Chapter 14 - THE DEAL DAVID THOUGHT HE COULD MAKE
David requested a proffer the next morning.
For twelve hours after arrest, he had denied everything.
Then he blamed Julianne.
Then Nathan.
Then Maya.
Now, after learning Claire Benton had been captured, he wanted to cooperate.
The prosecutor laughed when Marcus told Maya.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was predictable.
"What does he want?"
Maya asked.
"Reduced exposure."
"For Lily?"
"His attorney wants to separate the financial charges from any homicide theory."
Maya stared at Marcus.
"He wants a discount for killing his daughter because he can explain the money."
"That's not how they would phrase it."
"I know. They have better words."
David's new attorney was not Nathan.
Nathan was now a cooperating defendant.
The replacement was a criminal defense specialist named Celia Grant.
She entered the proffer room carrying one thin notebook and no visible emotion.
David sat beside her.
He looked exhausted.
Maya watched by secure feed from another room.
David did not know she was watching.
The prosecutor began.
"Why did you create the Lily Vance Family Preservation Trust?"
David swallowed.
"To obtain liquidity."
"By forging your wife's consent?"
"I believed she had consented to broader estate restructuring."
Celia touched his arm.
The prosecutor smiled faintly.
"Try again."
David looked down.
"I knew she had not consented to that specific instrument."
"Why use Lily as beneficiary?"
"Because Victor said it would appear consistent with our family planning."
"Why include a survivorship clause?"
David's jaw tightened.
"Victor drafted the economics."
"Nathan Crowe drafted the language."
"At Victor's instruction."
"Did you understand that Lily's death would consolidate control?"
David closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Maya felt something inside her harden.
No confusion.
No misunderstanding.
Yes.
The prosecutor continued.
"Did you give Lily an experimental compound?"
David looked at Celia.
She whispered something.
He answered.
"Yes."
Maya's fingers went numb.
Hearing it from him was different.
"Why?"
"I was told it would make her mildly ill."
"For what purpose?"
David's face twisted.
"Maya reviews everything. Every clause. Every number. Victor said we needed a window where she would sign routine documents quickly."
"So you intentionally made your seven-year-old daughter sick to distract your wife."
David flinched.
"I did not intend to harm her seriously."
"That was not the question."
"Yes."
Maya stared at the screen.
The prosecutor placed Claire Benton's dosing spreadsheet on the table.
"Were you warned not to administer tacrolimus?"
David looked sick.
"Yes."
"Did you administer it anyway?"
"A very small amount."
Maya stood abruptly.
Marcus looked at her.
"Sit."
She remained standing.
"I need to hear this."
Inside the room, the prosecutor's voice sharpened.
"You are not the physician here, Mr. Vance. A small amount according to whom?"
"I calculated based on weight."
Maya whispered.
"He calculated it."
Marcus said nothing.
"Why add tacrolimus?"
"The first dose did not produce enough symptoms."
"Enough for what?"
David's voice cracked.
"For Maya to stop asking questions."
Maya closed her eyes.
The room around her disappeared.
She saw Lily at breakfast.
Daddy made my juice.
She saw Lily on the couch.
Mommy, my head feels heavy.
She saw David checking his watch.
She saw herself signing refinancing papers while Lily slept upstairs.
The prosecutor continued.
"Did you give Lily azithromycin?"
David nodded.
"Why?"
"Claire said if she developed a bacterial infection we would need medical care. I thought an antibiotic would protect her."
The prosecutor stared at him.
"You independently decided to give an experimental immune-modulating compound, a transplant medication, and an antibiotic to a child without medical supervision?"
David began crying.
"I thought I had controlled it."
Maya's face went still.
There was David in one sentence.
I thought I had controlled it.
Money.
Marriage.
Maya.
Lily.
Everything was acceptable as long as he believed he controlled the outcome.
"When did you realize Lily might die?"
David wiped his face.
"The morning I left."
"Why did you leave?"
"Victor threatened me."
"How?"
"He said if I disclosed the compound, he would expose the trust, the forged signatures, everything."
"So you chose your financial scheme over your daughter's medical care."
David shook his head.
"I thought Maya would take her to the hospital."
"Without telling doctors what you had given her."
David said nothing.
"When Dr. Klein messaged you from the ICU, what did you do?"
David began shaking.
"I called Kerr."
"He told you disclosure might help."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you call the hospital?"
David covered his face.
"I was afraid."
The prosecutor waited.
"Afraid of what?"
David looked up.
"Losing everything."
Maya sat down slowly.
He had lost everything anyway.
But Lily had lost her life first.
The prosecutor moved to the final question.
"Forty minutes after Lily died, you ordered the final fourteen-million-dollar transfer. Why?"
David stared at the table.
"Victor said if we stopped, her death would have been for nothing."
Maya made a sound of pure disbelief.
Even Marcus looked away.
The prosecutor's face hardened.
"And you accepted that logic?"
David whispered.
"In that moment."
Maya stood and left the viewing room.
She made it to the stairwell before vomiting.
Marcus found her several minutes later.
She wiped her mouth and looked at him.
"Do not offer me water."
He nodded.
"Did he get his deal?"
"No deal has been offered."
"Good."
Marcus leaned against the wall.
"His testimony against Victor is valuable."
Maya stared at him.
"Do not ask me to accept leniency."
"I am not asking. The government decides charging agreements, not victims."
"I know."
She looked toward the closed door upstairs.
"But if he gets less because he finally told the truth after every lie failed, I will testify at sentencing."
"You have that right."
"I will use it."
Marcus's phone buzzed.
He read the message.
Then frowned.
"What?"
Maya asked.
"Victor Hale just requested a meeting with prosecutors."
Maya laughed once.
"Everyone wants to cooperate now."
"He isn't offering cooperation."
"Then what?"
Marcus looked at her.
"He says he has evidence that David is lying about who ordered the plan."
"Of course he does."
"He also says he can prove you knew about Trial 47 before Lily became ill."
Maya's face went cold.
"That's impossible."
May you like
Marcus looked toward the stairwell door.
"Then we need to know what he thinks he has."
— END OF PART 2 —
The story continues in PART 3…
