Chapter 4: The Man Who Loved Her Enough to Confess
Raymond Holt was forty-three years old, and he did not look like a man who had spent fourteen months helping someone slowly destroy another person's heart.
He looked like a man who hadn't slept in a week.
Jonathan had asked Gerald to arrange the meeting in a private room on the hospital's third floor — a family consultation room with two chairs and a small table.
No recording devices this time.
Jonathan had been clear about that.
Lucas wheeled him in.
Jonathan's legs were still unreliable, and the cardiologist had been firm: no walking long distances until the dig0xin levels dropped further.
Raymond was already seated when they arrived.
He stood immediately.
"Mr.
Mercer," he said.
"I — I don't expect you to—"
"Sit down," Jonathan said.
Raymond sat.
Lucas positioned the wheelchair across the table and stepped back toward the door.
Jonathan had asked him to stay.
He hadn't explained why.
Lucas had simply nodded and stayed.
"Tell me why," Jonathan said.
Raymond looked at his hands.
"I loved her."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have." Raymond's jaw tightened.
"I knew what she was doing.
I told myself it was the medication — that she was just managing your condition, that the doses were — I told myself a lot of things."
"For fourteen months."
"Yes."
"And the recordings?"
Raymond looked up.
"I started making them six months ago.
When I realized she wasn't going to stop.
When I realized she was going to go through with it." He exhaled slowly.
"I didn't know what to do with them.
I didn't go to the police.
I just — kept recording.
Telling myself I was building evidence.
Telling myself I'd know when the time was right."
"What changed?"
"She told me she'd already adjusted the dosage.
Two weeks ago." Raymond's voice dropped.
"She said it would be over by the end of the month.
She said it like she was talking about a lease expiring." He pressed his hands flat on the table.
"That was when I knew I couldn't — I couldn't let it happen."
Jonathan studied him for a long moment.
"You're going to testify," Jonathan said.
"Everything you told Gerald.
Everything on those recordings.
You're going to stand in front of a court and say it."
"I know."
"You'll face charges yourself."
"I know that too."
"And you're still willing."
Raymond met his eyes.
"I should have come forward six months ago.
I should have come forward the day she first — " He stopped.
"I didn't.
I can't undo that.
But I can do this."
Jonathan was quiet for a moment.
The heart monitor on the portable unit beside his chair tapped its steady rhythm.
"My attorney will be in contact with the DA's office," Jonathan said finally.
"What happens to you is not my decision.
But I won't work against you."
Raymond nodded.
He didn't say thank you.
Jonathan respected that.
Lucas opened the door.
Jonathan reached for the wheel of his chair, then stopped.
"Raymond."
The man looked up.
"Did she ever love you?
Or were you just the next plan?"
Raymond was silent for a long time.
When he finally spoke, his voice was very quiet.
"I used to think I knew the answer to that."
He didn't say what the answer was.
Jonathan didn't ask again.
In the corridor, Lucas pushed the wheelchair back toward the room without a word.
After a minute, Jonathan spoke.
"Her attorney is going to argue she was coerced.
That Raymond was the one who pushed it."
"Do you think a jury will believe that?" Lucas asked.
"I think," Jonathan said, "that forty-one recordings are very difficult to argue with."
Lucas said nothing.
But as they reached the room, he held the door open and looked at Jonathan with an expression that was not quite relief and not quite sorrow.
"Mr.
Mercer," he said.
"What happens now?"
Jonathan looked at the empty chair beside the window where the lilies had been.
Someone had removed them while he was gone.
"Now," he said, "we wait for the law to do its work.
May you like
And while we wait — I have something I need to discuss with you about your sister."
Lucas went very still.
