Chapter 7 - The Interrogation of Victoria Mercer
By 2:00 a.m., Victoria Mercer sat in Interrogation Room 3 at the Chicago Police Department Central Headquarters.
The room was small, stark, and cold, illuminated by a single double-tube fluorescent light fixture that hummed with a low, maddening buzz. The air smelled of stale coffee, industrial floor wax, and damp wool.
Victoria sat at the center metal table, hand-cuffed by her wrists to a heavy iron ring bolted to the floorboards. Her black silk dress was wet and stained with mud around the hem; her expensive makeup had run down her cheeks, leaving dark, ghostly tracks across her skin.
Sitting across from her was Detective Thomas Brandt, his thick arms crossed over his chest, a thick manila case file resting between them.
Beside him sat Assistant District Attorney Elena Reyes—a sharp, thirty-five-year-old prosecutor with dark hair pulled into a tight bun, wearing a tailored navy suit.
"Mrs. Mercer," ADA Reyes began, her voice crisp and entirely devoid of emotion. "You have been advised of your constitutional rights. Your personal criminal attorney, Mr. Harold Finch, was notified two hours ago. He declined to attend this preliminary intake session after reviewing the preliminary indictment filings."
Victoria pulled against the handcuffs, the steel cold against her bruised skin. "Harold is a coward! I pay him three hundred thousand dollars a year!"
"Mr. Finch recognized an unwinnable case, Mrs. Mercer," Detective Brandt spoke up, opening the manila folder. He pulled out a stack of eight-by-ten glossy color photographs and laid them out one by one across the table.
The first photograph showed the high-definition spectrograph of Jonathan’s myocardial tissue.
The second showed the digital camera footage captured from the hospital smoke detector, displaying Victoria introducing clear liquid drops into Jonathan’s water glass.
The third showed the physical unrefined digoxin powder seized from her personal vanity drawer at the Naperville estate during the execution of the search warrant an hour ago.
Victoria looked at the photographs, her jaw working silently, her skin taking on an ashen, yellow hue.
"This is... this is a frame-up," she whispered, her voice raspy. "Jonathan was paranoid. He was dying! He hated me because I was young and he was old! He set this up to ruin me!"
ADA Reyes leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "Mrs. Mercer, thirty minutes ago, Wisconsin State Police intercepted Raymond Cross sixteen miles south of the Kenosha border crossing."
Victoria went dead still.
"Mr. Cross’s vehicle was searched," Reyes continued, her eyes fixed on Victoria’s face. "Inside his trunk, officers recovered two encrypted hard drives containing your complete text messaging history over fourteen months, including detailed discussions regarding the purchase of unrefined digitalis from an illegal chemical supplier in Tijuana."
Reyes pulled a single sheet of paper from her folder and set it on top of the photographs.
"Five minutes before we walked into this room, Raymond Cross signed a full confession and state's evidence proffer in exchange for the State dropping the capital murder charge against him in favor of twenty-five years for criminal conspiracy."
Victoria’s eyes widened until the whites showed all the way around her irises. "He... he confessed?"
"Raymond gave us everything, Victoria," Detective Brandt said softly, leaning in close. "He gave us the bank accounts, the Mexican chemical receipts, the Malibu house listings, and the exact schedule of doses you administered to Jonathan over four months."
Victoria bowed her head. A low, strange sound began to bubble up from her throat—a mixture of a sob and a bitter, insane laugh.
"That spineless worm," she spat, her head snapping back up, her eyes blazing with pure hatred. "He was the one who bought the Tijuana supplier! He was the one who wanted the money fast! I told him to wait! I told him Jonathan would die naturally if we gave it six more months!"
ADA Reyes exchanged a quiet, fleeting glance with Detective Brandt.
Reyes reached down and hit the stop button on the digital tape recorder sitting in the center of the table.
"Thank you, Mrs. Mercer," Reyes said quietly, stepping back from the table. "That statement has been recorded and added to your primary confession file. State of Illinois versus Victoria Mercer, charge count one: Capital Murder in the First Degree with Special Circumstances of Financial Gain and Poisoning."
Victoria froze, realizing in an instant what she had just said.
May you like
"No... wait..." she gasped, pulling violently against the metal ring in the floor. "I didn't mean... I didn't say that! Turn that off!"
Detective Brandt stood up, picking up his case file. "The Grand Jury convenes at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, Victoria. I suggest you find a public defender who knows how to handle a death penalty case."
