Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 101

*Michael*

They left me in an interrogation room for hours without explaining why I was there. All I could do was pace back and forth, waiting until they decided to come and question me. Finally, the door opened, and two officers walked in.

“Can someone please explain why I’m here?” I asked, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.

“Please take a seat, Mr. Astor,” an officer with dark red hair told me.

“I will not take a seat until someone explains to me why I’m here. I was arrested at my home in the middle of the night, and I was barely told anything on the way here. Then I was left in this room for hours. Is this some kind of sick joke to you people?” I snapped.

“If you would take a seat, we can start asking you some questions. The more cooperative you are with this interrogation, the better things will be for you in the long run. Now, I will ask you one more time. Please take a seat, Mr. Astor,” the officer said again.

I ran my hand through my very disheveled hair but did as he asked.

“Thank you,” the other officer said, mirroring me by running his hand over his dark hair, cut short into a buzz cut.

“Can you please tell me what you’re holding me for? What have I been accused of?”

“Walk us through your day yesterday, Mr. Astor,” the red-haired officer demanded, ignoring my question.

I gritted my teeth but responded, “I got to my office around eight in the morning. I called my cousin Lucille to check on her and get her opinion on a few things. I cut that call short because a client showed up for a meeting. That meeting went on for just over an hour. I made a few more work calls, had lunch at the office, and sent out some emails. I went home at five, drove home, and ordered Chinese takeout. Then I fell asleep on the couch.”

“Who was your meeting with yesterday morning?”

“Mr. Lou Carmine,” I said.

The two officers glanced at each other before turning back to me with more questions.

“And where were you before you went to the office at eight?”

“I was at my townhouse,” I answered.

“And can anyone corroborate that you were indeed at your townhouse all morning before going to the office?”

“No, I was home alone. My girlfriend stays with me on the weekends, but during the week, I live alone. Now can you please tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

“Your half-brother Mr. Blaine Blake was found murdered in his apartment. His time of death occurred sometime in the early hours of the morning yesterday. Since you have no one to confirm you were alone at your residence, you are our prime suspect,” the red-haired officer stated flatly.

“I’d like my lawyer present before I answer any more of your questions,” I said as my stomach plunged to the floor.

“That’s probably wise, Mr. Astor,” the other officer said with a smirk.

***

Within half an hour, my lawyer was sitting across the table from me in the interrogation room.

“James, what the hell is going on? I was just told that I’m their lead suspect in my half-brother’s murder. I didn’t even know he was dead. Please tell me you have some good news for me,” I said, nearly tripping over my own words.

“I don’t know if you will consider any of it good news, but it is certainly information,” James said bleakly.

I sighed, running my hands through my hair again.

“I’ll take anything I can get right now. I feel like I’m completely in the dark at the moment,” I said.

“It appears that Blaine was shot in one of his apartments. There’s no sign of forced entry, or from the looks of it, anyone else in the room with him when he died,” James explained.

“How is that possible?” I asked.

“The glass on one of the windows was shattered, but no one could have used it to get into the apartment. It was on the side of the building without a fire escape and his apartment was on the sixth floor. They believe that he was taken out by a sniper,” James said.

“What? That’s horrible to think about, but it makes even less sense that they think I’m responsible. To shoot someone from a long distance like that takes a skill that I certainly don’t have. How do they think I managed that?” I asked.

“From what I’ve been able to gather about the crime scene, the apartment looked very similar to the one you and Bruce found a few weeks ago. There were next to no furnishings, and it looked like more of a hideout than a place to live,” James said.

“Okay, but how does that pertain to what’s going on right now?”

“The police have created a theory that he was hiding out from you,” James answered.

“From me?” I asked, confused. “He was the one that was blackmailing me. I have proof of all of it. I’ve been working with the FBI for over a month about all of this.”

“Well, not you particularly. Their theory is that he was hiding out from a hitman that you hired to take him out. They know about the blackmail; they’re saying that it was your motive for setting up the entire thing. They believe that you hired a man to kill your half-brother as revenge for all the damage the blackmailing has caused,” James said.

“This is unbelievable. Just because they have a theory doesn’t mean they can arrest me for Blaine’s murder. There’s no proof to support this,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Apparently, there’s a fair bit of evidence stacked against you already,” James said gravely.

“What? Impossible,” I said.

“They got ahold of your phone records. They’ve found several calls between you and members of a known mafia family,” James said.

“s**t,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Is it true?” James asked, his eyes wide.

“Yes, it is, but it’s not what it looks like. I was trying to track down how much Blaine owed the mafia. I figured it had to be a big sum for how much trouble he’d been going through to blackmail me. I needed a better grasp on just how out of control he’d gotten,” I explained.

“Well, if that’s the case, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a jury to overlook that. As long as you haven’t had any more contact with any of the known mafia families,” James said.

The realization struck me, and James must’ve seen it from the look on my face.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

“I had a meeting with Lou Carmine yesterday, and I told the police as much,” I admitted, feeling stupid for having said anything to them before James arrived.

“Dammit,” James cursed.

“There are also claims of you transferring money from the Astor Estate to an offshore account,” James said.

“That’s ridiculous. The FBI actually found that after the break-in at my penthouse. It was Blaine. He moved the money to the offshore account but just left it there. I was trying to figure out why he hadn’t used it to pay off the Pezzullo enforcers; that’s why I was even talking to the Carmines in the first place,” I explained.

“The FBI reported that you acted as though the missing money was not a big deal to you, that you hadn’t even noticed it was gone. Unless you can prove that it was Blaine that moved the money to the offshore account, it looks as though you moved it there so you could flee the country undetected,” James said.

“I can prove it. I had my guy Delany trace the IP address used to transfer the money to that account. He’s the one that led us to Blaine’s hideout that we found a few weeks ago. I have all of the paperwork,” I explained.

“What Delany does is highly illegal hacking. I doubt he’ll take the stand to save your skin. Even if he did, a jury wouldn’t likely find him a trustworthy witness to back up your claim. I’ll look over the paperwork in the meantime, but I doubt we’ll be able to use any of it to back up your story,” James explained.

“Is there any more evidence?” I asked, scared to hear the answer.

“Not that I know of yet, but I’ll let you know if anything else comes to the surface. In the meantime, is there anything that you did that may have looked like you were doing something illegal or that could link you to a hitman for hire? I need to be fully prepared if you know of anything that could be used against you.”

My mind immediately went to the two interactions I had with Delany’s cronies. If any of that was seen, or worse yet captured on camera, it may look like I was dropping off money for a hit job. Knowing Blaine, I probably was followed, and likely the entire encounter was photographed.

“Actually, yes. There may have been a few times I left large sums of cash in a black duffle bag in a poorly lit alleyway. It was how I was paying Delany for the work he was doing for me,” I explained, kicking myself for not being more careful.

James stared blankly at me, probably wondering just how he was going to build a case for someone looking so guilty.

“I’m sorry, James. I know how bad this all looks, but I swear to you I had nothing to do with this. There were a lot of people after my half-brother, and he knew it,” I said.

James nodded, “I never thought you did it, Mr. Astor. I’ve worked with you for years. I know what kind of man you are. I know you’re not capable of this. I’ll do my best to make sure everyone else sees it too.”

“I don’t know if this helps, but I think that I may be being set up for this entire thing,” I said.

“Who do you think is setting you up to take the fall for murder?” James asked.

“Blaine Blake.”