Victor said that after he attacked Andrew, Natalie began screaming, grabbed at him, and scratched him. He insisted he had only been trying to restrain and calm her. According to him, he had not meant to strangle her—he had simply held on too hard.
He said that at some point she stopped making noise, and only then did he realize what had happened. The detective wrote it all down in the same steady hand. But the most disturbing part of the case was not the mechanics of the crime. It was what came after.
Mercer asked how Victor had gone on living for fifteen years after doing something like that. He reminded him that he had driven over that bridge every day and slept in the next room from a wife broken by grief.
Victor nodded and said his wife had asked about Natalie every day at first. Over time, the questions came less often, until she stopped asking altogether. He described her as a smart woman who understood more than she said.
When asked whether his daughter had ever appeared in his dreams, Victor looked genuinely puzzled. Then he slowly shook his head and said he had always slept just fine.
In his view, what he had done was not extraordinary. His daughter had broken the rules, and he had punished her. To a man like Victor, there was little difference between a subordinate at work and his own child.
The formal interview lasted about three hours and remained eerily calm throughout. Victor gave the details clearly, without confusion, as if he had finally found someone willing to listen.
He described how he had gone to the bridge ahead of time, stood there smoking, and watched for the white car. Natalie had run toward him with her arms open, believing her father had come to the wedding after all.
He let her get close so she would not interfere while he moved toward the driver’s window. Andrew died before he understood what was happening. Natalie, by contrast, had time to understand every bit of it.
At the end of the interview, Victor Parker was charged with intentional double homicide with aggravating circumstances. He listened to the formal charges, said nothing, and asked only to collect a few personal items from home.
In county jail, he was a model inmate. He ate regularly, slept well, and never caused trouble. During exercise periods, he stood by the brick wall and stared at the gray sky.
Cellmates later said the old man seemed less like a person than a piece of furniture. Any attempt at conversation ended the moment he looked up. But he never lived to hear a verdict.
Three months after his arrest, Victor suffered a major stroke that left the right side of his body paralyzed. Two weeks later, he had another and died quietly in the jail hospital. The case was closed with the death of the sole defendant…
