Page 39 of Omega’s Oath

Omega kept his eyes on Cheryl as he spoke to Quint. “What has she said to you?”

“Not a lot. She refused a lawyer and said she’d only speak to you or Rose. As Rose is family, we figured you would be the better option in this instance.”

“I’m glad you did. Rose is too close, and if this is true, it’s going to be hard for her to accept.”

“We have a team going through her home and we’re revisiting the case. We just need her side to see if it corroborates what her husband said.”

Omega swung his head to look at Quint. “Where is he now?”

Quint was a good cop, a steady and thorough officer who examined all the evidence, and a friend. Although Omega didn’t know him as well as Cruz did.

“We took his statement and let him go.”

Cruz spoke up from where he’d been watching Cheryl closely. “I’d like to read it before we go in and talk to her.”

He had way more experience with interviewing suspects than Omega did, but he’d still trained as an agent before choosing to become an analyst. In this instance though, Omega would be the lead but he needed Cruz with him, and his friend didn’t let him down. “You lead as she wants you here for a reason, but I’ll interject as I see fit. Does that work?”

“You read my mind.”

Cruz read through the husband’s statement as did Omega and it offered little in the way of detail, just that he knew she’d done it and she’d admitted it to him.

He opened the door of the cool interview room and noticed the sweat coating Cheryl and knew she must be worried to be sweating like she was in the cold room.

“I hear you wanted to talk to me,” he said after formally introducing himself for the monitors. Cruz did the same and they sat opposite. He spread his hands, palm up. “So here I am.”

“I killed my mother. My father is innocent.”

Omega tried to show no reaction to her words. “Why did you kill her?”

“She was a horrible human being.”

Omega shrugged. “Lots of those around and lots of shitty parents too. Our prisons aren’t full of killers who shot everyone who was shitty though.”

Cheryl picked at her cuticle before studiously lifting her head and pinning him with a gaze. “You have no idea, neither does Rose. She controlled everything I did, the clothes I wore, the job I had, the men I dated. Christ, she was the one who decided I should marry my husband and when I should have my children.”

“Why didn’t you say no? You were out of her home by then, surely you could fight her?”

Cheryl snorted. “Maybe, but when you’ve had years of conditioning to make you do as a person says and been manipulated until you don’t know your own mind anymore, it’s hard.”

“I understand that, but why kill her now? What triggered it all?”

Cheryl looked down, somehow defeated and Cruz offered her a tissue as she cried quietly. She accepted it and wiped her eyes. “Harlan Goodwin.”

Omega leaned forward; despite his years of training he couldn’t be calm where that man was concerned. “What about him?”

“His company owns the fertility clinic where I work. He approached me last year after Rose came in and asked me to do a few things for him in exchange for some cash. I saw it as innocent, Rose and I aren’t close, and he’s loved her his whole life. Any fool can see that, or at least I thought he did.”

Omega clenched and forcibly unclenched his fist, wanting her to get to the point.

Cruz stepped into the breach. “What did he ask you to do, Cheryl?”

“He asked me to give him her test results. I didn’t see any harm in it, so I did.”

Omega was appalled at the lack of respect for her sister but kept quiet.

“Then what?”

“Then he asked me to switch a few samples. I didn’t want to do that, but he offered me a new car and I ain’t ever had anything like that before, so I agreed.”