Chapter 6 - The Unraveling of Chloe
In Federal Interview Room 4, the glamour had long since melted away.
Chloe Jenkins sat at the metal table, shivering in her designer silk dress. The heating in the detention wing was set low, and without her cashmere wrap, she looked small, gaunt, and terrified. Her mascara had run down her cheeks in dark, greasy streaks, and the designer bag she had carried so proudly into my baby shower sat on an evidence cart across the room, its contents emptied into plastic bags.
Agent Sarah Lin of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division sat across from her, a digital voice recorder humming between them.
"Let's go over this one more time, Chloe," Agent Lin said, her voice dry and mechanical. "You claimed to be an independent marketing consultant employed by Vance Logistics."
"I... Julian told me to say that," Chloe stammered, her voice shaking violently. "He told me it was just a tax thing! He said he would put me on the payroll so I could have health insurance and an apartment in the city! I didn't know anything about shipping records!"
"And the pregnancy?" Lin asked, raising an eyebrow. "You stood in the middle of a private residence and announced to thirty guests that you were carrying the Vance family's rightful heir."
Chloe pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her face in her hands. "Julian promised me! He said his wife was barren, that their marriage was over, and that his father had agreed to make him the sole executor of the family trust if he produced a grandson. He told me that if I helped him push Clara into filing for divorce first, he would marry me and give me two million dollars from his personal fund."
"The personal fund that was funded by embezzled municipal bonds?" Lin asked, leaning forward.
"I didn't know it was embezzled!" Chloe screamed, her voice cracking. "I didn't know they were criminals! Julian said his father owned the judges, the police, the mayor! He said nobody could ever touch them!"
"Well, Chloe, as you can see from your current accommodations, somebody touched them," Lin said coldly. "And right now, you are looking at five years as an accessory after the fact to wire fraud, plus grand larceny charges for the jewelry in your bag."
"I'll tell you everything!" Chloe sobbed, lunging across the table, her manicured nails scraping the metal surface. "I have his burner phone! He kept it in my nightstand! He used it to talk to some man named 'The Captain' about shipping containers coming through the southern terminal! I know the passcode! It's Julian's birthday! Just please... please don't send me to prison! I have nothing to do with these people!"
Agent Lin smiled—a slow, predatory smile of an investigator who had just found the final missing piece of the puzzle.
May you like
"Sit back down, Chloe," Lin instructed calmly, sliding an official cooperation agreement across the table. "Let’s start from the beginning. Every phone call, every gift, every secret Julian Vance ever whispered in your ear."
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