Confessions of a Murder Suspect Read Online Free PDF

out, for Christ’s sake,” Caputo said. “They could be witnesses to a double homicide. You think I should have made them hot chocolate and told them to watch cartoons? We had dead people here.”
    Phil ignored him and kept going.
    “I’m going to file a complaint with the chief of Ds in the morning. Right now, I’m advising my clients not to speak with you unless you charge them, and even then only if I’m present. I’m also advising them all to go to bed. That includes Matthew, if he wants to stay, and Samantha Peck, too.”
    Caputo said, “The Angels’ bedroom is a crime scene. We’re leaving uniformed officers at the top of the stairs. I wouldn’t mess with us if I were you, counselor. Be advised of
that
.”
    And with that, Caputo and Hayes finally left our apartment.
    Uncle Peter stood in the center of the room, watching and saying nothing. He hadn’t hugged me, or asked where my three brothers were so he could go to see them. He’s made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t like children.
    He especially doesn’t like us.
    Why, you might ask?
    Because
, he has said,
I know you.
    He looked around the apartment as if he were sizing it up for sale. I knew for a fact that the apartment could fetch twenty million, and that was without the art and the furnishings. Uncle Peter would probably get my father’s half of Angel Pharma, but would he inherit our apartment as well?
    Uncle Peter said to me, “I’m moving into the guest roomfor now. After the reading of the will, we’ll see what the future will bring to the Angel family.”
    My jaw dropped. We didn’t
have
a “guest room.” And that could only mean one thing.
    I watched as Uncle Peter went into the bedroom right next to mine. Oh, man, I could
not
believe it. If my parents had been alive, they might have killed Peter for using Katherine’s room.
    And I’m not exactly using
kill
as a figure of speech here.

CONFESSION
    I saw Maud cry once.
    I know you probably don’t believe that’s possible, but it’s true. I need to prove to you that my parents really were human. That they could feel pain.
    I can’t place the memory specifically in time; I imagine this is one of those traumatic moments that Dr. Keyes worked so hard to help me forget, but somehow it still lingers.
    I remember that I’d come home early that day because lacrosse practice had been canceled unexpectedly. So I know it was before the accident with Robert that landed me in the hospital with fifty stitches.
    As I entered the apartment, I heard a strange, strangled noise coming from the direction of Maud’s study.
    Others might have sprinted toward the sound to make sure there was no foul play, or maybe called out, asking if everyone was all right. But I think I’m a born investigator. When I hear something unusual, it’s my nature to get quiet and observe, to study. So I took my shoes off, the Angel family rule, and padded quietly down the hall.
    When I reached the door to the study, which was cracked open, I heard Samantha’s voice. “Of course you had to do it. A mother’s role is to prepare and protect her child. Period. You knew what he would do to her.”
    There was brief silence, then a gasp, then a wail. “We did something much worse, Samantha.” It was Maud’s voice, twisted with emotion. “What we did… the consequences are final. I have never failed so spectacularly in my life.”
    “You didn’t fail. The person who you hired to do the job failed.”
    “I shouldn’t have trusted him.”
    “But it was an accident.”
    “Accidents are the very definition of failure. Pure, complete failure.”
    “Maud, the past can’t be changed. You can only let yourself think of the future. Of what’s next. Let’s discuss what can be done to… clean up. Let’s discuss how I can help.”
    “Malcolm is taking care of that part. The person who did this will be taken care of. Permanently.”
    Permanently taken care of?
Fired
, I reassured myself.
That must be what she