Chapter 6 - The Interrogation Room
While I lay recovering in the maternity ward, thirty miles away at the precinct, the facade of the Mercer family was being dismantled brick by brick.
Detective Miller tossed a printed transcript onto the cold metal table across from Mark Mercer. Mark looked ruined. His polo shirt was wrinkled and stained with grass; his hair stuck out in wild tufts. His eyes were bloodshot from hours of weeping.
"I didn't hit her," Mark pleaded, digging his fingernails into his palms. "You have to believe me! It was my mother. My mother is set in her ways. She thinks modern women are weak. I just wanted peace in the house!"
"Peace?" Miller leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Your wife was bleeding from the face. The smart speaker recorded you telling her, quote: *Stop crying, you're waking up Mother with your drama.* Is that your idea of keeping the peace?"
"I didn't know she was really in labor!"
Miller tapped the paper. "At 2:45 AM, an automated emergency call was triggered from your Wi-Fi router. It was manually canceled via your phone app. At 3:10 AM, a second call was canceled. Who did that, Mark?"
Mark swallowed hard, his throat clicking dryly. "My mother had my phone."
"And you let her hold it while your wife was screaming on the floor?"
"She said Elena was faking it to control me!" Mark burst out, his voice cracking into a pathetic whine. "My mother paid the down payment on the house! She said if I let Elena run to the hospital over false labor, she would pull her investment and evict us!"
Meanwhile, two rooms down, Evelyn Mercer sat with her spine rigid, refusing water. Her face was an impenetrable stone mask.
"I am her elder," Evelyn stated coldly to the female detective interviewing her. "That girl has been trying to drive a wedge between my son and me since the wedding. She deliberately threw herself against that glass to create marks. As for the scissors, I was cutting away synthetic material that was suffocating my grandchild."
"Then why did you attempt to unplug the speaker when 911 spoke?" the detective asked evenly.
Evelyn's eyes flashed with venomous arrogance. "Because no government dispatcher tells me how to manage my own household."
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The detective smiled thinly, closing her notebook. "Thank you, Mrs. Mercer. That statement was recorded. You've just admitted to intentional interference with emergency medical assistance during a felony assault."
***
