CHAPTER 18
“What?…” I grimaced intensely in bewilderment, feeling blood drain from my face. “I…I didn’t stab anyone…”
“How then do you explain the fact that the forensic results show your fingerprints are all over the murder weapon?” She raised a brow, looking at me as if waiting for me to come up with a lie.
“What…what fingerprints are you talking about?” I stared at the blood-stained blade on the table in front of me before looking back at her, completely clueless.
“So you’re going to deny this one too?” She asked, her face crimson with stern rage. “You mentioned earlier you had a little misunderstanding with your husband yesterday, what caused the little misunderstanding?”
I lowered my gaze and shook my head in despair, bitter tears making its way down my cheeks. My heart was clenching painfully in my chest. I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t. It was all too much for me to bear and understand, I might just go crazy. I have been wrongfully accused of a lot of things but not murder.
Whoever that is framing me for Robert’s grandpa’s murder really hated me to the bones. It was as though they had been planning it for years and chose to execute it at a critical time like this. As much as my mind floundered to figure out who it could be, I couldn’t think of anyone capable of doing such a cruel thing to me.
That strange lady in the security footage couldn’t have acted alone. Why did she murder Robert’s grandpa so brutally like that? What did he do to deserve this kind of death?
“Are you suddenly deaf?” The detective lady’s chair screeched noisily against the floor as she rose in fury, pounding a clenched fist on the table that caused me to flinch. “Answer me now! What was the little misunderstanding about?”
“I can’t do this anymore,” I said in a frail defeated voice. “I can’t. I need my attorney…”
“You killed your husband’s grandpa to get back at him for firing you from work and threatening to sell your little worthless properties and apartment,” she thundered harshly, glaring down at me as if she wanted to pounce on me.
Waves after waves of shock slapped me as I stared at her, wondering how it was she was coming up with this false theory. Who was filling her head with all this nonsense?
Even though Robert threatened to sell off things that were very important to me and my family, I never had any intentions of getting back at him. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t in any way.
“No…. no…” I stuttered but realizing it was of no use trying to talk her out of these baseless accusations, I stopped myself.
“Save yourself and everyone in this station the stress by coming clean on your evil act. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll receive a sliver of mercy, and the death penalty hanging over you might be lifted,” she pressed on, her words coming at me like a thousand thorns that cut my skin.
“I need my attorney now…” I refused to let her words sink as I looked up at the wall, screaming at the CCTV camera. As the detective lady pushed on with cruel words and accusations, calling me all sorts of names, I also whipped my head towards the door, screaming. “Please I need my attorney now…this is verbal abuse. You can’t deny me my rights as a citizen of this country…”
She was a bully and I wanted someone to get me away from her. Was this how she treated every other suspect assigned to her in this station, not making an effort to find out if the accusations were true?
Suddenly, as if my wish came true, the door creaked and swung open. A man who looked to be in his late thirties, dressed in a navy blue suit came in. I thought he was my attorney but he had on clear thin frame glasses and that same long badge the detective lady had around her neck which showed he was a detective too.
“Miss Brown, that’s enough!” He commanded with a stern, disapproving expression on his face. “This is not the way to go about handling this interrogation. You’re frightening her.”
Reluctantly, she stopped and huffed out an angry breath.
“She deserves every bit of it and more,” she commented before rolling her devil eyes away from me and crossing her arms exasperatingly against her chest.
I didn’t get why she was treating me this way, reacting like I killed someone close to her. Perhaps whoever was setting me up for this murder paid her off too. With everything happening in my life recently, I wouldn’t be so surprised.
For her to obey this man’s command without resisting that meant he must be her superior. I appreciated he came to my rescue. He looked nice and might just hear me out. I pushed my chair back and fell on my knees, begging him.
“Please sir, you have to help me…I didn’t do this…I’m innocent. I’m not capable of killing anyone much less any member of my husband’s family. Please don’t let them give me a death sentence or throw me in jail…I’m…I’m pregnant.”
My gaze never left his face as I hoped for a positive response.
“Tffff…” I heard the detective lady snort loudly in derision as she looked in my direction. “You should have thought of that before you chose to stab an innocent man twenty times in the chest with your kitchen knife!”
“Miss Brown, enough or else I’m taking you off this case,” he warned and she raised her hands in a triumphant surrender, an amusingly condescending look on her face, saying, “Sorry chief.”
The man who seemed to be the chief detective from what she mentioned returned his gaze to me and sighed with a sympathetic expression on his face. “I’m sorry Mrs. Wilson but your freedom is not in power to decide.”
With that said, my gaze and shoulder fell in despair and disappointment. I never thought my life would end like this and the worst part is that I dragged my unborn child into the middle of it. Perhaps carrying on with that abortion wouldn’t have been such a bad idea instead letting him suffer along with me.
With all the evidence they had against me and how powerful Robert’s family is, I don’t think I will get away with this without being severely punished for it even though I was innocent. Robert will be very angry and will hate me forever something I have been trying to avoid all these years I have been with him but to no avail.
Martin who used to care for me unconditionally sounded so angry and harsh on the phone that I wondered if it was truly the Martin I knew. By now Robert would have thought I terminated the pregnancy. Not that he’ll even care again. I didn’t want to give birth in prison or for my baby to die along with me if they chose to execute me. Who will take care of my sick mother while I’m gone? She is in a very delicate state now. If she finds out about this, she just might not survive it.
Right now, I need my phone. I needed to speak with my best friend, Jane. I needed to tell her everything that had happened. I needed to tell her to help take care of my mum while I was gone and never let her find out about this no matter what.
I heard the beeping of a phone. It sounded like mine. Lifting my gaze, I saw the chief detective approaching me with my phone in his hand. They had taken it from me along with everything else I arrived here with before I was brought into this room. I thought they wouldn’t give it to me back again.
“Here,” he said as he handed it to me. “I’m not supposed to give you your phone as it is against our rules but this person won’t stop calling. I think it’s urgent. He said he’s a doctor and has important info for you,” he explained, causing my eyes to widen in shock.
That must be Doctor Joe. I was supposed to visit him in the hospital this afternoon concerning my mum’s critical health condition and the increased medical bill before this detective lady and her policemen accosted and arrested me.
“Are you being serious now, chief?” The detective lady scoffed in disbelief as she looked at him. “You’re giving this heartless murderer a confiscated phone right in the middle of an important interrogation?”
“Like I said it’s an urgent call from a doctor,” he ground the words from his clenched teeth to show his irritation. “I wouldn’t have brought it if it wasn’t.”
With that said, the detective lady looked away and slashed out a sharp breath to show her anger and disapproval.
Ignoring her, I quickly picked up the call. Doctor Joe’s voice came rushing in from the other end of the line. It sounded alarming. My heart tightened in my chest.
“Lily…is that you?”
“Yes…” I nodded quickly as I clumsily got up on my feet.
“It’s Doctor Joe. I have been calling you nonstop for over thirty minutes now with no answer. Is everything alright? …. Where are you?… I need you in the hospital now.” The way he said that caused panic to well up in my throat.
My mind raced in the thought of what to say. I couldn’t tell him I was in a police station. I needed to come up with an excuse.
“I…I’m caught up in the middle of something but I will come as quickly as I can once I’m done…”
The detective lady briefly grabbed my attention by scoffing and giving me a look, hinting at the impossibility of that happening.
“Is anything the problem?” I returned my attention to the call and asked in alarm as sweat beaded at the top of my brows and my breathing grew loud and erratic. “What of my mum? Is she okay?”
I heard him sigh deeply. “That’s the reason I’m calling, Lily. I’m sorry but she didn’t make it.”