Chapter 280

“We’re not making a deal with a murderer,” the older policeman said.

“If you want to know about Deirdre Brady, you will,” Amelia snapped. “I’m sure her family and my pathetic brother want to know where she is. Maybe she’s still alive.”

“We would need to speak to a DA before making any deals,” the officer told Amelia.

“Then call your DA, or I’ll say nothing more.” Amelia glared at them and refused to speak.

“Call him,” one cop said to the other. “Let’s get this nasty business over with.”

“No,” Andrew mumbled. He stood next to Victor and shook his head. “No,” he repeated before running from the observation room.

He burst into the interrogation room. “Don’t make any deals with this murderer. I know she killed my Deirdre along with our grandmother, and she tried to kill my daughter and her adoptive father, too.”

The older policeman looked at Andrew with pity.  “Mr. Archer, are you saying you don’t want to know what happened to Deirdre Brady?”

“I know what happened to her,” Andrew said. “Ever since she vanished, I knew she had been murdered. I just didn’t think the sister that I loved and trusted did it.”

His lips trembled. “Now that I know it was Amelia who killed my fated mate, I want her to rot in a cell for as long as possible.”

The police looked from Andrew to Amelia.

“Are you sure?” the older cop asked Andrew.

Andrew burst into tears. “The only thing I’m sure of is that this evil person should never be permitted to be free in our society again.”

A police detective entered the room. “Pat Archer is finally talking. She told us that her daughter Amelia was behind everything. She even told us the details about Amelia’s confession to her about Deirdre Brady.”

“There goes your deal, Amelia,” Andrew sobbed. “How could you have hurt her? Deirdre trusted you. I trusted you. When we were kids, you said you were my big sister and would always have my back.”

Andrew sobbed harder. “It was all a lie, and I’ll never forgive you for what you did. I hope you think about it every day that you spend in prison. Goodbye, Amelia. I never want to see your face again.”

When Andrew walked out of the room, Victor and I hurried into the hallway to be at his side. The poor man was in torment.

“Andy, tell me what we can do to help you,” Victor said.

His compassion for the other man was impressive. I knew my fiancé was a good guy, but his empathy for Andrew made me proud of him.

“Can you find out exactly what my mother told the police about Deirdre?” Andrew wiped his eyes with the tissues I handed him.

Victor nodded. “Stay here with Daisy for a minute.”

Andrew and I silently waited for Victor’s return from the interrogation room. He had stopped crying, but his whole body was quivering. I kept patting his back, but I don’t think it was helping to calm him much.

Victor returned to us with the detective. His name tag told us he was Detective Lopez.

“Mr. Archer, your mother’s confession was recorded,” the detective said. “Would you like to watch it?”

Andrew looked at Victor and me. “Will you two come with me?”

“Absolutely,” Victor replied. “Daisy and I will help you in any way we can.”

“Please let us watch it now,” Andrew told the detective. “I’m ready.”

“Come this way,” Detective Lopez said and led us to a small room with video monitors.

We sat on hard plastic chairs while the detective cued up the video footage, and soon Pat Archer’s face was on the screen as her voice filled the room.

“None of it was my idea,” Pat insisted. “But I had to help my daughter preserve our family’s honor and reputation.”

“What exactly did you do to preserve your family’s reputation?” Detective Lopez asked.

“Recently, we had to try to neutralize the Wilson girl, “Pat answered.

“What do you mean by neutralize?” the cop asked.

“We tried scaring her,” Pat said. “Even when we went after Andrew’s illegitimate daughter and her adoptive father, Daisy refused to stop ‘investigating’ us. So Amelia decided we had to get rid of her.”

“Like you got rid of Deirdre Brady?” Detective Lopez said.

“I had no part in that,” Pat insisted. “Amelia told me what she did after she took care of the Deirdre problem.”

“Is Deirdre dead?” Detective Lopez asked.

Pat nodded. She was eerily calm for someone discussing the murder of her grandchild’s mother.

“Amelia told me Deidre called her and said the hospital was releasing her early. Andrew was at an evening class, so Amelia agreed to pick her up.”

“She brought the Omega tramp to Lycan Square and told her to hide in the potting shed with the baby until Andrew got home from class.”

“Deirdre agreed. But my eldest daughter knew the girl would be trouble for the family and did her duty by us.”

“What do you mean?” the detective said.

“Amelia came to me in my bedroom that night and told me she struck Deirdre in the back with the gardener’s scythe and killed her. She didn’t know what to do with the body.”

Andrew gasped while Detective Lopez looked angry on the screen and in person. “Did you help her dispose of Deirdre’s body?”

“We buried it behind the potting shed,” Pat confessed. “Then we washed away the blood on the shed floor and sprinkled more potting soil around. We just finished when the brat started to cry.”

“Amelia fed it a bottle to make it shut up. I told her to drop it in the old well, but she insisted she had a plan for it. She left it at the back door for the maids to find.”

“She said it made it look like Deirdre abandoned both the baby and Andrew. And she knew Andrew wasn’t capable of caring for it. But she knew somebody would take it off our hands. People adopt babies all the time.”

It took Detective Lopez a minute to speak after listening to the horrible circumstances of Deirdre’s murder. “Is Deirdre still buried behind the potting shed?” he asked.

Pat smiled. “I had that shed torn down, and we expanded the garage to cover that spot. I imagine her bones are still under that newer portion of cement.”

Detective Lopez stopped the video footage. “She also told us how she and Amelia went to the hospital, and Amelia smothered Martha. They wanted to blame everything on her. We have a video of the murder.”

Andrew was shaking with rage and grief. “Will they be going to prison?”

Detective Lopez put a hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “I guarantee they won’t see the outside world again. We have enough evidence against them that no judge or jury will let them go free.”

“Thank you,” Andrew said as he fought back more tears. “It’s a relief to finally get justice for Deirdre.”

“Let us take you home, Andy,” Victor said.

“No. Follow me to Lycan Square,” Andrew said. “Drive around to the back of the house to the garage. I want to tell her that her killer has been caught, and I don’t want to be alone.”

We followed Andrew to the rear of Archer Manor and parked near an oversized garage. Andrew let us inside, and we followed him to the far right side of the building.

The cement was lighter in color in those two bays.

“After this new section of the garage was built, it was my place to park,” Andrew chuffed. “Mother and Amelia probably thought it was funny to have me parking my car over Deirdre’s grave.”

I looked at the cement and shivered. “Did you ever have a feeling about this spot?”

“I used to come home and sit in my car, listening to songs we liked,” Andrew replied. “It made me feel closer to her.” He sobbed. “I had no idea how close I really was to my love.”

Victor and I put our arms around Andrew’s shoulders for a moment while he cried.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m glad to finally know what happened to her and that her killer is going to prison.”

Andrew wiped his eyes. “Thank you, both of you, for making it happen. I’d like you at her funeral services.”

“We’d be honored to be there,” Victor said. “And I’d like you to attend my ascension ceremony next week.”

I felt a sliver of panic. There were many details of the ceremony yet to be planned. This ceremony and celebration had to be on time and the best ever.

We couldn’t let the mysterious faction who was trying to stop Victor from ascending to the leadership to win.