Chapter 2 Interrogation

Detective Hale immediately took Elena's phone and called his technical team to trace the number. Elena sat down on her father's expensive leather couch while police officers continued moving through the penthouse like efficient ghosts. Crime scene photographers took pictures from every angle. Investigators dusted surfaces for fingerprints. Everything felt surreal and nightmarish.

A female officer brought Elena a glass of water. She accepted it with numb hands but could not drink. Her mind kept replaying the image of her father's body on the floor. The blood. The empty eyes. The silence where his commanding voice should be.

Detective Hale sat down across from her in a matching leather chair. He had a notepad balanced on his knee and watched her with suspicious, calculating eyes. "Ms. Cruz, I need you to walk me through your entire day. Every detail you can remember."

Elena took a shaky breath and forced herself to focus. "I woke up at five-thirty this morning. I went to the gym in my building for an hour. Showered and dressed. My driver picked me up at seven. I arrived at CruzTech headquarters at seven-thirty. I had breakfast at my desk while reviewing reports."

"What kind of reports?" Hale interrupted.

"Quarterly financial statements. Performance reviews. Market analysis for our Asian expansion. Standard business documents."

"Continue."

"I had meetings all morning. Board meeting at nine. Conference call with our London office at eleven. Lunch meeting with potential investors at one. More meetings all afternoon." Elena's voice sounded flat and mechanical to her own ears. "My father called around five to invite me to dinner. He insisted I come at seven. I told him I had meetings until eight but would arrive as soon as possible."

"But you didn't arrive until eight o'clock," Hale observed. "Your father was expecting you at seven."

"I was working. I'm the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company, Detective. I cannot simply leave whenever someone calls."

"Even your father?"

Elena met his eyes coldly. "Especially my father. He taught me that business comes before everything else. He would understand."

Hale made notes without changing his expression. "What time did you leave your office?"

"Seven-thirty. My driver Marcus can confirm that. We arrived here just before eight."

"Did you notice anything unusual during the drive?"

Elena thought back, trying to remember. She had been focused on her phone the entire time, as usual. "No. Nothing. Traffic was normal for Manhattan at that hour."

"Did you see any suspicious vehicles following you? Any people watching your building?"

"No, Detective. I was working."

Hale's jaw tightened slightly. "Ms. Cruz, someone just murdered your father and threatened your life. Maybe you should have been paying more attention to your surroundings."

Elena felt anger flash through her grief. "Maybe if you were better at your job, Detective, my father would still be alive. How did an assassin get past building security? Where were the cameras? The doormen? The alarm system my father paid a fortune to install?"

"We're investigating all of that," Hale said calmly. "Right now I need you to answer my questions. Tell me about your brother Julian. Where is he? Why isn't he here?"

"I don't know." Elena pulled out her phone and tried calling Julian's number. It went straight to voicemail. "He's not answering."

"When did you last speak with him?"

"He texted me about thirty minutes ago. He said he was here having dinner with our father. He joked about eating my portion of the paella." Elena felt fresh fear rising in her chest. "If Julian was here when it happened, where is he now? Is he hurt? Did someone take him?"

"Or maybe he left before the murder occurred," Hale suggested. His tone implied something darker.

Elena stood up quickly, her hands clenched into fists. "If you're suggesting my brother killed our father, you're completely wrong. Julian loved Papa. They had their problems, but Julian would never hurt him."

"What kind of problems?" Hale asked immediately.

Elena realized she had said too much. "Normal family issues. Julian felt overshadowed by me. He thought Papa favored me because I was more successful. That's all. Nothing unusual."

"Ms. Cruz, in murder investigations, family issues are very important. I need to know everything about the relationships in this family. What was Julian's role in your father's business?"

Elena sat back down slowly. "Julian worked in the shipping operations. He managed logistics for the import-export side of the family business. Nothing major. Papa was grooming him but Julian never showed much interest in real responsibility."

"Did they fight about that?"

"Sometimes. Papa had high expectations for both of us. Julian didn't always meet them."

Hale wrote more notes. "What about you? Did you and your father fight?"

"No. I did exactly what he wanted. I built Cruz Tech into an empire. I made the family name respected worldwide. I never gave him reason to complain."

"That sounds like a lot of pressure."

Elena's eyes flashed. "I don't break under pressure, Detective. That's why I'm successful."

Before Hale could respond, another detective approached and handed him a tablet computer. Hale studied the screen for a long moment, his expression darkening. He looked up at Elena with new suspicion in his eyes.

"Ms. Cruz, when was the last time you accessed your father's financial accounts?"

Elena's heart skipped. "What? I don't have access to his personal accounts. Why would you ask that?"

"Because according to bank records, someone using your credentials transferred five million dollars from your father's offshore account to an untraceable account in Switzerland three days ago."

Elena felt the room spin. "That's impossible. I never did that. I don't even have his passwords."

"The transaction was authorized with your biometric signature and your personal security codes. Codes that only you would know."

"Someone stole them. Hacked them. I don't know how, but I did not transfer any money from my father's accounts. I didn't even know he had offshore accounts in the first place."

Hale stood up and moved closer, his voice hard. "Ms. Cruz, you're either lying to me or someone is setting you up for murder. Either way, you're in serious trouble. I suggest you start telling me the complete truth right now."

Elena opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly her phone buzzed with an incoming message. Unknown number again. Her hands shook as she opened it.

The message contained only GPS coordinates and four words: "Come alone. Midnight. Switzerland."

Below that was a photograph that made Elena's blood turn to ice.

The photo showed Julian bound to a chair in a dark room, his face bruised and bloody. Duct tape covered his mouth. Fear filled his eyes. Someone had written a message across his chest in black marker: "Tick tock, sister."

Elena showed the phone to Detective Hale with trembling hands. "Someone has my brother. They want me to go to Switzerland. Alone."

Hale stared at the image, then at Elena. For the first time, his suspicious expression softened slightly with concern. "This is now officially a kidnapping case. You're not going anywhere alone, Ms. Cruz. We need to set up a tactical response team."

"No police," Elena said firmly. "The message said come alone. If they see police, they'll kill Julian."

"If you go alone, they'll kill you both. That's how these situations work."

Elena stood and grabbed her coat. "Julian is my brother. My only living family now. I'm not letting him die because you want to follow protocol."

Hale moved to block her path. "Ms. Cruz, you cannot leave. You're a material witness in a homicide investigation. And possibly a suspect in an international money laundering scheme."

"Are you arresting me, Detective?"

Hale hesitated. "Not yet. But don't make me regret that decision. Sit down. We need to figure out what's really happening here."

Elena knew he was right, but every instinct screamed at her to run. To save Julian. To find whoever had murdered her father and threatened her family. But she also knew rushing into danger without a plan would get them both killed.

She sat back down slowly. "What do we do?"