Chapter 17 - The Shadow's End
The deposition took place on the fourth floor of the State Attorney General’s office in downtown Phoenix.
Sitting across the mahogany table was Arthur Vance’s appellate lawyer, a slick, sharp-suited man who looked deeply uncomfortable sitting in the same room with the raw, undeniable evidence of his client's crimes.
Marcus set a heavy black tablet on the glass table, opening the high-definition video archive from August 14th.
“Counselor,” Marcus said, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp, lethal register. “Before you spend another dollar of your client’s dwindling trust on frivolous appeals, I suggest you take five minutes to re-watch this recording.”
The video played on the tablet screen.
The image of Patricia shoving Daniela into the brass table corner filled the room. The sickening metallic sound of the impact echoed clearly through the quiet office. The camera captured Patricia standing over her bleeding, unresponsive daughter for fifty-two minutes, unhooking her keys, and walking away to pour a glass of iced tea.
The appellate lawyer stared at the screen. The color slowly drained from his face.
“Your client, Arthur Vance,” Agent Sarah Lin added from the head of the table, “was receiving text messages from Patricia Ramos during those exact fifty-two minutes, discussing the liquidation of the victim's Honda Civic to cover his commercial margin call.”
Agent Lin slid a single printed text transcript across the table:
14:15 PM — Patricia: The kid is down. I have the keys. I’m heading to the Mesa dealership as soon as Javier’s plane lands.
14:17 PM — Arthur Vance: Good. Wire the draft proceeds immediately. The hard-money lender gives us until 5 PM.
The appellate lawyer closed his notebook, his hands visibly shaking as he pushed his chair back from the table.
“My client...” the lawyer stammered, his voice tight and hoarse, “my client will immediately withdraw all civil appeals and consent to the full, permanent forfeiture decree.”
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I sat at the end of the table, my dark suit pressed, my hands folded comfortably in front of me. I didn't say a single word. I simply looked the lawyer in the eye until he pulled his briefcase off the floor and backed out of the room without looking back.
The last shadow of Patricia’s web had been torn down and burned to ash.
