Eric requested a lawyer after learning police had obtained the veterinary records.
For several hours, he said nothing.
Then his attorney apparently explained what the evidence meant.
By evening, Eric wanted a deal.
Ruiz did not promise one.
She listened.
Brian and I watched through the observation window.
Eric looked smaller without his confidence.
His shoulder remained bandaged.
His face was pale.
He began with Raymond.
“I didn’t mean to kill him.”
Ruiz did not react.
“What did you mean to do?”
“Scare him.”
“With digoxin?”
“I thought it would make him sick.”
“You researched dosage.”
Eric looked down.
“Yes.”
“You ordered it.”
“Yes.”
“You put it in his food.”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
Brian closed his eyes.
I reached for his hand, then stopped.
He noticed.
The space between us remained.
Eric continued.
Raymond had confronted him about stealing from Victor.
He threatened to give Avery everything.
Eric panicked.
He believed Raymond’s death would prevent exposure.
Instead, Raymond had already duplicated the evidence.
“Did Victor know you poisoned Raymond?”
“No.”
“Did he suspect?”
“Eventually.”
“Is that why your relationship deteriorated?”
Eric nodded.
Victor began keeping his own records on Eric.
Insurance.
Everyone in this world seemed to survive by collecting evidence against everyone else.
Ruiz moved to Ethan.
“Whose idea was the kidnapping?”
“Victor’s.”
“Why Ethan?”
“To force Patricia to find the ledger.”
“When did you take control?”
“Two months later.”
“Why?”
“Victor was sick.”
“And you saw an opportunity.”
Eric said nothing.
“You continued threatening Melissa.”
“Yes.”
“You continued demanding money.”
“Yes.”
“You used Patricia to steal from Angela.”
“Yes.”
I heard Brian inhale sharply beside me.
Ruiz asked, “Why Angela?”
Eric looked toward the observation glass.
He knew I was there.
“Because Raymond trusted her.”
That was not enough.
“Explain.”
“After Raymond died, we searched his house.”
“We?”
“Victor and me.”
“You found nothing.”
“No.”
“Then?”
“We found a note.”
“What note?”
Eric looked toward the glass again.
“Raymond wrote that Angela carried his insurance.”
My stomach tightened.
The ring.
But Eric had already known about the ring.
Ruiz pressed him.
“You believed Angela had the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then why steal her money?”
“To pressure her.”
That did not fit.
I knew it immediately.
So did Ruiz.
“Angela didn’t even know the ledger existed.”
“We didn’t know that.”
“You never contacted her.”
Eric looked uncomfortable.
Ruiz leaned closer.
“You weren’t pressuring Angela. You were discrediting her.”
Silence.
“Why?”
Eric’s eyes shifted.
“Because if the evidence surfaced through her, nobody could trust it.”
There it was.
The sixty-one thousand dollars had never been only ransom money.
The impersonation had a second purpose.
Destroy my credibility.
If Raymond’s hidden evidence eventually emerged through me, Eric wanted Brian, police and courts already primed to believe I was dishonest.
My stolen identity was not merely a way to withdraw cash.
It was preparation.
Ruiz asked, “Did Patricia know?”
“No.”
“Melissa?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“Not at first.”
“When did he learn?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“And?”
“He was furious.”
“Why?”
“He said Angela wasn’t part of this.”
That surprised me.
Victor, of all people, had objected.
Not because he was decent.
Because he understood boundaries Eric did not.
“He told you to stop?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then Victor threatened to expose you.”
Eric nodded.
That gave him motive for Victor’s death.
Ruiz asked directly.
“Did you kill him?”
Eric stared at the table.
“Yes.”
Brian whispered, “There.”
No triumph.
Just exhaustion.
Eric described leaving his phone at his office, taking Patricia’s SUV and going to Victor’s house.
Victor was weak from cancer.
They argued.
Victor threatened to call Avery.
Eric shot him.
Then staged the scene as suicide.
“Why use Patricia’s SUV?”
“To make police look at her if anything went wrong.”
