Chapter 8 - The Syringe
Daniel entered and closed the door behind him.
Detective Bell reached for his weapon.
Daniel raised his other hand.
He was holding a small remote.
“If I press this, Elaine Porter’s apartment explodes.”
Bell stopped.
Daniel smiled at Rachel.
“You always needed strangers to fight your battles.”
“You poisoned your own wife.”
“I protected what should have been mine.”
Rachel moved slowly between Daniel and Vanessa.
“What is in the syringe?”
“Something the hospital will interpret as cardiac arrest.”
Vanessa stepped backward.
Daniel glanced at her.
“You were supposed to leave Austin.”
“I’m done running.”
“You’ll never be done. You’re legally dead.”
Bell kept his voice steady.
“Put everything down.”
Daniel held the syringe against Rachel’s neck.
“If you shoot me, she dies first.”
Rachel could feel the cold needle touching her skin.
Her body still felt weak from months of exposure, but she remembered something her father taught her during self-defense classes.
Do not fight the weapon.
Control the hand.
Rachel suddenly dropped her weight and twisted Daniel’s wrist.
The syringe entered his own forearm.
Daniel shouted and released her.
Bell tackled him.
The remote fell beneath the bed.
Vanessa kicked it away.
Daniel stared at the syringe in horror.
“There’s enough in that dose to stop my heart.”
Rachel stood over him.
“Then you’d better hope the doctors you corrupted still remember how to save a life.”
Medical staff rushed in.
Daniel was treated under police guard.
He survived.
But Judge Hale intervened before morning.
He ordered Daniel released from custody, claiming the police lacked sufficient evidence tying him to the poison.
Detective Bell was furious.
“The judge is protecting him in plain sight.”
Worse, Hale refused to cancel Rachel’s competency hearing.
Rachel would have to appear in court only hours after escaping an attempted murder.
Vanessa offered to testify.
Elaine agreed to testify from her hospital bed.
Bell promised to present the toxicology results.
Rachel dressed in borrowed clothes and entered the courthouse beside them.
Daniel was already seated with his attorney.
Judge Hale looked down from the bench.
“Mrs. Mercer, this court will determine whether your husband should assume permanent control of your personal and financial affairs.”
Rachel opened the flash-drive folder.
It was empty.
Every file had been remotely erased.
May you like
Daniel leaned toward her and whispered, “Soon, everything will finally belong to me.”
👉 Rachel entered the hearing with no digital evidence left, but Vanessa had hidden one original document Daniel never knew she possessed.
