Chapter 14 - THE PROSECUTOR'S ALIBI
Price called the photograph a fabrication.
He argued that the timestamp had been altered and that the image could not be authenticated.
Ward agreed that a photograph alone was not enough.
So she found the garage camera from another building across the street.
It showed Price arriving at the medical annex at 7:06 that morning.
Dr. Renn followed with a man who walked with my father's unmistakable uneven gait.
I had seen that gait every day after his hip surgery.
No editor could manufacture my memory of it.
Price had been present when Arthur was alive, after the time recorded on his death certificate.
The revelation forced the district attorney to remove Price from every aspect of my case.
But Price did not flee.
He requested an interview with Ward and gave her a statement that raised new questions.
He said he had been summoned to the medical annex by Arthur himself.
He claimed Arthur wanted to disclose crimes involving a private security operation protected by influential donors.
When Price arrived, he found Arthur frightened and speaking about people who could be harmed if he went to the police.
“Why didn't you report it?” Ward asked.
“Because he said he was arranging their evacuation.”
“Did you see him die?”
“No.”
“Then why did you prosecute his daughter?”
Price lowered his eyes.
“Because the evidence pointed to her.”
I listened to the recording with fury I could barely contain.
The evidence had pointed wherever Silas arranged it to point.
Price admitted that an anonymous source had sent him documents before the arrest.
He had failed to preserve the delivery packaging.
He had failed to investigate the source's relationship to Silas.
He had then persuaded a jury that I was a murderer.
His failures were catastrophic even if his story was true.
Ward asked the final question.
“Who told you where to find Arthur?”
Price paused long enough that I feared the recording had stopped.
“A woman,” he answered.
“What was her name?”
“She said she was Arthur's daughter.”
The room went cold.
Price described a young woman with dark hair and a scar across her wrist.
Mara Bell's scar.
Clara's scar.
The identities had blurred until we could no longer tell who had been made to impersonate whom.
Then Price produced a voicemail saved on his phone.
The caller said, ‘If you want Arthur alive, come alone.’
May you like
And the voice sounded exactly like mine.
