Chapter 13: The Last Threat
Thomas seized William by the shoulder and pulled him backward.
“Tell them to lower their weapons.”
William remained calm.
“You know they cannot do that.”
“I have nothing left.”
“That was your choice.”
Thomas pressed the gun harder against his neck.
From the hallway, Detective Ruiz kept her weapon trained on him.
“Thomas, we know about Elizabeth,” she said. “We know about Sarah’s brakes. Put the gun down.”
“You know nothing.”
“We found your fingerprints on the tool case.”
Thomas laughed.
“Margaret kept that?”
“David did.”
For the first time, uncertainty crossed Thomas’s face.
Ruiz continued, “David gave us the storage location. He blamed you for everything.”
It was partly a bluff.
David had admitted meeting Thomas but still refused to give a full statement. Ruiz needed Thomas to believe he had been betrayed.
“He promised me protection,” Thomas said.
“David promised everyone something.”
Thomas’s grip weakened slightly.
William used the moment.
He drove his elbow backward into Thomas’s ribs and dropped to the floor.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the wall.
Officers rushed forward and forced Thomas down before he could shoot again.
At the secure apartment, Sarah heard about the arrest from Ruiz.
“Your father is safe,” the detective told her immediately.
Sarah nearly collapsed with relief.
Emma looked up from her coloring book.
“Did the bad man go away?”
“Yes,” Sarah said. “The police caught him.”
“Forever?”
Sarah considered the question.
“Long enough for us to learn how to be brave without always being scared.”
Thomas’s arrest broke the case open.
Faced with evidence connecting him to Elizabeth’s death and Sarah’s sabotage, he attempted to negotiate.
He confessed that Margaret had contacted him after discovering references to him in the trust documents. She offered him money to help transfer Sarah’s assets.
When Sarah began questioning missing funds, David suggested an accident.
Thomas loosened the brake fitting.
Margaret arranged the life insurance policy.
David created the appearance of a devoted husband.
The plan failed only because Sarah survived.
Thomas also admitted that Elizabeth’s crash had not been accidental.
He had damaged her brakes twenty-seven years earlier to prevent her from exposing his fraud.
William read the confession alone.
For decades, he had wondered whether he could have saved his wife.
Now he finally knew the truth.
At the detention center, David learned that Thomas had confessed.
He requested another meeting with Sarah.
She refused.
Instead, she sent a single written statement through her attorney.
You will never speak to Emma again.
David tore the paper in half.
May you like
But no amount of rage could change what came next.
The trials were about to begin.
