricks sat in the chair across from my sister. He flipped open the folder and pulled out the fingerprint photo again. He pushed the incriminating evidence across the table. “I would like your client to explain how his fingerprints ended up on the victim’s table.”

Cara tapped her red fingernail on the table. “Interesting.” Cara pulled a photo out of her bag and slid it across the table. “Want to explain why the table is different in this photo? I can. That is not Tabitha’s table. I don’t see a victim in the photo, so how does fingerprints on a table have anything to do with the crime?”

The young officer’s brows drew together. “Ms. Renolds, this is from the victim's apartment, and your brother's fingerprints are the only ones inside the place. Now I would like for him to tell me how they got on the table.”

My sister slammed her hands against the table, and the two men flinched. “Well, my fingerprints are on this table. Do you plan to call me in when someone is murdered in here and my fingerprints show up during the investigation? I already explained that is not the victim’s table.”

While I waited in the room earlier for my sister to show, I pondered how the hell someone stole my prints. The only places I went to were the club, work, and my house. Mia’s explanation of someone lifting them bothered me. I couldn’t think of a person who would only come after me.

For a while, I worried my sister wouldn’t show up to defend me. Cara was always annoyingly early. The second she found out one of us needed her, she would drop everything and run to our aid. She walked out on her date two months prior because I asked her a couple of questions about a service contract. The answer could have waited, but she rushed over. Except for today. I sat in the cold room and stared at the analog clock on the wall and waited. Higgins had come in and tried to ask me questions. Played up the fact we’d known each other for years. I asked for a phone call, and his lips went flat.

As each minute passed, I thought my sister wouldn’t show up, or that Mia didn’t call her. When Cara finally stepped into the room, I opened my mouth, and she quickly shook her head. With the added glare, I knew not to say a word.

“We have a video of your client with the victim an hour before her death,” Officer Fredricks stated with a smug smile. He’d rambled on about Mia being wrong, and how when his tech proved the video was real, he wouldn’t need any more evidence to send me away for years. He went on to tell me the Ellisons needed to be in jail. The conversation I had with Donovan in my study came to mind the more the police complained about my adoptive father and stepbrother. With everything going on with Mia, I hadn’t bothered to follow up or make a call to my siblings.

I still was stuck on who framed me. To retrieve my prints, the person had to be in my inner circle. The same person had to know about Mia. Neither Ruben nor Javion knew Mia existed. I hadn’t talked to my brother in a few years, and my conversations with Ruben were completely restricted to business. Nora was on a meditation retreat for the past two months, so I hadn’t had to field a call about when I planned to settle down. Out of my four siblings and my two stepsiblings, Nora thought I would marry first.

The second I met Mia, I could picture her as my wife. The plan I formulated in my mind was to wear her down until she said yes. Except now she’ll hate me when the truth behind her friend's death comes out. Someone was after me and used her friend to frame me. They’d kidnapped her son. Jesus, they shot her with a dart. But I still didn’t know why.

Cara’s voice pulled me out of my head. “You think the deepfake will stand in a court of law?” She didn’t wait for them to answer. “My brother has an alibi for the time the supposed lunch happened. Mia said you asked where my brother was at six p.m., but from the independent research done on this case, the murder happened at five p.m.” Cara’s voice held an edge. Outside the courtroom, she knitted baby blankets and sold them on Etsy. The woman had around six rescue cats and each had a knitted sweater—her career drove her, just like my brothers and I. I’m not sure if she ever broke the law in her life, a sterling record which would help her on her path to becoming the attorney general.

“This case will finally take down one of the Ellisons and prove Blackwood Mercenary is a fraud. Every person in this precinct knows Brock and Antonio are as corrupt as they come.” Officer Fredricks tossed a folder on the table and flipped to the coroner’s report. The top right corner displayed the time of death. My eyes scanned over the sheet of paper. Mia had the tech and weapon stuff down, but I understood medical reports. None of the other information contradicted the time of death. What caught my eye was the name at the bottom of the report. “You can see right here the coroner reported the correct information.”

I pointed to the name at the bottom, and the officer tried to pull the sheet back, but I needed nothing else to know who was behind everything. My damn partner and mentor. He had a brother who worked as a coroner in Texas. The name signed at the bottom of the sheet was his. Dr. Cliff mentored me through my residence. He’d told me the practice he ran was about to close. After a careful review of his books and a new business plan, I bought half the practice, and we turned the place into a gold mine. The Ellison family had created a trust fund for me. I used a portion of the money to buy into the practice. Since then, I have had more money than I could see possibly to spend.

Ruben and I spoke about business. He was never around much growing up. The hedge fund company he ran kept him busy. I think he also had women around the world, but I didn’t push the issue because Nora didn’t want to discuss the woman I caught Ruben with once. For life advice, Dr. Cliff had lent me an ear, and I considered him family. I told him about Mia and how she was everything to me. Fuck. I’d also told him we planned to bring her into the club to investigate.

“I think I’ve seen enough falsified records for today. If you want to speak to my client again, you call me first. Your chief wants to see you both in his office, by the way. For the record, your deputy chief is no longer employed. Maybe next time, follow the evidence, and you won’t make fools out of yourselves.” My sister turned toward Detective Higgins. “Also for the record, I don’t think you believed this shit. Chief already explained how this guy pulled a couple of strings on the case. He won’t have a job after today, I bet, and neither will the coroner.” My sister’s voice was stony.

“Like fuck you’re taking him out of here.” Officer Fredricks jumped up from his chair, and it flew back and hit the wall. “He killed Tabitha. I know he did.”

“Little advice, Officer. Your brother-in-law, the coroner, already admitted to the false claims. It’s already come out how you’re married to the coroner’s sister-in-law. She had him to falsify the information. And Dr. Cliff is in the room next door because when you walked out of my brother’s practice with him, Dr. Cliff and his wife pulled a gun on Mia.”

“What?” How the hell was my sister so calm?

“She’s fine and waiting for you out front. I needed to see if we could get any more information out of these two.”

My sister could handle the rest of whatever she needed. The officer argued with my sister as I rushed out the door and down the hall. I caught sight of Mia through the police door window. She wasn’t alone. My brothers waited next to her, along with everyone from Blackwood Mercenary. Hell, there were people I didn’t even recognize as I walked through the door.

Mia ran across the small room and leaped into my arms. I caught her midair as she wrapped herself around me like a monkey. “You came.”

“Of course, I did. Sorry I was late, but I got a little tied up,” she giggled.

“You should hate me. I’m the reason your friend is dead.”

She pulled back and narrowed her eyes. “You can’t control crazy. Didn’t you make a promise to take me to the club?”

* * *

Mia's fingerstwined with mine as we walked through the club toward the private rooms. Tonight, the only eyes I wanted on her were mine. “You didn’t tell me the club was doing an eighties night. I’m not dressed correctly.”

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