Chapter 7 - What Daniel Saw
Daniel heard the detective outside and knew Martin was not about to attack him.
That did not make the words easier.
“I was eleven.”
“You were old enough to remember.”
“I remember a phone call. Dad leaving. Then the police.”
Martin shook his head.
“You remember what your father taught you to remember.”
Daniel grabbed the front of Martin’s coat.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Martin didn’t fight him.
“Your mother came to the office that night with copies of the payment records. Your father was there. So was I.”
Daniel’s grip tightened.
“And me?”
“You followed her.”
A smell flashed through Daniel’s mind.
Wet concrete.
Gasoline.
His mother shouting his name.
He released Martin.
“No.”
“You saw an argument.”
“With who?”
Martin’s mouth opened.
A shot cracked through the metal wall.
Martin jerked backward.
Daniel hit the floor.
The detective outside shouted.
Another shot punched through the unit door.
Daniel crawled behind a stack of tires.
Martin pressed both hands to his shoulder, blood spreading between his fingers.
“Back exit,” he gasped.
“There isn’t one.”
Martin kicked a low panel behind the cabinet.
It popped inward.
Daniel stared.
Martin laughed weakly. “Your father liked hidden doors.”
They crawled into the next unit as police returned fire toward the far fence.
By the time Daniel reached the alley, the shooter was gone.
Paramedics loaded Martin into an ambulance.
Daniel leaned close.
“Who was arguing with my mother?”
Martin’s eyes fluttered.
He whispered one name.
“Samuel.”
Daniel froze.
Samuel Price had been his father’s lawyer for thirty years.
He had handled Laura’s estate.
He had also drafted Daniel’s inheritance after his father died.
Martin grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
May you like
“Samuel knows you found the room.”
Then he lost consciousness.
