Chapter 9 - The Dead Lawyer's File
Raymond Price had been fifty-three when police found him in his garage.
Engine running.
Doors closed.
No note.
The death was ruled suicide within forty-eight hours.
Leah had never questioned it.
Now she did.
Owen found Price's widow living outside Austin.
They drove there that afternoon.
She opened the door before they could knock.
"I wondered when somebody would come."
Leah frowned.
"You know why we're here?"
Mrs. Price walked inside without answering.
They followed.
She took an old banker box from a closet and placed it on the dining table.
Written across the top:
COLE.
"My husband kept this out of the office."
Leah stared at it.
"Why?"
"He said he didn't trust anyone."
Inside were handwritten notes from Elena's original trial preparation.
Most were familiar.
Fingerprint analysis.
Blood evidence.
Neighbor testimony.
Then Leah found a page dated three weeks before trial.
RAYMOND'S NOTES:
GIVENS WANTS TO TALK.
SAYS DIGITAL EVIDENCE WAS ALTERED.
RUSK PRESSURING WITNESS.
KELL KNOWS.
MEET FRIDAY.
Leah looked up.
"Did Raymond meet Givens?"
Mrs. Price's eyes filled.
"He tried."
"What happened?"
"Givens never showed."
Three days later, Raymond filed no motion.
A week after that, his entire defense strategy changed.
Instead of arguing police corruption, he argued Elena had acted in self-defense.
Elena refused.
The jury heard a confused defense.
And convicted her.
"Why did he change strategy?" Leah asked.
Mrs. Price whispered, "They threatened our daughter."
The room went silent.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Did Raymond?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
She opened another folder.
Inside was a photograph of Raymond's car windshield.
An envelope had been tucked beneath the wiper.
Inside it was a picture of their sixteen-year-old daughter leaving school.
Written on the back:
KEEP THE COLE CASE SIMPLE.
Owen swore under his breath.
Leah sat down.
"Why didn't you go to police?"
"Police?"
Mrs. Price laughed bitterly.
"My husband told me the police were the people threatening us."
Leah thought of Rusk.
Kell.
Wallace.
A structure had formed.
Nathan discovered theft.
Rusk handled enforcement.
Kell controlled prosecution.
Wallace controlled money and influence.
Anybody who resisted was frightened into silence.
But fear wasn't enough to keep everybody quiet.
Raymond had made one final move.
Mrs. Price handed Leah a small brass key.
"He gave me this the night before he died."
"What is it?"
"Bank box."
"Where?"
"First Texas Trust."
Leah and Owen reached the bank before closing.
The box contained no money.
Only a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
IF ELENA IS EVER CLOSE TO EXECUTION, GIVE THIS TO SOMEONE OUTSIDE BELL COUNTY.
Mina opened the drive from an isolated laptop.
There were scanned documents.
County invoices.
Emails.
Bank transfers.
And one video file.
Leah clicked it.
Raymond Price appeared on-screen.
He looked exhausted.
"If you're watching this," he said, "I either lost my courage..."
He paused.
"...or I lost my life."
Leah leaned closer.
Raymond looked directly into the camera.
"Elena Cole did not kill her husband."
Then he named the person he believed had.
Not Rusk.
Not Kell.
Henry Wallace.
Owen whispered, "We have him."
But Raymond kept talking.
"No," he said into the camera, as if answering them five years later.
"Wallace didn't act alone."
The video cut to a photograph.
Leah stopped breathing.
May you like
Standing beside Wallace was a uniformed man.
A much younger Robert Mitchell.
