Jeb tapped the folder again.“Do you know about the life insurance policy Jarod took out two weeks ago?”
She stopped breathing.“What?”
Jeb nodded.“He listed you as the sole beneficiary.One million dollars, payable upon death.”
She stared at him.“What?”How in any world did that make sense?Jarod didn’t even like her.“You’re lying.”
Paige shook her head.“No, we’re not.”She pulled out a stapled stack of papers to hand to Daisy.
Daisy flipped through them.“Yep.One million.”
“I have no idea,” Amka whispered.The room tilted slightly.“He never told me.”
“Sure,” Paige muttered.
Daisy sat up straighter.“Are you implying that my client, who has a visible alibi for the night in question, had motive based on a policy she didn’t even know existed?”
“We’re saying everything’s on the table,” Jeb replied.“Jarod was killed.Amka stands to benefit.That’s motive.”
Amka gripped the edge of the chair.“No.He never even mentioned insurance.”
“You can deny it all you want,” Paige said.“But that policy was active.You’re the named recipient.”
Amka’s world tilted around her.
Daisy leaned forward, calm and cutting.“Out of curiosity, has anyone checked for life insurance policies on my client?”
Jeb raised an eyebrow.Paige didn’t move.
“Well?”Daisy pressed.“If you’re following the money, then follow it both ways.”
Paige exhaled and pulled out another stack of papers.“There’s a policy,” she said.“It was filed the same day with the beneficiary listed as Jarod Teller.”
“How much is the payout?”Daisy asked, her voice flat.
Paige hesitated.“One million.”
Amka’s body went cold.
That policy had never been mentioned.Never signed.Never discussed.She couldn’t imagine why he’d?—
Wait a minute.Why would he do that?Bile roiled around in her stomach.Had Jarod planned to kill her for the money?Had he been that evil?Why take out both policies?Just to look innocent?He was a jerk, but she hadn’t imagined he was that cruel.“He took it out without telling me,” she whispered.
“Sure, he did,” Paige said.“We have your signature on yours.”
“No you don’t.I never signed that.”Amka pulled Daisy’s notepad toward herself, reached for a pen, and signed her name three times.Then she pushed away from the table.“This is my signature.Feel free to compare them.I’m done.”She stood.
Jeb slid the notebook toward himself.“Signatures can be changed, but we’ll send this to the lab to compare.Might have to ask the FBI for help.”
Amka’s legs trembled.She had to get out of there.“Either arrest me or I’m leaving.”
Paige also stood.“In that case, you’re under the arrest for the murder of Jarod Teller.Put your hands behind your back.”She moved in with the handcuffs.“You have the right to remain silent.The?—”
Amka wavered as the room morphed and Paige’s voice muffled into something unintelligible.Was she going to prison?
Two hours after being arrested,the metal chair bit into Amka’s thighs.Cold, unrelenting.Her palms rested on her jeans, but her fingers wouldn’t stop twitching.Across the table, the wheeled-in computer monitor crackled to life, cords looping down like snakes.A grainy video feed showed Judge Bobb Kerrick in his cluttered office, half-buried in paperwork.Fallon Price, the Anchorage ADA, leaned in from his square, the glow from his screen casting hard shadows across his face.
Daisy sat to Amka’s left, jaw set, one heel tapping steadily under the table.She hadn’t spoken much since they’d arrested Amka.Just squeezed her arm and told her to breathe.
