Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO SHOT AT THE FLOWERS
Adrian covered me with his body.
The old instinct of loving him reacted before my anger could stop it.
Then Owen’s team entered from the rear alley.
One shooter captured.
One escaped.
The captured man refused to talk until Adrian showed him the ledger.
Then he laughed.
“You think that book matters?”
Adrian’s voice turned cold.
“It mattered enough to shoot a florist.”
The man looked at me.
“Not the florist.”
My skin prickled.
“What?”
“He was aiming for Adrian.”
I turned toward him.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Who hired you?”
No answer.
Owen searched the shooter’s phone.
One recent call.
PARKER M.
Adrian stared.
“Parker M?”
Only one family member matched.
Margaret Parker.
Adrian’s aunt.
Thomas’s wife.
The quiet woman who served pie at Thanksgiving.
Of course.
We found Margaret at the family estate.
She did not deny ordering the shooting.
“I was trying to stop Thomas.”
Adrian laughed.
“By shooting me?”
“You were supposed to be wounded.”
“Everyone in this family has an interesting definition of protection.”
Margaret looked at me.
“Thomas will kill you both if he gets that ledger.”
“Where is Julian?”
Her face changed.
“He moved him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“No.”
At least she was honest.
Margaret explained Thomas had originally planned to expose Langley after years of being controlled by the senator.
Then Julian discovered everything too early.
Thomas panicked.
The bomb was meant for Adrian because Thomas believed Adrian would turn evidence over to federal investigators.
Julian took the car instead.
He survived.
Thomas hid him because a living Julian could testify.
“Why not kill him?”
Margaret whispered:
“Because Thomas loves him.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
“Julian is Thomas’s son.”
Silence.
Adrian actually laughed.
“Come again?”
Margaret began crying.
“Colleen and Thomas had an affair thirty-four years ago.”
I looked at Adrian.
He looked ill.
Julian had been raised as Adrian’s brother.
Biologically, he was Adrian’s cousin.
Thomas had nearly killed his own son accidentally.
That explained why Julian lived.
Why Thomas kept him hidden instead of finishing the job.
Adrian asked:
“Does Mom know?”
“Yes.”
Another secret.
“Did Julian know?”
“No.”
Margaret wiped her face.
“Thomas wanted to tell him after everything ended.”
“What does that mean?”
“He planned to leave the country with Julian.”
“Against his will?”
“Yes.”
Then Owen entered.
“We traced Julian’s last call.”
“Where?”
“Private medical facility outside Worcester.”
We left immediately.
Before we did, Margaret caught my arm.
“Meredith.”
I turned.
“Your father didn’t only copy the ledger.”
“What else?”
“He recorded Senator Langley ordering his murder.”
My entire body went cold.
“Where’s the recording?”
She looked at my engagement ring.
May you like
The ring Adrian gave me two years earlier.
“He hid it inside that.”
