She left. Marcus stood up to follow. Patricia caught his arm, not hard, just enough to hold him for a moment. Marcus, she said quietly, I told you 2 years ago that these things generate internal pressure and eventually something cracks. You did, he said.
It cracked, she said. He looked at her. Yeah, he said, it did. He walked out into the Atlanta morning. The 2:00 meeting lasted 3 hours and 14 minutes, which was longer than scheduled and shorter than Marcus had feared.
The Deputy Inspector General was a compact, attentive woman named Denise Chow, who had been doing this work for 16 years and listened to everything Marcus and Evelyn presented without interrupting, which was itself a form of respect that Marcus wasn't entirely prepared for. She asked precise, specific questions. She asked them twice sometimes, phrased differently, to make sure the answers were consistent. She was not unfriendly. She was also not the kind of person who let friendliness interfere with assessment.
At the end, she looked at the drive, looked at her notes, and said, we'll open a formal inquiry tonight. I want a preservation order on the company's financial records before the business day tomorrow. That means nothing gets deleted, moved, or altered without triggering a federal obstruction charge. Pruitt will know, Evelyn said. A preservation order goes through the company's registered legal representation.
Yes, Denise Chow said, he'll know by 9:00 a. m. tomorrow, which gives him tonight, Marcus said. Yes, she said, which is why my forensic team is going to spend tonight making a complete shadow copy of every financial record we can access through the documentation you've provided before the order goes through, before he knows we're looking. Is that legal? Evelyn asked. The documentation you brought us establishes probable cause for emergency access under the federal housing fraud statutes, Patricia said from beside her.
Yes, it's legal. Denise Chow looked at both of them. I need you both to understand something. From this moment forward, you do not discuss this case with anyone who is not in this room or has not been cleared through my office. Not family, not friends, not colleagues.
If Gerald Pruitt is monitoring communication and based on what you've shown me, I think we have to assume he may be any leak at this stage compromises the investigation. Marcus thought about Deshawn asleep in his bed with a library book on the pillow. He thought about Mrs. Patterson's note folded in the kitchen drawer. He thought about the double shifts, the grease that didn't wash out, the cornbread at Loretta's.
That was the one thing in his day that felt like it belonged to him. He thought about Renata. Understood, he said. They walked out of the building at 5:23 in the afternoon. The city was doing what Atlanta did at 5:00 in the afternoon, moving, loud.
The particular urgent energy of hundreds of thousands of people trying to get from one place to another before the day finished closing around them. Evelyn stopped on the sidewalk. Marcus stopped beside her. Are you going back to the office? He asked.