Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty Eight
Cassi
“Were you upset with your sister? I reviewed the notes from last week. Looks like she roughed you up pretty good.”
I look up at him in surprise as I shake my head.
“Do you seriously have no tact or are you a fucking idiot?” I ask.
Nico squeezes my leg in warning as his lawyer leans forward.
“Please rephrase your questions to be a little more empathetic given the current situation, or this interrogation is over.”
I’m amazed at how quickly he was able to get here. Nico called him and literally less than seven minutes he was strolling into the room, demanding all of this information and making the cops both sigh in defeat.
“Fine,” the older cop says. “You guys clearly had your differences. Did her reaction to your relationship make you angry?”
“No,” I say firmly.
He turns his head to the side in curiosity. “Really? See, if I had a sibling who disapproved of a relationship of mine, I’d feel frustrated. Upset. Maybe even a little pissed off.”
“Well, I sucked her boyfriend’s cock clean before I rode it until he blew a load in me, so I can’t exactly blame her,” I snap.
Nico squeezes my thigh in warning again, but I ignore him. Fuck these guys. They are seriously trying to say, what, that I killed my sister? How is that even possible? What on earth could I have done to make her heart stop?
I feel numb but also…odd. I don’t know how to explain it, I mean, she’s my sister. I should be curled up into a ball in the corner right now. She’s gone. I’ll never see her again. A really fucking terrible part of me feels a small amount of peace at that thought, and I fucking hate myself for it.
My lack of emotions I know is not helping my innocence in this moment, but on the other hand, I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, so I don’t really give a shit. Though, that may be a wrong approach and possibly how I end up wrongfully in jail if I don’t cool my temper.
There is a knock at the door before one of the police officers steps outside of the little room they shuffled us into. He’s only out there for a minute or so before he’s sitting back down and crossing his hands onto the table.
“Do you know what foxglove is, Cassi?”
I furrow my brows before slowly nodding.
“It’s a plant,” the cop says. “It grows all over the place, pretty, but when ingested can be extremely poisonous.”
“What does that have to do with this interrogation?” Nico’s lawyer interrupts.
The cop doesn’t take his eyes off me, instead, watching me like a hawk as if he were waiting for a reaction, a movement, anything he can run with.
“The powder found on Carly’s person was powdered foxglove. It’s estimated several grams were slipped into her coffee which caused her death.”
“She was poisoned?” I say with confusion.
“It appears so,” he says as he leans back into his chair casually. “You two went to coffee to talk things out after a physical altercation, and she was poisoned. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“I didn’t kill my sister!” I hiss as Nico’s lawyer gestures for me to stay silent.
“Do you have any evidence my client even touched the deceased’s cup before it was consumed? They were not in a home, they were in an establishment. What proof do you have that my client had any part to do with it?”
The cop cuts a sideways look to him as he sneers.
“Let’s call it a gut thing.”
He turns back to me before he shakes his head.
“I can’t help you until you start telling the truth, Cassi. Did you slip foxglove in your sister’s drink and then maybe plant it on her?”
“Don’t answer that,” Nico’s lawyer whispered.
Fuck that, I’m absolutely answering, because it’s ridiculous.
“No!”
The cop scoffs as he shakes his head.
“Looks like we very well may need to take this conversation to the station.”
“Not so fast, you are going to need to provide us with more evidence before my client is going anywhere with you.”
The other cop glares at him before pulling out his phone, he makes a quick call before speaking into the phone.
“Hey, Jimmy. Can you pull the cameras from the coffee shop? I want to see the coffee the girl was served being made and if anyone touched it before she drank it.”
A pause occurs before he nods his head and hangs up the phone.
“One concrete piece of evidence coming right up, sir. If you’ll excuse us,” he says before they both push to stand, stepping outside.
As soon as the door shuts, Nico’s lawyer turns to me sharply.
“Tell me right fucking now, did you do it?”
“Bill,” Nico intervenes.
He ignores him, keeping his eyes on me.
“Did. You. Do. It?” he questions pointedly.
“No! Of course not.”
“Are you sure? Because if you had anything to do with it and they can prove it, we need to pivot our strategy and quick.”
I look to Nico for help and he wraps his arm around me as he shakes his head.
“She didn’t do it, Bill.”
He huffs out a breath before looking to Nico.
“Did you?”
Nico gives him a flat look as he shakes his head.
“Well, those cops are like two dogs with a bone. If there is anything off, they will hang you out to dry, innocent or not.”
“And I pay you to ensure that doesn’t happen,” Nico snaps.
Bill mutters to himself as he begins sifting through some papers in his folder while my stomach turns in knots.
The officers came back into the room about twenty minutes later.
“Looks like you’re both free to go.”
“What?” I ask.
The older cop nods as the younger one folds his arms almost petulantly, like he’s pissed we are getting off…for something we didn’t fucking do. Make that make sense.
“What did you find?” Bill asks.
“Looks like Carly pulled the foxglove powder out of her pocket and slipped it into the drink she thought was yours,” the older cop says.
“Mine?” I echo.
“Camera footage shows her fiddling with the cups with the baggie in her hand and when she looked away, the barista switched cups.”
“She did?”
I can’t form much more eloquent questions than that as my mind is currently being overwhelmed.
He nods. “She confessed to the whole thing when questioned. She stated she had no idea what the powder was, but she could tell there was ill intention and so she switched it. She’s being booked for manslaughter.”
Tammy? Oh my god, no.
“Why is she in trouble when Carly was the one who was trying to kill her sister?” Nico guffaws.
“Because that’s how manslaughter fucking works,” the younger cop seethes.
We all lean back at that, like he’s about to jump over the table and the beat the shit out of all of us.
Holy fuck. Carly tried to kill me? She tried to poison me? Tammy, although not ultimately knowing what she was doing, saved me?
“If I had drank that coffee…if she had drugged the right cup…I’d be dead?” I question softly.
The older cop nods. “It looks that way. With that high of a dose, it only took seconds for the effects to overwhelm her, one of those being heart palpitations that lead to cardiac arrest.”
“Where did she get it from? I mean, I know my sister. She wouldn’t have found it, grounded it to a fine powder like that…she was…not the most resourceful woman there ever was.”
“We went through her phone and found a text message strain with someone she’s been in contact with for years. Chances are, this wasn’t the first time she’s obtained this substance, whether for someone else’s use or not.”
A strange look passes over Nico’s face as he listens to the detectives speak, leaning forward as they continue before he cuts them off.
“What could happen if it was a lesser dose? How long would the effects take?”
The cop shrugs.
“Depends according to the lab. They said from minutes to hours, sometimes even days if it’s a small enough dose.”
Nico’s eyes widen as he slumps back into his chair.
“Oh my god.”
“What?” I ask as I look to him, his face now completely pale and lifeless.
Slowly, his eyes come to me, a hollow horror filled look as he shakes his head.
“I…I think Carly killed my mother.”