Detective Vance: Mrs. Sterling, I asked you a direct question. Why was a living infant placed inside a sealed wooden casket?
Victoria: I... I didn't put her in there! My staff handled the chapel arrangements!
Clara: Her private driver placed the baby inside thirty minutes ago while the chapel was empty, Detective!
Victoria: That driver was operating on his own! I had no knowledge of his actions!
Clara: Then why did you have the master key to the casket's brass lock in your private coat pocket?
Detective Vance looked at Victoria, extending his gloved hand toward her formal suit jacket.
Detective Vance: Hand over the contents of your pockets, Mrs. Sterling.
Victoria: You don't have a search warrant for my personal belongings!
Detective Vance: This is an active crime scene involving a child endangerment emergency. Hand over the coat or my officers will search you right now.
Victoria's hands trembled as she pulled a small brass key and a folded leather document from her inner pocket. Detective Vance took them, unfolding the paper under the chapel light.
Detective Vance: This is an international transfer bill of lading... registered to a private adoption broker in Switzerland.
Clara: She was selling my niece to an illegal broker so there would be no living heir left to claim the Sterling trust fund!
Victoria: That document is a fake! Someone planted that in my jacket!
Detective Vance: It has your official digital signature and notary stamp, Mrs. Sterling. Dated eight o'clock this morning.
Victoria: I was forced to sign that under duress by my late husband's creditors!
Clara: Your husband's creditors didn't forge my sister's death certificate, Victoria!
Two paramedics rushed into the chapel carrying a padded medical basket and a portable monitoring kit.
Paramedic: Where is the infant?
Clara: She's right here. She's breathing, but she was buried under heavy lilies for at least twenty minutes.
Paramedic: Let me see her, ma'am. We need to check her oxygen saturation levels immediately.
Clara carefully unbuttoned her red flannel shirt, handing the swaddled newborn to the lead paramedic. The baby let out a healthy, loud cry that rang through the high sanctuary ceiling.
Paramedic: Lungs sound clear! Heart rate is strong! She's a tough little girl.
Clara: Thank God...
Detective Vance: Officers, place Mrs. Sterling under arrest for attempted human trafficking, felony child endangerment, and evidence tampering.
Victoria: Get your hands off me! Do you know who my corporate defense lawyers are? I am the acting CEO of Sterling Global Enterprises!
Detective Vance: You can tell your corporate lawyers all about it from the county lockup, Mrs. Sterling.
The cold steel handcuffs clicked firmly around Victoria's wrists. The blood from her forehead had dried in a dark line down her nose, making her look disheveled and wild as the officers turned her toward the aisle.
Victoria: Clara! Listen to me! We can make a deal! I will give you forty percent of the estate liquid assets if you drop the criminal testimony!
Clara: My sister's life wasn't for sale, Victoria. And neither is her daughter's future.
Victoria: You'll ruin the company stock! Thousands of investors will lose their savings!
Clara: Then the company will fall. But you will never harm another child in this family again.
Victoria: You're a fool, Clara! A penniless, sentimental fool!
The officers dragged Victoria down the chapel aisle, her heels dragging against the marble floor as her shrill screams faded out into the parking lot.
Detective Vance turned to Clara, looking at the blood on her crowbar and the tear-stained American flag patch on her red shirt.
Detective Vance: You took a massive risk swinging that steel bar, young lady.
Clara: I did what any real sister would do, Detective.
Detective Vance: We need you to come down to the precinct to give a formal statement once the hospital clears the baby.
Clara: I'm not leaving my niece's side for a single second.
Detective Vance: I wouldn't expect you to. Follow the ambulance in my squad car.