Chapter 6 - The Husband With the Gun
Clara rushed toward Sienna, but Julian raised the pistol.
"Don't move."
Rain blew through the doorway behind him. His expensive coat was torn, his face bruised, and blood darkened one cuff.
Sienna groaned on the floor. The bullet had struck her shoulder.
"You shot her," Clara said.
"I shot the man behind her."
Clara looked toward the shadows.
A masked figure lay near the container wall, one hand pressed to his side. The red coin had rolled beneath a pallet.
The figure fired.
Julian pulled Clara down as the bullet shattered a light above them.
Adrian tipped his chair sideways and kicked the attacker's wrist. The gun skidded across the floor.
Julian crossed the distance and struck the masked man with the pistol until he stopped resisting.
Police sirens screamed outside.
Detective Ortiz's voice thundered through the warehouse.
"Drop the weapon!"
Julian placed the gun on the floor and raised his hands.
Officers flooded the building.
Clara knelt beside Sienna, pressing a folded cloth against her wound. Sienna stared at Julian with tears of pain and fury.
"You left me," she whispered.
"I came back," he said.
"For the coin."
Julian did not deny it.
Paramedics carried Sienna away. Adrian was freed and examined. The masked attacker remained unconscious, his face hidden beneath a black hood.
Ortiz removed it.
Clara recognized the man.
Richard Grant, Naomi's husband.
Naomi arrived seconds later and froze when she saw him.
"No," she said. "That isn't possible."
Richard had been a quiet academic who taught financial history. He attended Clara's charity dinners, discussed books with her father, and once helped Julian choose an anniversary gift.
Now he lay bleeding beside a stolen archive key.
Naomi knelt, then stopped herself before touching him.
"Richard?"
His eyes opened.
He looked past her at Clara.
"Your father murdered mine."
Then he lost consciousness.
The police separated everyone.
Julian was placed in handcuffs despite insisting he had acted in defense of Clara. The red coin was recovered, sealed, and carried away as evidence. Adrian refused transport until he spoke to his sister.
"The transfer was a trap," he said. "But I didn't understand who designed it."
Clara wrapped a blanket around him. "Why did you meet Julian?"
"He came to me with a page from the blue ledger. It listed payments made by our father to a company owned by Richard's family. Julian said the payments proved Dad had hidden money and that the succession review could force disclosure."
"So you gave him access."
Adrian looked ashamed. "Temporary access. I created a transaction that would trigger review without permanently moving the funds. I thought I could expose what Dad had done and protect you at the same time."
"You forged my signature."
"I used a digital copy Julian provided. I told myself it was procedural because the money would return."
"You told yourself exactly what he needed you to believe."
Adrian lowered his head.
Clara wanted to strike him. She also wanted to hold him because he was alive. The two desires existed together, sharp and unbearable.
"Who abducted you?"
"Richard. He intercepted me in the garage. But he wasn't working alone."
"Who was?"
"I never saw her face. I heard a woman's voice giving him instructions."
"Eleanor?"
"No. Younger."
Clara thought of Sienna, then rejected it. Sienna had walked into a trap carrying the coin.
Naomi approached, her face drained of emotion.
"Richard has been conscious for less than a minute, but he asked for immunity before giving a statement."
"Did you know?" Clara asked.
Naomi met her gaze. "No."
"He had access to everything you learned during the audit."
"I kept protected files at the office."
"Did he know your passwords?"
Naomi hesitated.
That hesitation felt too familiar.
"I am recusing myself," Naomi said quietly. "Another attorney will take over tonight."
Clara wanted to trust her. Instead, she remembered the anonymous envelope, the recorder, and the messages guiding her toward each discovery.
Someone had known exactly what Naomi's audit contained.
Someone had wanted Clara to freeze the cards, evict the Vales, and expose the attempted transfer.
Every choice she thought was hers might have been anticipated.
Julian was placed in the rear of a police car. He turned his head and found Clara through the rain.
"Ask Adrian who gave him the ledger page," he shouted.
An officer pushed him into the vehicle.
Clara looked at her brother.
Adrian's face tightened.
"It came from an anonymous package."
"When?"
"Six months ago."
Six months.
The same time Clara hired Naomi to begin the audit.
"What else was in the package?"
Adrian hesitated.
"A copy of your birth certificate."
"What was wrong with it?"
"The registration number belonged to a child who died two days after birth."
Clara felt the rain against her face but no longer felt cold.
"Whose child?"
May you like
Adrian looked toward the ambulance carrying Richard Grant.
"Celeste Rowan's daughter."
