The door opens. Detective Walker steps in, sets a bottle of water in front of me, and sits down.
“You know, Katherine. Every day, I learn something new about you—things you should have mentioned but failed to.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Detective Walker.”
“That you were adopted by Bradley and Caroline Yearns when you were five.”
My eyes widen in shock and disbelief, and my hands begin to shake. “What are you talking about? Bradley and Caroline are my birth parents.”
Detective Walker studies me momentarily.
“No, Katherine. They’re not. They adopted you when you were five because your birth mother was sent to prison for murdering your father.”
I place my hands over my ears. I don’t want to hear anymore. “Stop it! You’re wrong. They would never lie to me.”
“Your birth mother murdered your father in cold blood with you in the room. She found out he had been having an affair for twenty-two months, so she stabbed him twenty-two times. When the police arrived, they found you crouched in the corner of the room next to a bookcase. The Yearns took you in as foster care but then they wanted to adopt you. After a year, it was finalized.”
“I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing, detective, but I’m out!” I kick the chair back as my fists slam on the table.
“You killed those men, Katherine. Admit it.”
“I didn’t kill anyone! Give me a polygraph. I can prove it. I can prove it.”
“Maybe you should contact your lawyer first,” she says.
“I don’t need a lawyer. I didn’t do anything. Please, Detective Walker, give me a polygraph test.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
She leads me to another sterile room. I’m strapped to a chair with electrodes attached to my fingers and chest. The technician sits across from me and fiddles with the machine.
“Yes and no answers only,” he says.
I nod.
“Are you an attorney?”
“Yes.”
“Is your current name Katherine Tate?”
“Yes.”
“Was your previous married name Katherine Grisham?”
“Yes.”
“Are your birth parents named Burton and Caroline Yearns?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know you were adopted at the age of five?”
“No.”
He studies the machine.
“Did you watch your mother murder your father?”
