Chapter 11 - My Lawyer’s Price

Kevin admitted taking money from Preston.

Twenty-five thousand dollars.

He claimed it was a consulting fee from months before my case.

Bank records proved the payment arrived two days after I hired him.

I felt physically ill.

“You told me to settle.”

Kevin looked at the floor.

“Yes.”

“You knew Ashley existed?”

“No.”

“You knew the Caldwells’ case was false?”

“I knew parts were questionable.”

“And you still tried to make me pay them?”

“They threatened to destroy my practice.”

I laughed without humor.

“So you sold mine.”

Kevin was arrested for obstruction and conspiracy.

Every conversation I had trusted became contaminated.

Judge Cole declared a mistrial in the remaining civil matters and referred everything to a new judge.

I hired no replacement lawyer immediately.

Claire introduced me to a legal-aid attorney named Maya Brooks.

Maya had no expensive office.

No polished speeches.

She read every page.

Then she said, “You don’t need a lawyer who wants to win the story.”

“What do I need?”

“One who wants to protect the record.”

I hired her.

Meanwhile, Grant contacted Ashley.

He sent a photograph of her younger brother outside his college dorm.

Ashley panicked.

Ortiz moved her family into protection.

Grant’s message contained one demand.

Bring the black notebook.

Ashley wanted to cooperate with a controlled exchange.

I objected.

She looked at me.

“You ran under a falling baby.”

“That was different.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t have time to be scared.”

Ashley smiled sadly.

“Neither do I.”

The exchange was set at a closed amusement park.

Grant never appeared.

Instead, a speaker played his voice.

He told Ashley to leave the notebook inside an old ticket booth.

Police found a bomb beneath it.

The device was crude but real.

Grant had never wanted the notebook.

He wanted investigators gathered in one place.

Ortiz ordered evacuation.

Seconds later, a second device exploded in the parking lot.

No one died.

Two officers were injured.

Grant had escalated from fraud to attempted mass murder.

Federal agents joined the hunt.

Then Claire received a call from an unknown woman.

The caller said she had treated Evelyn Caldwell the night she died.

She had kept quiet for years.

Now she wanted to talk.

We met her at a church.

Her name was Dr. Helen Park.

She had been a resident at the hospital.

Evelyn arrived after her staircase fall.

She was conscious.

She whispered one sentence before surgery.

“My son pushed me.”

Helen documented it.

The note disappeared from the chart.

The attending physician told her she had misunderstood.

That attending physician’s initials were in Grant’s black notebook.

Unlike Judge Cole’s entry, this payment was real.

Grant had not started with Noah.

He had practiced on his own mother.

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And Evelyn had spent her final months building a trap for him.