I Died to End Their Lie novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Cuffs

The detective caught Cade in the stage-left corridor, between the fire door and a rack of folded chairs.

Cade struck at him with an elbow and missed.

Two uniformed officers came through the fire door, and one of them took him by the neck of his tuxedo.

"Cade Rittenhouse," the detective said, "you're under arrest."

He read the charges off a card.

"Conspiracy to unlawfully imprison Jesse Rittenhouse, reckless endangerment, and theft of property."

"I didn't touch him!" Cade screamed. "I never touched him!"

"You arranged it."

"I said don't kill him! It's on the thread, you saw it!"

"I did." The detective snapped the cuffs. "It's the first line the prosecutor will read."

The officers marched him out through the lobby.

Past the doors, the cameras flashed so hard that the whole street lit white.

I floated behind them down the marble steps.

Cade hung his head between the two officers, and a reporter shouted, "Did you let your brother die?"

He lifted his face.

For a second, he looked straight into the lens.

"He was dying anyway," he said.

It went out live.

By morning the clip had been played more times than the recording of my last call.

At nine the next day, my parents stood in the lobby of the county jail.

Dad had on yesterday's suit.

Mom held the robot box under her arm.

The guard behind the glass looked at a screen.

"Inmate Cade Rittenhouse has requested a visit. Family only. Two at a time."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Died to End Their Lie from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.