Even Patricia had been disposable.
Ruiz asked about the missing ledger pages.
“Victor had them.”
“Did you take them?”
“I couldn’t find them.”
Andrew had arrived later and recovered them.
“What about Brian?”
Eric hesitated.
“Victor had been using him.”
“With sedatives?”
“Yes.”
“Did you continue?”
“Yes.”
Brian stepped toward the glass.
I saw anger move through him.
Eric explained that Victor discovered certain cues could trigger Brian’s old memories.
The storage unit.
Raymond’s phrases.
Specific routes.
The sedatives reduced resistance and interfered with new memory formation.
It was not mind control.
Brian still made choices.
But impaired, confused and guided by familiar cues, he became easier to manipulate.
That distinction mattered.
Eric had not turned Brian into a puppet.
He had exploited an injured man.
“Did Brian move Ethan?” Ruiz asked.
“Yes.”
“Knowingly?”
“No.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That the boy was in danger and needed transport.”
“Was that true?”
“Technically.”
Ruiz’s expression hardened.
“Do not play games.”
Eric lowered his eyes.
Brian had driven Ethan once.
He had brought medicine another time.
During both episodes, Victor manipulated him into believing he was helping rescue a child.
That explained Ethan’s trust.
Brian had been kind to him.
Even impaired, he had tried to protect him.
Brian covered his face.
I finally touched his shoulder.
He leaned into my hand for one second.
Then straightened.
Ruiz asked the question I cared about most.
“Was Brian involved in stealing Angela’s money?”
“No.”
“Did he know Melissa impersonated her?”
“No.”
“Did he authorize the withdrawals?”
“No.”
“Did he receive any of the sixty-one thousand dollars?”
“No.”
Six months.
Six months of accusations ended in four answers.
Brian looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I could not answer yet.
Eric continued talking.
The stolen money was divided.
Twenty-seven thousand remained in Patricia’s account because Eric instructed her to hold it.
Thirty-four thousand passed through his hands.
Some paid for properties used to hide Ethan.
Some went to corrupt intermediaries.
Some Eric kept.
Ruiz asked about the remainder.
“It can be recovered.”
“How much?”
“Most.”
That should have felt important.
It did not.
Money could be returned.
Time could not.
Trust could not simply be deposited back into an account.
Then Eric revealed one final detail.
“Raymond’s note said there were two copies.”
“We found them.”
“No.”
Ruiz frowned.
“The digital archive and microfilm.”
“That’s not what he meant.”
“What did he mean?”
“Two complete copies.”
The room changed.
“Where is the second?”
“I don’t know.”
“You searched for it?”
“For three years.”
“Why believe Angela has it?”
“Because of Raymond’s wording.”
Ruiz asked him to repeat the exact phrase.
Eric closed his eyes.
“Angela carries what matters. The second truth stays where Brian promised never to look.”
Brian frowned.
“I promised Dad lots of things.”
“Think.”
He did.
Nothing.
Eric smiled faintly.
“You still don’t remember.”
Brian’s expression hardened.
“What?”
“The basement.”
“What basement?”
“Your first house.”
Brian and I had never owned a house.
Then I remembered.
Brian’s childhood home.
Patricia sold it after Raymond died.
“Who owns it now?” Daniel asked.
Ruiz searched.
The property had changed hands twice.
Current owner:
E.B. Property Group.
Eric.
Brian stared through the glass.
“You bought my childhood home.”
Eric said nothing.
“You’ve had the second copy all along.”
“No.”
“Then why buy it?”
“Because I knew it was there.”
“Where?”
Eric looked at Brian.
“You’re the only one who knows.”
Brian went pale.
A memory surfaced.
He whispered three words.
“Under the stairs.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 16: Beneath Brian’s Childhood Stairs We Found Raymond’s Final Archive, but One Recorded Conversation Forced Me to Reconsider Who Patricia Had Betrayed First
The Morning My Husband Put Four Bank Slips on the Table and Asked Me Where Our Future Had Gone
Part 15 of 26
