Loves Me Not

SEVENTY THREE

AFTER
DETECTIVE BRETT PORTER

After cuffing Will at the hospital, we made the drive back to Bridgeport and brought him into the station for booking. Zoey took over for this part and got his photographs and fingerprints.

Will lawyered up quickly and they deliberated for quite some time. I figured he knew we had him nailed after we showed him the phone records from that night. There was no way he could keep denying it after that.

All we need now – our golden ticket – is his confession.

A few hours of deliberation later, Will and I sit down together in the interrogation room and – on tape – he makes a full confession.

I'm relieved, Zoey's ecstatic, and the lieutenant is satisfied. We finally got our killer behind bars. It's a win-win for everyone. Well, except for Will Sterling.

Later that evening, I pay one last visit to Ben before the news leaks. It's better to hear it from me than to see it on the news.

After I told him, I think something inside of him broke. The man was already broken. But after discovering the identity of the person responsible for his fiancé's murder... he was a twig that just kept snapping. And to find out that it was Will made it even worse.

The following week is standard procedure. After his confession, he was booked and charged for murder of the second degree. He had explained to us what happened that night. Catalaina had contacted him and asked to meet, as we can corroborate with the text messages. They set a time and a place – the Bridgeport pier – and met around two a.m.

Prior to that night, Catalaina had asked Will to leave his wife and be with her instead. Initially, Will agreed. But after a few days of thinking it over, he knew he couldn't do it and ultimately changed his mind. When he tried to tell Catalaina, she got upset. That's why she asked to meet with him that night, to persuade him and change his mind.

He explained to us that he had the intention of going to meet with her that night to end things for good. However, once he arrived, she made things extremely difficult for him. She supposedly began crying and begging for him, and when he wouldn't budge, she threatened to tell his wife and expose their affair. Will became aggravated then, and that is apparently when things got heated. Will claims that Catalaina got physical with him (which I'm not sure if I necessarily believe), then one thing led to another,, and as they were close to the edge, he accidently pushed her off of him too hard, and she fell backwards off the pier and into the water. Instead of trying to help her or call the police, he decided to leave her there with the knowledge in mind that his life would be stable and safer without the looming threat of her presence.

Her death wasn't premediated, but I'd say it was intentional and had malice aforethought, so therefore, second-degree murder.

Everything is wrapped up neat and tidy: the arrest, the confession, all tied up perfectly with a little bow on top. However, there's one thing that isn't sitting well with me that I can't quite put my finger on. It's something that's been nagging at me, ever since I sat there and watched him recite his confession. Because that's exactly how it sounded – recited, as though he had rehearsed it prior. As a detective, there are things I've been conditioned to look out for. How to spot a lie, how to interrogate someone into telling the truth. There was something about the way he spoke that wasn't sitting well with me.

Later that night, as I'm lying in bed attempting to sleep, I continue thinking about his confession and everything he had said, especially the part where he actually killed her. He said that he accidently pushed her too hard and she fell backwards into the water. Was that part true? Catalaina's actual cause of death may have been from drowning, but she also had substantial trauma to her back and ribs. Could that have happened from simply being pushed? Did he do something more to her? Perhaps it was the impact of hitting the water from a high distance. Or perhaps I'm just overtired and overthinking this whole thing.

I try to shake out these contradicting thoughts and focus on the fact that we've finally caught our killer. His arraignment is tomorrow and everything will go smoothly after that. What do specifics really matter at this point? He confessed. We have him. This thing is solved.

So why am I still feeling so uneasy about the whole thing?