All He Has Left

PRAISE FOR CHAD ZUNKER Family Money “The action barrels along to a shocking conclusion . . . Zunker knows how to keep the reader hooked.” —Publishers Weekly An Equal Justice HARPER LEE PRIZE FOR LEGAL FICTION FINALIST “A deftly crafted legal thriller of a novel by an author with a genuine knack for a reader-engaging narrative storytelling style.” —Midwest Book Review “A gripping thriller with a heart, An Equal Justice hits the ground running . . . The chapters flew by, with surprises aplenty and taut writing. A highly recommended read that introduces a lawyer with legs.” —Crime Thriller Hound “In An Equal Justice, author Chad Zunker crafts a riveting legal thriller . . . An Equal Justice not only plunges readers into murder and conspiracy involving wealthy power players, but also immerses us in the crisis of homelessness in our country.” —The Big Thrill “A thriller with a message. A pleasure to read. Twists I didn’t see coming. I read it in one sitting.” —Robert Dugoni, #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of My Sister’s Grave “Taut, suspenseful, and action-packed with a hero you can root for, Zunker has hit it out of the park with this one.” —Victor Methos, bestselling author of The Neon Lawyer An Unequal Defense “In Zunker’s solid sequel to 2019’s An Equal Justice, Zunker . . . sustains a disciplined focus on plot and character. John Grisham fans will appreciate this familiar but effective tale.” —Publishers Weekly Runaway Justice “[In the] engrossing third mystery featuring attorney David Adams . . . Zunker gives heart and hope to his characters. There are no lulls in this satisfying story of a young runaway in trouble.” —Publishers Weekly ALSO BY CHAD ZUNKER Family Money David Adams Series An Equal Justice An Unequal Defense Runaway Justice Sam Callahan Series The Tracker Shadow Shepherd Hunt the Lion This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2023 by Chad Zunker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781662504297 (paperback) ISBN-13: 9781662504303 (digital) Cover design by Rex Bonomelli Cover image: © mammuth / Getty Images; © William Curtis Rolf / Gallery Stock To my daughters, Anna, Madison, and Lexi CONTENTS PROLOGUE ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN EIGHTEEN NINETEEN TWENTY TWENTY-ONE TWENTY-TWO TWENTY-THREE TWENTY-FOUR TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-SIX TWENTY-SEVEN TWENTY-EIGHT TWENTY-NINE THIRTY THIRTY-ONE THIRTY-TWO THIRTY-THREE THIRTY-FOUR THIRTY-FIVE THIRTY-SIX THIRTY-SEVEN THIRTY-EIGHT THIRTY-NINE FORTY FORTY-ONE FORTY-TWO FORTY-THREE ABOUT THE AUTHOR PROLOGUE Jake Slater was already having a bad night. It would get much worse. Death changes everything. Especially when it hits as sudden as a devastating tornado. Jake was not altogether shocked when he walked into the empty parking lot outside Stephen F. Austin High School, where he was the head football coach, and found the words Coach Slater Sucks spray-painted in red on the side of his white Jeep Cherokee. Hours earlier, Jake’s football team had lost their fifth game in a row. The fans were irate. This was Texas. Football was king. This year’s team had been projected to make a run at state. But Jake had ruined everything—according to the community—by kicking the star player off the team six weeks ago for punching a teammate in practice. Jake had never heard a crowd boo so loudly at the end of a game, which felt like the lowest point of his twenty-year coaching career. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read a text message from his wife, Sarah. We’re at my parents’ house. Can you meet us here? Jake sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was go over to his in-laws’ place tonight. He was already tired and frustrated. Having anything to do with his overbearing father-in-law right now would only exacerbate that. He was supposed to be meeting his wife and eleven-year-old daughter, Piper, at an IHOP restaurant down the street—a family tradition they’d started a couple of years ago after home games. These postgame dinners had unfortunately been miserable of late. He texted her back. I’m exhausted. Can we just go home? Sarah replied, Please, Jake. Just for a few minutes. He growled under his breath. Fine. Jake climbed into his Jeep and put the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered for several long seconds—as if trying to make up its mind about running tonight—before eventually starting. The old Jeep was on its last legs. Jake had been driving it forever, though Sarah had wanted him to get a new vehicle a long time ago. Something nice like her Lexus SUV. His wife had a lucrative career as a financial partner in her family’s investment firm. It had afforded them some luxuries most other high school coaches didn’t have—like living in a spacious new house in an affluent suburb in West Austin. But Jake didn’t want to stand out in the parking lot among his assistant coaches, who all drove run-down vehicles. Nobody got rich coaching high school football. He’d married into it. Driving out of downtown proper, where the high school was located along the shores of Lady Bird Lake—a stretch of the Colorado River that weaves beautifully through the city—Jake headed west. A few minutes later, he pulled into the gated driveway of his in-laws’ massive estate. Their place sat along an exclusive private street on a hill overlooking the river, with a spectacular view of downtown. A real estate agent friend had told him years ago that every property on this street was