Chapter 8: The Alderman's Error
Roy Pryce made his move at 4:15 that afternoon.
He didn't come to Garrett's office.
He sent someone — a man in a grey suit who introduced himself as a representative of the city's legal compliance division and presented a document ordering the preservation and surrender of all materials related to ongoing municipal contract reviews, pending a city-level audit.
It looked official.
It had a seal.
Garrett read it for thirty seconds.
Then he set it on the table and looked at the man in the grey suit.
"This order was issued by the city compliance office," Garrett said.
"Can you tell me which deputy director signed it?"
The man gave a name.
"That deputy director retired fourteen months ago," Garrett said.
"His replacement has a different name and a different signature.
This document uses the retired director's name and title." He slid it back across the table.
"I'll be reporting this to the U.S.
Attorney's office within the hour as an attempt to obstruct a federal inquiry.
I'd suggest you leave before that call is made."
The man left without another word.
Garrett picked up his phone immediately.
Emily watched him make three calls in eight minutes — the U.S.
Attorney's office, a contact at the FBI field office, and Daniel Hawthorne.
When he set the phone down, he said: "Pryce just handed us something Vanessa's team spent all night trying to prevent.
An obstruction attempt, documented, with a forged government seal.
That is a federal crjme."
"He panicked," Emily said.
"He panicked because your second set of documents has his signature on a contract approval that will end his career and his freedom." Garrett looked at her steadily.
"Emily, it's moving now.
Once obstruction is on the record, the U.S.
Attorney can accelerate the timeline.
They've been waiting for a reason to move fast.
Pryce just gave them one."
Emily nodded.
She felt something she hadn't expected — not relief, not triumph.
Something quieter.
The particular exhaustion of a long thing finally beginning to end.
Her phone buzzed.
Daniel.
She answered.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
The same question he'd asked at the gala, in the same tone.
"Yes.
Did Garrett reach you?"
"Just now.
I've been asked to come in for a formal interview tomorrow morning." A brief pause.
"I want you to know something.
Last night, after the gala, I pulled every contract my family's company has with any municipal body going back five years.
I wanted to know if we were clean."
"Were you?"
"Yes.
But I found something else.
Two of the ghost companies that received the inflated contracts — they used a registered agent address that belongs to a property my family sold eight years ago.
Someone chose those addresses deliberately.
To create the appearance that the Hawthorne name was connected."
Emily closed her eyes for a moment.
"She was building a backup plan.
If the scheme ever came apart, she'd have documentation suggesting your family was involved."
"Yes," Daniel said.
"She was going to take us down with her if she had to."
"But she didn't count on you pulling the records yourself."
"No." A pause.
"She underestimated how much I dislike being used."
Emily almost smiled.
It surprised her.
"Daniel," she said.
"Thank you.
For last night.
For all of it."
"You were the one who kept the documents," he said.
"You were the one who walked into that room knowing what she might do." A pause.
"I just played the footage."
She hung up.
Ruth texted at 4:58: *Someone drove past the house twice.
I wrote the plate down.
Same car as before.*
Emily forwarded the text to Garrett without comment.
He read it, picked up his phone, and said: "I'm getting a patrol car outside your aunt's house tonight."
"Thank you," Emily said.
She looked out the window at the city below — the streets, the buildings, the ordinary machinery of a Thursday afternoon moving past, indifferent to all of it.
May you like
Somewhere in that city, Vanessa Vance was making her next call.
And for the first time, Emily wasn't afraid of what it would be.
