Gerald paused. Haley, I've practiced law in this county for 40 years. Happened a call at 8:00 in the morning to an administrator derail a 9:00 meeting. That is the behavior of someone who is frightened. Garfield is frightened.
I want you to hold on to that. Haley pressed her mouth together. 9:00, she said. I'll be there in 10 minutes, Gerald said. Car is already running.
Cole got the call at 8:51. He was in his truck two blocks from the county building he and Ray had left early. Both of them independently deciding that earlier was better. He listened to Haley's voice which was controlled but carrying something compressed in it explained what had happened. When she finished, he said, "Are you still going?"
"Yes," she said. "Then we're still there." He said, "Like I said a pause, Cole." She said he knew about the meeting. He moved that fast.
I know, Cole said. Which means someone in town is telling him things. Watching my movements, my calls, my She stopped. New truck, she said. It hasn't been on Route 9.
That doesn't mean they stopped watching. No. Cole said, "Go ahead." He looked at Ray in the passenger seat. Ray was listening, face forward, reading the situation from Cole's half of the conversation. "Walk in there, Haley.
You walk in with Gerald and you put everything you have on that table. Whatever they try to do with the meeting, you make sure every piece of documentation is in front of the county attorney, not the administrator. The attorney, her name is Susan Pratt. She has a reputation for being direct. How do you know her name?
Haley said, "I spent last night making sure I knew everything about that building that I should know." Cole said their paws. Thank you. Haley said drive. Cole said there.
He hung up. Ray said Puit moved last night fast. Cole said he's scared. Ray said good. Cole said he put the truck in drive.
Scared people make mistakes. Gerald Finn was waiting on the steps of the county building when Haley arrived. He was 70 years old and he was wearing a suit that was probably 30 years old and completely pressed and he had a a leather briefcase that looked like it had been through wars and won them all. And when Haley walked up the steps toward him, he looked at her with the particular expression of someone who has decided after 70 years of life exactly what hills are worth dying on. Tired, he said.
I am tired, she said. He said tired people don't waste energy on things that don't matter on. They went in together. Patricia Marsh was at the front desk and she looked at them with the expression of someone who had been hoping they wouldn't actually show up and was now recalibrating. Walked to the desk and said pleasantly third Finn may have record for the Morgan family.
We have a 9:00 appointment with County Attorney Pratt. We're here for that appointment. Patricia said, "Mr. Finn, as I mentioned in the call to my client, Gerald said, "Yes, I understand there were concerns raised this morning about the scope of the meeting." He opened his briefcase on the counter deliberately, unhurriedly, and he took out two sheets of paper and placed them in front of Patricia. This is the original appointment confirmation signed by County Attorney Pratt's office.
And this is a letter from me dated this morning, formally noting that any attempt to postpone or cancel this meeting would itself become material in an ongoing legal matter involving obstruction. He smiled pleasantly. Patricia stared at the papers. She picked up her phone. She made a call.
Haley stood beside Gerald and looked at the building ceiling and breathed slowly. There were in and out the way she breathed when she was working on something that required patience. Put the phone down. She'll see you. She said Susan Pratt was 44, direct in the way of someone who had spent two decades in county government and had stopped having patience for maneuvering before she was 40.
She had short hair and reading glasses on a chain and a desk covered in organized stacks of paper and the expression of someone who had already they walked in the door made some kind of preliminary assessment. She stood up when they came in. She shook Gerald's hand and then Haley's hand. She looked at Haley at her face, her posture, the tool bag she'd brought purely out of habit and then decided not to leave in the truck because it was hers and she was bringing everything that was hers today. Susan Pratt said, "I received a call this morning from an attorney I know representing Garfield Puit suggested this meeting was inappropriate.
Want you to know I took note of the timing of that call. She looked at Haley steadily. Also want you to know that a call at 8 in the morning trying to prevent a meeting scheduled for 9 tends to make me more interested in the meeting. Sit down both of you tell me everything. Gerald opened his briefcase took out her phone.
She opened the evidence folder. Seven pieces. She looked at Susan Pratt across the desk. Then she began. She spoke for 42 minutes.
She didn't rush. She didn't ramble. She went through everything in order, the timeline, the approaches, escalation, the recordings, camera footage of the two men in the lot, the letter to Gerald, communication, the names of customers who would provide statements from Greg Solace and what he knew. She laid it out the way she laid out a mechanical diagnosis, not impressionistically, was but in the precise sequential logic of someone who understands that truth lands harder when it lands in order. Supplemented he provided the letter from Puit's attorney.
He provided his own notes from the second approach meeting the professional context that transformed Haley's account from a personal dispute into a documented pattern. Pratt did not interrupt. She took notes throughout on a legal pad on a laptop typing steadily which meant she was creating a record in real time. This finished Susan looked at her notes for a moment and she looked up. Miss Morgan, she said, I want to be careful about what I tell you at this stage as an investigation is a process and I don't make promises before I've completed one.
I want to be direct with you. She paused. What you've presented this morning is not a civil dispute. What you've presented, if it holds up to verification, and I have no reason at this stage to believe it won't, is a criminal extortion case, potentially a racketeering case, depending on what Mr. Claus has to say about the internal operations of Puit's organization. Haley felt something move through her not relief yet something more like the particular sensation of a thing that has been tipping for a long time finally deciding which way it's going to fall happens now she said I open an investigation Susan saidly today which means what happened this morning the call to my administrator becomes part of my record of this case also means that from this point forward any action taken against you or your property property is subject to obstruction and witness intimidation statutes.