Chapter 6 - THE SHOT
“Everybody stay where you are.”
David’s voice was suddenly calm.
Too calm.
Andrew raised his hands.
Alex cried behind Elizabeth.
Lucinda stared at the gun.
“You said there wouldn’t be violence.”
David laughed.
“Now you care about violence?”
“David.”
“Shut up.”
Andrew looked at Lucinda.
“So that’s it?”
Lucinda’s mouth trembled.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Andrew nodded toward the documents.
“You stole from us together.”
David said, “We borrowed money.”
“Two million dollars?”
Lucinda snapped, “You have hundreds of millions!”
Andrew looked at her with disgust.
“That made it yours?”
“You don’t understand what it’s like.”
“No. I don’t understand murder.”
Lucinda flinched.
David pointed the gun at Andrew.
“We need the phone.”
Andrew closed his hand around it.
“You’re not getting it.”
David smiled.
“You think I won’t shoot you?”
Alex suddenly screamed, “Don’t hurt Daddy!”
David looked toward him.
Elizabeth moved instantly.
She grabbed Alex and pulled him down.
Andrew threw the phone.
Not at David.
At the window.
David’s eyes followed it.
Andrew lunged.
The gun fired.
The sound was deafening.
Glass shattered.
Elizabeth screamed.
Alex covered his ears.
Andrew slammed David into the wall.
The gun fell.
Lucinda dove for it.
Elizabeth kicked it away.
It slid beneath Caroline’s bed.
David punched Andrew in the ribs.
Andrew stumbled.
David grabbed him by the throat.
“You should’ve stayed stupid.”
Andrew drove his elbow into David’s stomach.
Lucinda ran toward the door.
Elizabeth caught her arm.
Lucinda spun and slapped her.
Hard.
Elizabeth fell against the dresser.
Alex screamed.
Lucinda ran into the hall.
“Lucinda!” Andrew shouted.
She sprinted downstairs.
David shoved Andrew away and followed.
Andrew turned to Elizabeth.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“Stay with Alex.”
“No.”
“Elizabeth.”
“David has a gun.”
“It’s under the bed.”
She looked.
The weapon was gone.
Andrew’s face changed.
Alex pointed.
“He took it.”
Andrew looked toward the hallway.
David had doubled back without them noticing.
Now footsteps thundered downstairs.
Andrew ran.
By the time he reached the first floor, the front door was open.
Rain poured outside.
Lucinda was running toward the garage.
David followed with the gun in one hand and the briefcase in the other.
Andrew grabbed his phone.
“No signal.”
The storm had knocked out the house internet and cell booster.
Elizabeth reached him with Alex.
“Landline?”
“Office.”
They ran.
Andrew grabbed the office phone.
Dead.
He slammed it down.
“Cut.”
Elizabeth looked toward the security panel.
“The cameras?”
Andrew checked.
Offline.
Lucinda had planned this.
Maybe not tonight.
But eventually.
Alex stood in the doorway, breathing hard.
Then he said, “There’s another camera.”
Andrew turned.
“What?”
“Mom’s.”
He pointed toward the garden.
May you like
“She hid it where Aunt Lucinda couldn’t see.”
And outside, an engine roared to life.
