Chapter 6 - ELI’S INTERVIEWThe next morning, Eli gave police a longer account.
I was not in the room.
Good.
Children—teenagers included—deserve a chance to speak without a parent’s face steering every sentence.
He went to Grandpa’s house at 4:30.
Charles had texted:
Need help connecting new printer. Pizza after.
Eli rode his bike.
Dad asked about the vendor files within five minutes.
Not the printer.
“What exactly did he ask?”
“What I copied.”
“Had you copied something?”
“Yes.”
Several invoices.
A spreadsheet.
Photos of two handwritten notes.
Saved to his personal cloud account.
Why?
Because Mark had told him:
“You didn’t see those.”
That scared him.
Then Mark arrived.
“How long later?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes.”
Mark demanded Eli’s phone.
Eli refused.
Mark grabbed it from the table.
Eli tried to take it back.
He shoved Mark.
Important.
He was not an inert victim.
Mark shoved back.
Harder.
Eli struck the basement door.
Dad said:
“Take this downstairs until he cools off.”
Eli refused.
Mark grabbed him around the shoulders.
Eli swung.
Hit Mark near the mouth.
Mark punched him in the side.
Eli stumbled backward.
Missed several steps.
Fell.
The next memory came in fragments.
Basement floor.
Ribs hurting.
Mark holding his phone.
Grandpa saying:
“You just destroyed your life over paperwork.”
Then another person came downstairs.
A woman.
Eli hesitated.
“Who?”
“Aunt Denise.”
Mark’s wife.
May you like
My sister-in-law.
That was the first time her name entered the case.
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