Victoria: Ethan! Tell them to stop! You cannot let them drag me out of your house in chains!
Ethan: I am not stopping them, Victoria. I am watching them do what I should have done weeks ago.
Victoria: You ungrateful fool! I gave up my high-society life in New York to marry you!
Clara: You gave up nothing, Victoria. You came here with two hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt!
Victoria: Shut your mouth, maid! You are nothing but an orphaned servant!
The officers twisted Victoria's wrists behind her back, the sharp metallic click of steel handcuffs echoing off the patio wall.
Victoria: Ow! You're tearing my designer gown!
Officer Harris: Watch your head, ma'am. Move forward.
Detective Miller pulled a small plastic evidence bag from his jacket, holding up a tiny brown glass vial with a white dropper cap.
Detective Miller: We found this hidden inside the nursery air vent ten minutes ago, Mr. Sterling.
Ethan: Is that the sedative Clara mentioned?
Detective Miller: Concentrated liquid chloral hydrate. If your son had swallowed that whole bottle, he never would have woken up.
Ethan closed his eyes, his fists clenching so tight his fingernails dug into his palms.
Ethan: She was going to kill him in his crib... and when she couldn't, she used the pool.
Clara: I found the empty measuring syringe in her bathroom trash can this afternoon, Mr. Sterling.
Ethan: Why didn't you come straight to me, Clara? Why did you risk your life out here tonight?
Clara: Because every time I tried to warn you, she convinced you I was stealing from the pantry or lying about her.
Ethan looked down at the dark water of the swimming pool, where the dark blue carriage still rested upside down on the bottom tiles.
Ethan: You are right. I was completely blind. I let my grief over Sarah make me weak.
Detective Miller: Sarah's death is being reopened tonight as well, Mr. Sterling.
Ethan's head snapped up, his eyes widening in total disbelief.
Ethan: What did you just say, Miller? Sarah died of sudden cardiac arrest two years ago!
Detective Miller: That was the official coroner's ruling at the time. But look at this financial record.
Detective Miller handed Ethan a printed bank ledger stamped with an official federal court seal.
Detective Miller: Victoria Vance transferred one hundred thousand dollars to that county coroner's offshore account three days after Sarah's funeral.
Victoria thrashed against the two officers holding her, her face twisting into pure, manic fury.
Victoria: That was a private consulting fee! My father hired him for an estate appraisal!
Detective Miller: Coroners don't appraise real estate, Victoria. The state medical examiner exhumed Sarah's tissue samples this morning.
Victoria: No... no! That is an illegal desecration of a grave!
Detective Miller: The toxicology results came back two hours ago. Traces of the exact same liquid sedative found in your nursery vent.
Ethan took two slow, terrifying steps toward Victoria, his dark suit jacket fluttering in the night breeze beneath the illuminated American flag.
Ethan: You poisoned my wife...
Victoria: Ethan, no! She was sick anyway! She had a weak heart valve!
Ethan: You murdered the mother of my child, and then you tried to murder her baby!
Victoria: I deserved this life! I deserved this mansion more than that plain little schoolteacher ever did!
Ethan's voice dropped to a freezing, deadly whisper that made Victoria shrink back against the officers.
Ethan: You will rot in a federal penitentiary until the day you die, Victoria. And no amount of stolen money will ever buy you bail.
Detective Miller nodded firmly to his men.
Detective Miller: Escort the prisoner to the transport cruiser. Take her downtown for immediate booking.