Chapter 9 - The Miami Tarmac
The Gulfstream jet touched down on the rain-slick runway of Miami International Airport at dawn. The sky was a bruised shade of purple, clouds hanging heavy and low over the private aviation terminal.
A white twin-engine Cessna sat on the auxiliary tarmac, its engines whining as ground crew prepared the boarding stairs.
Inside the private hangar lounge, Dr. Harrison Vance stood pacing by the panoramic glass window, a leather duffel bag strapped across his shoulder and a burner phone pressed to his ear.
"I don't care about the attorney fees!" Harrison hissed into the phone. "Victoria was caught on 4K video! The feds are issuing freeze orders on every account connected to Vance Holdings! If I don't clear Bahamian airspace by eight o'clock, Richard Sterling will have me buried in a concrete foundation!"
"He won't have to," a voice spoke from behind him.
Harrison spun around.
Richard stood in the open doorway of the hangar lounge, flanked by two armed federal marshals and Marcus. Richard wore a dark wool overcoat, his eyes cold, hollow, and utterly unforgiving.
Harrison dropped the burner phone; it clattered across the linoleum floor. "Richard... listen to me. Whatever Arthur told you, he's lying. He was drowning in debt! He came to me with a plan... I was just writing prescriptions! I didn't know he was going to induce labor early!"
Richard walked forward slowly, each step echoing like a gavel in a courtroom.
He didn't yell. He didn't throw a punch. The restraint in his posture was far more terrifying than rage.
"You took an oath to protect life," Richard said softly, stopping six inches from the trembling doctor. "You stood at Eleanor's funeral and shook my hand. You looked me in the eye while my wife was in a wooden box and told me she didn't suffer."
"I had no choice!" Harrison cried out, backing against the glass wall. "Arthur had photos of my offshore accounts! He threatened to revoke my medical license and put me in prison for insurance fraud! I only gave him the vials! Victoria was the one who put them in Eleanor’s morning herbal tea! Victoria did it!"
Richard closed his eyes for a split second.
Victoria.
It wasn't just corporate greed. Victoria had poisoned Eleanor with her own hands, smiled at her funeral, and then stepped into her home to raise her daughter in a dark closet.
Richard opened his eyes, staring down at the pathetic man cowering against the glass.
"Officer," Richard said quietly to the federal marshal. "Take him. Add first-degree murder conspiracy to the indictment."
As the marshals pinned Harrison against the glass and clicked the steel cuffs around his wrists, Richard turned back toward the runway.
May you like
His phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Mrs. Gable.
"Mr. Sterling," the nanny’s voice broke with panic over the speaker. "You need to come home right now! There are three men in black suits at the security gate with a court order! They claim Victoria’s appellate attorneys got an emergency ex-parte child custody injunction signed by Judge Thornton!"
