Chapter 25 - The Blue Lights
Tori didn't believe me at first. She sneered into the camera, opening her mouth to launch another venomous tirade, until the red and blue emergency lights washed over the white columns of my front porch.
Two cruisers from the county sheriff’s department pulled into the driveway, blocking the silver Mercedes completely. A third unmarked sedan parked directly behind them.
Brenda completely lost her composure. She dropped to her knees right there on my porch, burying her face in her hands and sobbing hysterically. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I was just trying to help her! She told me Myrna approved it! She told me there was a verbal agreement!"
"Get up, Brenda, you idiot!" Tori yelled, though her voice wavered as two uniformed deputies stepped out of their vehicles, hands resting calmly near their utility belts.
From the unmarked car stepped a tall, gray-haired man in a dark trench coat: Marcus Sterling. Beside him walked Detective Kowalski.
"Victoria Mercer?" Detective Kowalski asked, pulling a folder from beneath his arm as he walked up the porch steps.
"This is private property!" Tori shouted, her aristocratic veneer fracturing into pure desperation. "My mother-in-law owns this house, and I have full legal power of attorney to manage the premises! These officers are trespassing!"
Marcus stepped forward, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. He didn't even look at Tori. He looked directly at Brenda first.
"Ms. Vance," Marcus said with the razor-sharp precision that made him the most terrifying estate litigator in the district. "Your notary commission was revoked by the Secretary of State's office two hours ago on an emergency administrative order. Judge Thornton signed an arrest warrant for falsification of state records and second-degree financial forgery at four-thirty this afternoon."
Brenda merely wailed louder, holding out her wrists before the deputies even asked. One of the deputies stepped forward and clicked handcuffs onto her wrists with a crisp, definitive metallic snap.
Tori stepped back, her heels hitting the locked front door. "You can't arrest me! I have an active loan agreement! This is a civil dispute between family members! Caleb! Where is Caleb?!"
"Caleb is currently at the state’s attorney’s office giving a four-hour deposition," Marcus said smoothly. "And as for your civil dispute, Judge Thornton issued an emergency temporary restraining order barring you from within one thousand feet of this property, within one thousand feet of your children, and freezing all commercial bank accounts tied to Mercer Luxe Designs LLC."
"You froze my business accounts?!" Tori screamed, her voice hitting a pitch that rattled the microphone. "That’s my inventory! I have payroll! I have overseas orders!"
"You had three hundred and eighty thousand dollars of stolen equity," Detective Kowalski said, pulling his own pair of handcuffs from his belt. "Turn around, Mrs. Mercer. Put your hands behind your back."
"Don't touch me! Do you know who I am?! My father is on the village board! Myrna! Myrna, tell them to stop! Tell them right now!" Tori screamed directly at the Ring camera, her hair falling wild around her face, the polished influencer completely erased by the snarling, cornered beast within.
"Goodbye, Tori," I said quietly over the speaker.
I closed the app, locked my phone screen, and set it down on the café table.
Linda raised her glass of white wine toward me. "To Arthur’s porch," she said.
May you like
"To Arthur’s porch," I replied, clinking my glass against hers, feeling the tension that had gripped my spine for days finally begin to dissolve into the cool Lisbon air.
***
