Chapter 8 - Not an Accident

The wall buckled inward.

A beam dropped where Nora had been standing one second earlier.

Alma pulled her behind the workbench.

Detective Rourke fired two shots at the truck's tires.

The pickup reversed, clipping a patrol car, then disappeared up the dirt road.

Nobody saw the driver's face.

But the truck left behind a broken side mirror.

The VIN sticker inside matched a fleet vehicle registered to Voss Maritime.

Nora sat on an ambulance bumper while a paramedic checked her incision.

"You tore two stitches," he said.

"Great."

"You need to stop doing this."

Nora looked at the damaged boathouse.

"I didn't drive the truck."

The paramedic did not laugh.

At the hospital, Rourke questioned Daniel again.

He had an alibi for the boathouse attack: security footage placed him in his attorney's office.

Celeste had one too. She was at a board meeting.

Someone else inside Voss Maritime was helping them.

Nora listened from her room while Alma sat nearby.

"Who?" Nora asked.

Alma hesitated.

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Make that face and then lie to me."

Alma sighed.

"Graham Pike."

The company's chief operations officer.

Nora knew him. Christmas parties. Charity dinners. A man who always remembered everyone's drink order.

"Why him?"

"He drove Martin's boat the night Martin died."

Nora stared at her.

"You knew that?"

"I knew he was supposed to. He said Martin took the boat alone."

"And you believed him?"

"No."

"But you said nothing."

Alma looked at the floor.

"Peter asked me to wait until he had proof. Then Peter got sick. Then I kept waiting."

Nora's voice went cold.

"Waiting can be a choice too."

"I know."

There was no defense in Alma's face.

Only regret.

That made it harder to stay angry.

That night, Nora went to NICU alone.

Sophie curled one hand around Nora's finger.

Nora whispered, "You nearly inherited a criminal empire. Sorry about that."

A male voice behind her said, "Not nearly."

She turned.

Graham Pike stood in the doorway.

He held a visitor badge in one hand.

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