Chapter 10 - THE SHOOTER IN THE BELL TOWER
I pulled Sophie beneath the pew.
Ortiz drew her weapon and shouted for everyone to stay down.
A second bullet struck the wooden cross above us.
Claire lay in the aisle with blood spreading across her shoulder. She was alive, but barely conscious.
Police rushed through the side doors.
I covered Sophie’s ears as more shots echoed from outside.
Then the bells began ringing.
Someone was in the tower.
Ortiz and another officer climbed the narrow stairs. Two minutes later, they dragged a man down in handcuffs.
It wasn’t Darren.
It was one of the officers named in Claire’s folder.
Sergeant Paul Mercer.
No relation to Emily, despite the shared last name. That coincidence had helped him gain Claire’s trust months earlier.
He had taken the folder, but Ortiz recovered it from inside his jacket.
Sophie and Claire were transported to the hospital.
I rode beside my daughter while my mother sat in a police vehicle.
At the emergency entrance, Evelyn begged me to listen.
“I gave Darren Emily’s location because he said he only wanted the certificates.”
“He had threatened our family, and you believed him?”
“I believed I could control him.”
“That belief killed my wife.”
“I know.”
Her answer was so quiet that it hurt more than an excuse.
Ortiz arrested her as an accessory pending further investigation.
Amanda saw my mother being led away and finally asked to make a deal.
At the station, she gave police access to Darren’s cloud account.
Thousands of documents appeared.
He had targeted seven families.
Three elderly men had died after changing their wills.
Two women had disappeared.
Amanda insisted she had known only about the fraud.
Then an investigator opened a folder labeled A.C. FINAL OPTIONS.
A.C. stood for Amanda Cross.
The folder contained photographs of me driving Sophie to preschool, records of my prescriptions, and a document titled ACCIDENT SCHEDULE.
Amanda stared at it.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Ortiz opened the document.
Darren had planned for me to die three weeks after the wedding.
Amanda would inherit the house and control Sophie’s trust.
Then Sophie would be sent to a facility owned by one of Darren’s shell companies.
But there was another name on the inheritance plan.
If Amanda failed, everything transferred to a backup beneficiary.
That beneficiary was Rachel.
My sister had entered the room behind us.
She read the screen and went completely still.
May you like
Then Ortiz found a message from Rachel’s private number to Darren.
He still trusts me. Tell me when to move.
