05
The case quickly took a dramatic turn.
Alan tracked down the retired coroner who had handled Vinnie’s autopsy. The man was frail and struggling to live in a care. facility.
“The report was fabricated,” he admitted. Levi had paid him handsomely for his silence.
The money was meant to save the coroner’s daughter, who was battling a rare form of cancer. It should be enough for her to
survive.
Yet tragically, she passed away not long after Vinnie’s death, leaving the coroner with nothing but guilt.
Perhaps driven by remorse, he told Alan everything.
“That little girl was abused before she died,” he said, his voice heavy with shame.
“She didn’t drown. She was suffocated. Someone pressed the life out of her with their own hands.”
The coroner’s testimony was recorded in full, and when the tape played in the interrogation room, silence fell over everyone.
In harrowing detail, he described every mark and injury on Vinnie’s body.
Her arms and legs, visible beneath her dress, were covered in bruises, swelling, and lacerations.
Just hearing it sent me and Marvin spiraling into rage.
The wounds had been dismissed in the original report as scratches from underwater debris.
But the truth exposed by the coroner had been hidden until now.
The abuse Vinnie endured before her death was far more horrific than we had ever imagined.
I could hear Marvin’s silent but anguished screams. “Monsters! Animals!”
His fists clenched so tightly that blood dripped from his palms, staining the pristine white floor.
“Vinnie, my little girl… Daddy failed you!” Marvin sobbed, his voice breaking
Men never cried easily, but the recording lasted mere minutes, and Marvin’s face was already soaked with tears. Even my vision blurred. When I reached up to wipe my eyes, I realized I was crying too, tears streaked with blood. No one in the room spoke. Not a single officer dared interrupt Marvin’s grief.
I thought back to the night Marvin pieced together the full truth.
He hadn’t reacted like this then. Instead, his calm had been terrifying.
He had hung up on Karen’s call without emotion, driven to the cemetery in silence, and even remembered to buy two bouquets of flowers, one for me and one for Vinnie.
At the gravesite, he carefully wiped the dust from our headstones. Perhaps fearing he might frighten Vinnie, he hadn’t spoken aloud about the truth or his plans for revenge
But I had heard his thoughts.
“I don’t have the patience to wait for justice. I’ll make justice happen myself. Karen and Levi will pay the most brutal price!” He had already gone mad by then.
At the time, I had hoped Marvin would let go of his hatred, find a quiet place where no one knew him, and live out his life in peace.
After all, even if he avenged us, we could never return to him.
But everything changed that night when he returned home.
Karen had slapped him hard across the face, furious that he had missed her call and failed to buy some trivial item.
“You’ve latched onto my family now, so you’d better learn to serve me properly! She had sneered.
“Your shriveled–up wife and sickly brat of a kid are dead. If you don’t put more effort into pleasing me, I’ll kick you out and have my dad crush your company!”
She giggled, utterly indifferent to how cruel her words were.
That was when I changed my mind.
When Marvin lay beside Karen at night, his hands repeatedly tightening around her
4:23 PM
