“Total lies,” Jessica interrupted, looking at Marcus as if expecting him to jump to her defense.
Brenda did not take her eyes off her grandson, signaling for him to continue.
“She told me that if I kept trying to see you, she would convince Dad to ship me off to live with some distant relatives in the middle of nowhere,” Connor continued, his voice cracking slightly. “I told her I just wanted to get out of this house, and then she grabbed the heavy brass candle holder from the side table and swung it at me.”
Jessica stood up, her face flushed with indignation.
“This is absolutely absurd, and I have never heard such a ridiculous story in my life!” she cried out.
Brenda turned to her, her voice calm and steady.
“According to your statement, he allegedly pushed you, is that correct?” Brenda asked.
“Yes, that is exactly what happened,” Jessica replied quickly.
“And which hand did he use to push you?” Brenda inquired, her eyes scanning Jessica’s face for any sign of hesitation.
Jessica frowned, seemingly caught off guard by the simplicity of the question.
“I… well, he used both hands,” Jessica stammered, glancing at Marcus for support.
Connor, who had been listening intently, spoke up before anyone else could react.
“I actually had my left hand on my eyebrow where I was bleeding, and my right hand was trying to protect my face,” Connor noted quietly.
The room fell into a heavy silence, and for the first time that night, the doubt on Marcus’s face became impossible to ignore.
A senior captain walked out of a nearby office, his eyes locking onto Brenda immediately as he recognized the legendary detective.
“Detective Holloway,” the captain said, nodding respectfully. “I did not expect to see you here tonight.”
“Captain, we need to speak in your office,” Brenda said, and without waiting for an answer, she walked into the room, followed by the captain and her grandson.
Inside the office, the captain sighed and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“There is a major problem with the evidence, and the situation is getting complicated,” the captain admitted.
Brenda felt the weight of the night pressing down on her shoulders.
“Tell me what it is,” she demanded.
“The security cameras in the hallway of the house were conveniently disabled, with a reported system failure at exactly 11:08 PM,” the captain explained, shaking his head.
Brenda narrowed her eyes, as the 911 call had come in at 2:39 AM, leaving a massive window of time that didn’t add up.
From the office window, she could see Jessica sitting in the main room, not looking at her husband or her stepson, but staring intently toward the office door as if she were waiting for this specific news.
Then, Connor slowly reached into his backpack, his fingers trembling, and pulled out something that changed everything.
Chapter 3: The Audio Evidence
Brenda and the captain walked out of the office at the same time, their expressions now hardened with the seriousness of what they had just discovered.
The atmosphere in the precinct had shifted, as the officers on duty began to sense that something significant was unfolding in front of them.
Connor remained in his seat, holding his backpack between his feet, his fingers dancing nervously over the zipper of the main compartment.
Jessica suddenly stood up, her face turning pale as she realized the situation was slipping out of her control.
“That backpack belongs to me as well, and you have no right to go through it without my permission!” she yelled, her voice lacking its previous polish.
Brenda ignored her completely, her focus entirely on her grandson.
“What do you have in there, son?” she asked gently.
Connor swallowed hard, his eyes meeting hers.
“It is my cell phone, and I did not even know if the recording had been saved properly,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
Marcus frowned, looking back and forth between his wife and his son.
“What could a phone possibly have to do with this?” Marcus asked, clearly confused by the tension in the room.
Connor pulled out a phone with a badly cracked screen, handling it as if it were a delicate piece of glass.
Jessica took a sharp step forward, her composure fully unraveling.
“Give that to me right now,” she commanded, her voice sounding less like a victim and more like a predator.
The captain raised a hand, stepping directly into her path.
“Ma’am, you need to stay back and remain where you are,” he warned.
Jessica froze, her eyes locked on the phone in Connor’s hand, as he struggled to unlock the screen with his shaking fingers.
He failed the first time, then the second, but finally, he managed to bypass the lock and navigate to his voice memo app.
There was an audio file labeled with the time: 2:36 AM, just three minutes before the emergency call.
“Do not play that,” Jessica hissed, her voice vibrating with genuine fear.
Brenda looked at her, her expression unreadable.
“Why not, Jessica?” she asked.
Jessica didn’t answer, and Connor pressed the play button, filling the room with the clear, cold sounds of the night.
The recording began with the sound of footsteps, a door clicking shut, and the distant, muffled hum of a television set.
Then, Jessica’s voice cut through the air, sharp and devoid of any fake, tearful emotion.
“Do you really think you are going back to your grandmother’s place again?” Jessica asked, her tone dripping with condescension. “What are you going to tell her, that you are suffering so much here, you poor thing?”
Connor’s voice on the recording sounded small and broken.
“I just want to spend the weekend with her,” he replied.
Jessica let out a dry, chilling laugh.
“You are not going anywhere until you finally realize that I am the boss in this house, and you will do exactly as I say,” she said.
Marcus stood in the middle of the room, his face turning an ashen white as he heard his wife’s voice reveal her true colors.
The audio continued, each second driving a wedge further into their marriage.
“I am going to tell your father that you screamed at me and threatened my life,” Jessica said, her voice becoming cruel. “And if you try to play the victim, I can promise you that I am capable of doing something much worse.”
There was a sudden, sharp bang, followed by a cry of pain from Connor.
Brenda felt a surge of cold, focused rage in her chest, but she remained perfectly still, waiting for the evidence to complete its story.
Then, the final, condemning sentence echoed throughout the precinct.
“If you dare tell him I hit you, I will tell him you pushed me, and who do you think he will believe? You, or his wife?”
The audio file ended, and the silence that followed was absolute.