Chapter 9 - The Federal Gavel of Retribution
Senior Detective Marcus Stone stepped onto the altar dais, pulling out stamped federal arrest warrants.
“Michael Carter, Ashley Cole,” Detective Stone announced with thunderous authority. “Under Title 18 of the United States Code, you are placed under immediate arrest for Attempted First-Degree Premeditated Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Capital Homicide, and Fifty-Million-Dollar Federal Insurance Wire Fraud.”
Michael scrambled backward, knocking over the polished mahogany casket and sending funeral wreaths crashing across the altar.
“It was Ashley!” Michael wailed, sobbing hysterically, pointing a trembling finger at his mistress. “Ashley planned the route! Ashley bought the tickets! She told me we could start a new life in France!”
“You lying coward!” Ashley shrieked from the side aisle, flailing against the marshals. “You pushed your own pregnant wife with your bare hands!”
Two federal marshals pinned Michael face-down over the marble altar steps.
CLACK.
The cold steel handcuffs snapped tightly around Michael’s wrists in front of thirty flashing news cameras and the horrified stares of Denver high society.
Julian Hayes stepped forward, presenting a signed court decree.
“Pursuant to the State Slayer and Domestic Terror Statutes,” Julian declared, “all corporate assets, marital real estate, and financial trusts are 100% restored to Evelyn Sterling. Michael Carter is stripped of all legal standing and parental rights ab initio.”
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Michael was hauled down the center aisle in heavy iron transport chains, weeping in bitter, irreversible defeat.
I stood tall by the altar, looking at the empty casket, feeling the dark shadows of fear dissolve forever into the light of truth.
