Chapter 5 - The Shadow of Richard Brooks
Detective Hale immediately stepped forward, sensing that the fragile surface of the Brooks family dynasty was finally cracking wide open.
"Mrs. Brooks, choose your next words very carefully," Hale warned, his professional demeanor sharpening into a predator's focus. "Are you implying that your late husband, Richard Brooks, had ties to the kind of violence that lands people in body bags?"
Evelyn let out a harsh, humorless laugh that sounded more like a dry sob, wiping her wet cheeks with the back of a trembling hand.
"Ties?" Evelyn repeated, shaking her head slowly as she looked at the detective with bitter irony. "Richard didn't just have ties to the underworld, Detective. He built his entire empire on top of it, brick by bloody brick."
Daniel finally broke his silence, stepping away from the bed with an expression of deep, righteous indignation that seemed almost too polished, too calculated.
"Evelyn, have you completely lost your mind out of grief and hatred for me?" Daniel demanded, his voice carrying a smooth, persuasive authority designed to sway an audience. "Richard Brooks was a revered man! He died of a sudden heart attack eight years ago, leaving his entire estate to Natalie and building a charitable foundation in his wake. How dare you drag his good name through the mud just to justify your own unhinged behavior tonight?"
Natalie looked between her husband and her mother, her mind trapped in a dizzying whirlwind of confusion.
Growing up, her father had been her hero—a gentle giant who always smelled of pipe tobacco and expensive cologne, a man who never raised his voice and always donated millions to local orphanages and medical research.
The idea that Richard Brooks was anything other than a saint felt like a physical impossibility.
"Mom, stop it," Natalie whispered, pressing her hands against her temples as a splitting migraine bloomed behind her eyes. "Dad was a good man. Everyone loved him. The board of directors worshipped him, the city named a wing of the children's hospital after him!"
"They worshipped him because they were terrified of him, Natalie!" Evelyn snapped back, stepping forward with a sudden, fierce energy that silenced the room. "Your father was a master manipulator. Every single person who ever threatened to expose his financial corruption or his illicit corporate partnerships ended up ruined—or dead under mysterious circumstances."
Detective Hale pulled his pen back to the paper, his eyes narrowing as he mentally connected the dots of cold cases spanning nearly a decade.
"What kind of illicit partnerships, Mrs. Brooks?" Hale probed smoothly. "Are we talking about corporate embezzlement, or something far more dangerous?"
"We are talking about a syndicate that controlled half the shipping ports on the eastern seaboard," Evelyn said, her voice dropping to a chilling whisper as she glanced nervously at Daniel. "Richard spent thirty years laundering dirty money through shell companies, and when he tried to step away from the operation before his sudden death, they made sure he didn't live to enjoy his retirement."
Daniel let out a sharp sigh of exasperation, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair as he turned to look directly at the detective.
"Detective Hale, surely you aren't going to sit here and take testimony from a grieving woman suffering from severe psychological trauma after her daughter was nearly murdered," Daniel argued, his tone smooth, reasonable, and utterly persuasive. "She's weaving a bizarre conspiracy theory to deflect attention away from her own bizarre obsession with sabotaging our marriage."
Natalie looked at Daniel, then back at her mother, feeling like she was standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff.
"If Dad was involved in all of this..." Natalie choked out, her voice trembling as she stared at Evelyn, "then what does that have to do with me getting shot at my own wedding?"
Evelyn stepped right up to the side of the hospital bed, ignoring Daniel entirely, and reached out to gently grasp Natalie's uninjured hand. Her fingers were ice-cold.
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"Because Richard didn't die of a natural heart attack eight years ago, Natalie," Evelyn whispered, tears spilling over her lower lashes once more. "He was murdered by the very partners he tried to betray. And when you decided to marry Daniel Vance..."
Evelyn turned her head slowly, fixing her terrifying glare squarely upon Daniel's face.
