Chapter 9 - The Shooter
Thomas jerked backward.
Roman tackled him behind the headstone as a second bullet struck the oak above them.
Brooks shouted from downhill.
Roman pressed both hands against Thomas’s bleeding shoulder. “Who wants you dead?”
Thomas gripped his coat. “The person who started this.”
“Marco?”
Thomas shook his head.
A dark figure ran between the stones.
For one second, the face turned toward Roman.
Daniel Price.
Roman stopped breathing.
The man who had spent three years clearing his name had just fired at the witness who could prove everything.
Brooks chased him but returned empty-handed.
“He got to a car.”
Paramedics rushed Thomas away.
Roman’s phone buzzed.
Daniel.
I did save you, Roman.
Roman typed back: YOU ALSO BURIED ME.
Daniel replied immediately.
Your father buried all of us first. Ask Helena what happened the night Elias died.
Roman remembered that night. His father had collapsed after a board dinner in his study. Heart attack. No autopsy beyond routine confirmation. Helena had been there. Daniel had been there. Marco had supplied the event staff.
Back at the station, Nora sat across from her mother.
“Daniel says to ask about Elias.”
Helena closed her eyes.
“He found the trust amendment.”
Roman leaned forward. “What amendment?”
“The one Daniel drafted.”
“What did it do?”
“It cut Daniel out.”
Roman frowned. “Out of what?”
Helena looked at him.
“Your father’s will.”
Roman said nothing.
May you like
Then Helena gave him the truth that changed every relationship in the room.
“Daniel Price was Elias Calder’s son.”
