Chương 12 - The Shot Through the Glass
The gunshot blew through the foyer like thunder.
Grant dropped behind the marble console.
Ethan covered Evelyn with his body as glass rained across the floor.
A second shot struck the wall.
“Stay down!” Ethan shouted.
He dragged Evelyn toward the hallway.
Grant crawled after them.
Outside, tires screamed.
Then silence.
Ethan called 911.
Within minutes, the estate filled with police.
The bullet had passed through the exact spot where Grant's chest had been.
Someone had tried to kill him.
That changed everything.
Detective Ortiz separated them for interviews.
Grant finally broke.
He admitted he had helped create shell vendors to move money.
He admitted his mother had introduced him to Halston executives.
He admitted Officer Daniels had been paid to suppress complaints.
But he insisted Richard's death had not been part of the plan.
“I swear to you,” Grant told Evelyn. “We were stealing money. I know how horrible that sounds. But nobody was supposed to die.”
“Did your mother tamper with his car?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to believe I would not be sitting here after someone just shot at me if I knew everything.”
That was hard to argue with.
Ortiz asked, “Who else would want you dead?”
Grant looked at Ethan.
“Halston.”
“Name.”
Grant hesitated.
“Victor Hale.”
Claire's former boss.
CEO of Halston Asset Management.
The man whose name had never appeared on a single suspicious transfer.
Grant rubbed his face.
“My mother thought she was using Victor. She wasn't. Nobody uses him.”
Evelyn asked, “What did my father find?”
“A ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“A private accounting file. Names, payments, dates. Every politician, officer, judge, and contractor Halston bought.”
Ethan leaned forward. “Where is it?”
Grant looked at Evelyn.
“Richard took it.”
Her pulse jumped.
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“Where did he put it?”
Grant shook his head. “I don't know.”
Evelyn remembered the phone call at Martin's office.
Your father left more than one letter.
Maybe not a letter.
Maybe a map.
She went back to Richard's recorder and played the message again.
One line stood out.
I made one terrible mistake years ago. I trusted a person because I thought family debt created family loyalty.
Family debt.
Evelyn thought of old family properties.
Her grandfather's lake cabin.
The place Daniel Cross had once lived after rehab.
A property Miriam had always called “the debt house.”
Evelyn stood.
“I know where my father hid the ledger.”
May you like
Grant's face went white.
“So does my mother.”
