Chapter 13 - The Bottle Wasn’t the Whole Case
“Keep your hands where I can see them.”
The officer’s voice cut through the restaurant.
Celeste froze.
Daniel turned toward the door, but another officer was already there.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Celeste looked at me.
“You set me up.”
I thought about Maria’s dismissal letter.
The forged reports.
The fake psychiatric emails.
My father on the ballroom floor.
“No,” I said. “I let you talk.”
She began crying as the officers took control of the scene.
The tears arrived as neatly as they had at the hospital.
“I’m being threatened,” she told the restaurant manager. “Call someone.”
“They already did,” Bennett said.
I hadn’t seen her enter.
Daniel said nothing while he was taken outside.
Celeste said enough for both of them.
By the time the front door closed, I could hear only the refrigerator behind the bar.
My knees started shaking.
Bennett guided me into a chair.
“You followed the plan,” she said.
“I almost got up when she mentioned my mother.”
“But you didn’t.”
Later, at the station, she explained what she could.
Celeste had been arrested on evidence tied to the food tampering and the investigation into my father’s illness.
Daniel’s arrest involved the financial case and the threat to Maria.
More searches and interviews would follow.
An arrest wasn’t a conviction.
The hard part was not over.
I knew that.
I also knew my father could sleep without wondering whether Celeste would appear at his door.
Then Bennett asked a question.
“Did Martin Shaw ever meet privately with your father at the house?”
“Several times.”
“Did he bring documents for signature?”
“Yes.”
She set a photograph on the table.
It showed a stack of folders recovered from Daniel’s vehicle.
One had a familiar red tab.
The foundation used those for restricted grants.
Another bore Martin’s firm name.
“Martin says Celeste deceived him,” Bennett said.
“Of course he does.”
“He also says you approved the arrangement.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Of course he does.”
She tapped the photograph.
“We’re going to test both claims.”
When I left the station, Richard was waiting outside.
His phone was still in his hand.
Martin had filed a complaint against me with the foundation board.
May you like
He was accusing me of authorizing the missing transfer.
And my father was named as his witness.
