Chapter 17 - MILES TOOK THE STAND
Miles went to trial on the most serious financial and conspiracy charges.
The prosecution had messages.
Financial records.
Vivienne.
Bellamy.
Security footage.
The departure attempt.
The AFTER A plan.
Miles’s defense claimed Vivienne acted independently when she put the dangerous substance in Arthur’s drink.
Maybe he intended fraud.
Not murder.
Then prosecutors played a recovered recording.
Vivienne.
“What if he doesn’t finish the drink?”
Miles.
“He always finishes the first one.”
Arthur closed his eyes in the courtroom.
That detail came from friendship.
Miles knew his habits.
His drink.
His schedule.
His board patterns.
Sixteen years of trust converted into operational knowledge.
That was what hurt most.
The defense tried another strategy.
Arthur had become paranoid after discovering financial irregularities.
Sarah was attention-seeking.
Vivienne was unstable.
Bellamy wanted leniency.
Everyone except Miles was unreliable.
Then Sarah testified.
No drama.
She explained what she saw.
Why she recorded.
Why she knocked the glass away.
Miles’s attorney asked.
“You had personal resentment toward Mr. Davenport because of your father?”
Sarah answered.
“Yes.”
The attorney looked pleased.
“So you wanted to hurt him?”
“No.”
“I wanted someone to believe my father.”
“And when did you decide to accuse Mr. Davenport of murder?”
“I didn’t.”
“I recorded a woman touching a drink.”
“Police found the rest.”
That answer ended the trap.
Sarah did not need to prove the entire conspiracy.
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She had simply preserved one fact.
The jury handled the rest.
