Chapter 2 - The Digital Trap
The interrogation room smelled of stale coffee and industrial floor cleaner. Victoria sat at the metal table, shivering in an oversized orange jumpsuit that clashed violently with her platinum blonde hair. She refused to speak. She had invoked her right to counsel four hours ago, but no one had come.
The heavy steel door groaned open. Agent Vance walked in, carrying a thick manila folder and a sleek silver laptop. He didn't sit down. Instead, he flipped the laptop open and turned the screen to face her.
"Your new court-appointed public defender will be here in twenty minutes," Vance said, tapping a key. "But I wanted to show you something before he arrives. Just so we're all on the same page about what kind of deal you won't be getting."
"I have money," Victoria sneered, her upper lip curling. "I have offshore trusts that Julian doesn't even know about. I will hire a team of litigators who will bury you and my husband in injunctions until I die of old age."
Vance chuckled softly. "You mean the accounts in the Cayman Islands? The ones managed by the shell corporation 'V-Star Holdings'?"
Victoria froze. Her breath caught in her throat.
"Yeah, Julian knew about those," Vance said, leaning over the table. "He’s known about them for eight months. Actually, it was Julian who helped us trace the routing numbers. Do you want to know how?"
Victoria remained stubbornly silent, but her eyes were darting nervously around the room.
"Julian is a software engineer, Victoria. You thought he just sat at a desk all day managing venture capital. You forgot he built the cybersecurity infrastructure for half of Silicon Valley," Vance explained, hitting the spacebar on the laptop.
A video began to play. It was a crystal-clear, high-definition angle of Julian's home office. Victoria was on screen, illuminated only by the glow of Julian’s computer monitor. It was 3:00 AM. In the video, Victoria was rapidly plugging a USB drive into the tower and copying files.
"You thought you were stealing his access keys to the family trust," Vance said. "But what you actually downloaded was a trojan horse. The moment you plugged that USB drive into your personal laptop to check the offshore balances, you gave Julian complete backdoor access to every device you own."
Victoria felt a cold sweat break out across her neck. "That... that's illegal. That's unauthorized surveillance! None of this is admissible in court. It’s fruit of the poisonous tree!"
"It would be," Vance agreed cheerfully, "if he handed it to us. But he didn't. He handed it to the bank's fraud department. The bank saw the illegal transfers, panicked, and called us. Completely legal parallel construction. Your money is gone, Victoria. Frozen by the federal government."
Vance clicked another file. This time, it was audio.
"I need a prescription that causes severe disorientation." Victoria's voice echoed through the interrogation room, cold and calculating. "Not enough to kill the old bat. Just enough so that when the state social workers come, she can't remember her own name. I need them to declare her incompetent by Friday."
A man's voice replied. "That will cost you, Victoria. A lot."
"Money isn't an issue. Just get me the pills. And make sure they look like her normal heart medication."
Victoria slammed her hands down on the table, trying to flip the laptop shut, but Vance snatched it away.
"Doctor Aris Thorne," Vance said, reading from the folder. "We raided his private clinic an hour ago. He squealed like a pig, Victoria. He gave you up in exchange for immunity. We have the forged medical records. We have the fake psychiatric evaluations. We have it all."
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Victoria slumped back in her chair, the fight rapidly draining from her body.
"You're looking at twenty years in federal prison just for the wire fraud," Vance said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Add on attempted murder of a vulnerable senior? You'll be wearing that orange jumpsuit until they carry you out in a pine box. Welcome to your new life."
