Chapter 4 - Purple Juice
Sienna stared at Mila.
"What purple juice?"
The little girl blinked awake, confused by the adults watching her.
Nico sat beside her on the couch.
"Sweetheart, nobody's mad. Did someone give Mommy a purple drink?"
"Grandma said it was vitamins. Mommy said no. Daddy got mad."
"That was Tuesday."
Detective Park pulled out a notebook. "Tell me exactly what happened."
"Marjorie brought me a smoothie. She said she made it with berries and iron powder because I looked tired. It tasted bitter. I took one sip and dumped it when she went upstairs."
Nico looked toward Park. "Can you test the glass?"
"If it still exists."
Sienna shook her head. "Gavin washed it himself."
"Did he usually wash dishes?"
Sienna gave a humorless laugh. "Gavin didn't know where we kept the dish soap."
"I'm sending a team to their house."
"Police team," Park corrected. "Not yours."
"I know you're used to solving problems with money and people who answer your calls," she said. "But if you want this to hold up, you let us do it correctly."
"Fair."
Park turned back to Sienna. "Did your mother-in-law have access to your prescriptions?"
"She picked up my prenatal medication twice."
"Any sleeping aids? Anxiety medication?"
"No."
"Nonno, Daddy has Mommy's papers in the black book."
"What black book?"
"The one Daddy says is boring. He puts papers in it. Aunt Bri took pictures."
"Do you know what she means?"
"Gavin has a black leather portfolio. He carries it to work."
"Where is it now?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"We found something on the garage cameras," Marcus said. "But there's a problem."
"What problem?"
"Someone accessed the estate surveillance system at 2:13 p.m. and deleted seventeen minutes from the garage feed."
"Can you recover it?"
"Maybe. That's not the worst part."
"The login belonged to Sienna."
He looked through the hospital-room window at his daughter.
She was holding Mila now, smoothing the child's hacked hair under the knit cap.
"Sienna hasn't had access to the estate security portal in over a year."
"I know," Marcus said. "Which means somebody had her credentials."
"Who reset her password?"
"Gavin. Three months ago. He filed the request through IT and said she had asked him to handle it."
Detective Park stepped into the hallway.
"Bad news?"
"Gavin deleted the garage footage using my daughter's account."
"That may be useful."
"How?"
"Because people who delete footage usually forget what the system logs before the deletion."
"My team just entered the Cole residence."
"And?"
"They found the black portfolio."
Nico waited.
May you like
Park's face changed.
"Mr. Ferrante, there are signatures in it that your daughter says she never made."
