Vae Victus [Volume 1] [WOE TO THE VANQUISHED]

Chapter 16

"Please help yourself, Ms. Levi," Detective Lorraine Johnson said. "Tell me the truth."

I said nothing. This was not my first interrogation and I had survived torture before. A few NYPD detectives would not break me.

I liked Detective Lorraine Johnson. She looked sharp, unlike Steve the fat cops. Perhaps that was just the biased view of a chauvinistic feminist in me.

Detective Johnson pressed a button on my unlocked mobile phone.

I had removed the password lock on my phone before I met Anastasia. Had I failed to... deal... with Anastasia, I wanted police to be able to access my records. If I left it locked, only certain people could open it. Certain people with access to the latest tradecraft software. Not NYPD, they were archaic. Not even FBI. In the case of my failure and or death, I did not want my phone to be the privy of CIA or Mossad.

A movie played on my phone. It was taken from an HD camera with directional microphone. Remember when Robert the Pervert Peeping Pig walked into the shower where he did not belong? I started my secret electronics project shortly after that. I wired John's entire penthouse apartment with state of the art surveillance equipment. Unlimited platinum credit card plus my espionage background brought the scene in high definition to the interrogation room.

Robert was talking on his phone. The video was date and timestamped.

"Kefira?" he said. "Yes, I know her."

"Really?" he said. "Anna Smith? That's her real name?" Robert laughed. "What a bitch. So she's a scam artist huh? I knew it. That stuck up whore."

"I want more money," Robert said. "One million dollars."  Amateur, I can find professional hitman for one-tenth of what you are asking.

"Fine, ten thousand dollars, cash." Great bargaining skill there, chump.

"No, no," Robert said. "I want her to suffer. I will rape her again and again until she cannot get enough of me". The HD camera caught the rising bulge in Robert's groin. Even in death, he grosses me out.

"Okay," Robert said. "I said okay! I will kill her okay! But I won't shoot her. I will make her suffer before she dies." Idiot. You should have shot me. 

Detective Johnson turned off the video.

"Anna Smith?" she asked me.

I smiled at her and said nothing.

"I need to speak with my client alone," my lawyer, Mr. Stevenson, said.

"No, we don't," I said. Mr. Stevenson stared at me, I could see his raised eyebrows from the corner of my eyes. But I kept staring at Detective Johnson like a hungry wolf watching her prey.

"The man on that video attempted murder," Mr. Stevenson said. "whatever he said was not proof of any wrongdoing on behalf of my client."

I chuckled. Even my lawyer thought that I am Ms. Anna Smith, the scam artist.

"I checked for that name," Detective Johnson said, "we have many women with that names in police records all over this country. There was even one in New York, California, Nevada, Chicago."

"It is a common name," I said.

"Yes, " she replied. "and I checked them all."

"Hm," I said. "You don't get paid enough to work so hard, Ms. Johnson."

"Mrs. Johnson, actually," she said. "But you can call me Detective."

I moved my body forward. "But Lorraine, that is so cold and distant," I said. "What kind of parent would name their child 'detective'?"