Chapter 8 - The Hitman Who Didn't Pull the Trigger
Raymond Pike wanted immunity.
Brooks refused to promise it.
He agreed to meet anyway.
An abandoned truck stop outside the city became the location.
I wasn't allowed near it.
At 11:42 p.m., Brooks called.
“We have him.”
Raymond's story was uglier than anything I had imagined.
Victor had hired him to arrange the murder.
But Pike had backed out when he discovered the targets included Evelyn Mercer.
Why?
Because my mother had once helped his daughter.
Years earlier, she had quietly paid for rehabilitation treatment through one of her charities.
Pike never forgot.
So Victor hired someone else.
Two brothers.
Caleb and Owen Marsh.
Pike had photographs.
Messages.
Payment records.
And something even more important.
A recording.
Victor speaking with Marcus.
“If Claire survives the surgery, we use the competency petition.”
Marcus answered:
“And if that fails?”
Victor's response was chilling.
“Then grief finishes what her heart started.”
That recording transformed the case.
Marcus was arrested the next morning.
He denied everything.
Victor demanded a lawyer.
Richard Caldwell issued a statement saying he had no knowledge of criminal activity and that his financial dealings with Victor were legitimate.
Investigators still needed proof regarding Caldwell.
Then the Marsh brothers were located.
One was dead.
Owen had died in what police initially called a single-car accident two weeks after my parents' murders.
Caleb was alive.
And terrified.
Federal agents found him hiding under another name in Nevada.
He agreed to cooperate.
Caleb admitted Victor had paid for the shooting.
But he added one detail nobody expected.
“My brother and I weren't supposed to kill the woman.”
Brooks leaned forward.
“What?”
“Jonathan Mercer was the target.”
“What happened?”
“Someone changed the order.”
“Who?”
Caleb swallowed.
“Marcus Bell.”
My mother had died because she had discovered the accounts.
My father had died because he threatened to expose Victor.
And I was supposed to be neutralized through courts, medicine, or fear.
Three separate solutions.
One conspiracy.
But Caleb wasn't finished.
“There's something you need to know about Evelyn.”
I stared at the interview recording.
“What?”
He looked directly toward the camera.
May you like
“She knew we were coming.”
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