She Found a Forgotten Case File at Work — Then Realized the Recent Murders Were Following Its 20-Year-Old List
Chapter 8
Thomas told them everything.
Twenty years earlier, the county had investigated a massive corruption network involving judges, police officers, businessmen, and political donors.
The five men had discovered it.
But someone higher up had ordered them to bury it.
“Who?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I never knew.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
Mara slammed the old file onto the table.
“You signed the payments.”
Thomas stared at it.
“I was following orders.”
“From whom?”
He looked at Daniel.
“Your father knew.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“My father?”
“Frank Reed wasn’t corrupt.”
Thomas swallowed.
“He was undercover.”
Silence.
“He agreed to appear guilty so he could identify the person controlling the network.”
Mara understood.
“The list.”
Thomas nodded.
“Frank created it.”
“Then why did my father disappear?”
Thomas looked at Mara.
“Because Frank was murdered before he could expose the truth.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Who killed him?”
Thomas’s eyes shifted toward the door.
“Someone in this building.”
A gunshot rang out.
Thomas fell.
Mara screamed.
Daniel grabbed her and dragged her behind the table.
The shooter disappeared.
Thomas was still alive.
Barely.
Mara crawled toward him.
“Who?”
Thomas grabbed her wrist.
His eyes were full of fear.
“Your mother.”
Mara froze.
“What?”
Thomas whispered:
“Ask her about the night your father disappeared.”
Then he died.
Mara couldn’t breathe.
Her mother.
The woman who had lied to her for twenty years.
The woman who had always claimed Jonathan abandoned them.
Could she have been involved?
Daniel looked at Mara.
“Don’t go home.”
She stared at him.
“I have to.”
“No.”
“I need the truth.”
“You might not like it.”
Mara’s eyes hardened.
“I’ve spent twenty years living inside a lie.”
She picked up the file.
“Now I’m going to find out who wrote it.”
