Chapter 6 - The Subpoena
The conference room on the third floor of the State Attorney General’s temporary satellite office smelled of fresh paint, industrial carpet, and nervous sweat. It was worlds away from the oppressive, mahogany-paneled dungeon of Gerald Vance’s county office.
Special Prosecutor Aaron Vance—no relation to the local dynasty, a fact he made painfully clear within the first thirty seconds of our meeting—sat at the head of a long, brushed-steel table. He was a sharp-eyed man in his late forties with salt-and-pepper hair and a reputation for dismantling entrenched municipal corruption piece by piece.
"Mrs. Vance—Maya," the prosecutor began, adjusting a pair of reading glasses as he opened a thick dossier labeled State of v. Vivian Vance. "Let’s review the timeline one more time. I want to make sure the record is airtight before we formally file the indictment with the grand jury tomorrow morning."
I sat upright in my chair, my hands resting flat on the table, my posture reflecting years of military discipline. Tessa sat beside me, acting as my official witness and technical consultant.
"The timeline is exactly as documented in the uncompressed audio log Tessa transmitted from the legacy relay," I said, my voice steady and unyielding. "Vivian Marlowe-Vance intentionally struck me in the abdomen with a steel-reinforced riding boot while I was thirty-two weeks pregnant, following an argument regarding our relocation plans and our son's surname. Ethan witnessed the assault. He stated it clearly on the recorded 911 line before his family's legal counsel intervened."
Special Prosecutor Vance nodded slowly, making a brief note on his legal pad. "And the coroner's preliminary report?"
"Altered," Tessa interjected smoothly, leaning forward to place a secondary flash drive on the table. "We pulled the emergency room attending physician’s original handwritten notes from the hospital’s secure night-drop server before the administrative database purge executed at 4:00 AM yesterday. The attending physician explicitly noted blunt force abdominal trauma consistent with external impact. That notation was scrubbed from the final electronic file submitted to the county coroner."
Prosecutor Vance picked up the flash drive, turning it over in his hand with a grim, satisfied smile. "Digital forensics already verified the checksums on this, Ms. Cole. It appears your former employers were remarkably thorough in their corruption, but remarkably sloppy in their cybersecurity."
"People who have never been challenged tend to leave their back doors wide open," I replied quietly.
"Indeed," Vance said, closing the dossier with a sharp snap. "Which brings us to the active defendants. We have enough to secure a Class A felony indictment for manslaughter and aggravated assault against Vivian Vance. Furthermore, we are expanding the scope of the conspiracy charges to include Investigator Marcus Cole and Gerald Vance for obstruction of justice, evidence tampering, and abuse of public office."
He paused, looking directly at me over the rim of his glasses.
"And your husband, Ethan Vance?"
The room went completely silent. Tessa shifted uncomfortably in her seat, casting a sideways glance at me.
"Ethan signed the false statement," I said, every word tasting like cold iron. "He lied to protect his mother and his family's inheritance. He watched our son die on a hospital table, and twelve hours later he put his signature on a document claiming I tripped over a coffee table."
"That makes him an accessory after the fact, at minimum," Prosecutor Vance noted neutrally. "Do you wish for us to include him in the primary indictment, Maya? Legally, we have grounds."
May you like
I stared down at my hands—hands that had spent years guiding terrified callers through fires, car crashes, and home invasions, keeping them alive one calm word at a time. I thought of the man I had married, the coward who traded his own flesh and blood for a seat at his mother’s dining room table.
"Include him," I said softly. "Let the court decide what a coward's signature is worth."
