Zemblanity

Chapter 16

The whole room froze in shock. Laura stood up demanding Sara to explain what she had just said. Other members of the family tried to hush Sara not to speak. Detective James, turning towards Robert, remarked, "Voila!! That's something least expecting Mr Krate.."

"Now cut through the silence and open your damn mouth!" Bob exclaimed.

"Bob..." Detective James gestured him to remain quiet. " Mr Krate, there is no other valid evidence than your wife's statement. You need to put your guard down."

Having no other options, Robert confessed.

"Yes, I am the one who masterminded the whole plot behind the murders of my brother in law and Peter Cart."

"May we know why?" Detective asked him.

"When Blackwill Franchise became a successful name across the whole globe, we decided to use the funds of the company for our personal gain. We started using the funds without William's knowledge and invested it in other ventures." 

"What happened later?" One of the superiors asked him.

"But soon our little secret became obvious to William. Upon being questioned by him, he threatened to throw us out of the Snowdown household. Nothing could change his mind and we finally decided to end his life, for our own good."

"You mean everyone was involved in my father's murder? You were his siblings, yet you decided to kill him. You treacherous people!!" 

"I have no answer for you Laura. All we thought was about our survival."

"But that does not justify your act Robert." Detective remarked." But, how did Peter Cart get involved in this?"

" We had planned to kill William by injecting poison that can cause sudden heart arrest.Since he already had a history of mild attack, the process would't take time. With that the death would be natural and without the will, everything would be divided equally. But Peter Cart came to know about our plan. We tried to persuade him and upon offered an amount of fifty lakhs which he couldn't refuse, we had him on our side. I had Betcy transfer the cash to his account. And we were successful in killing William with the help of Peter Cart."

Robert paused for a while. "After William's death, we consulted a lawyer to talk about the terms and conditions for equal property partition.But our efforts were foiled when Peter started to blackmail us with a video of our conversation. He demanded more money from us and threatened to inform Laura if we didn't comply. With no choice left, we had to eliminate him."

"But the property was transferred in Laura's name.." Detective said.

"Yes. It was another shocking revelation to us. We never expected William to actually write a will pre-hand."

"If you had known it beforehand, you would've killed Laura, right?" 

"I suppose so." 

There was a groan of exasperation from the other side. 

"Now, tell me, how did you kill Cart?"