He's not offering to return the homes he seized, not offering to apologize for the suicides his practice has caused, not offering to stop doing this to the next 43 families. He's offering you 10% off the chains he locked around your necks, and in exchange, you help him lock those same chains around someone else." Robert Patterson stood up. " But Garrett, we're old, we're tired. We don't have the strength for a years-long legal battle.
10% might be all we can realistically get." " You're right." Garrett said. " You are old, you are tired. So am I. I'm 67.
My knees hurt, my back hurts. I wake up some mornings and can barely get out of bed. But you know what hurts more than aging? Regret. Looking back and knowing you had a chance to stand up to evil and chose not to because it was easier to take the scraps he offered."
He walked to the center of the room. Sarge followed. " My wife died 20 months ago. In the time since, I've been a ghost, going through motions, fixing engines because engines don't ask questions, don't demand emotion, don't require me to care. I thought that was safer.
Thought not caring meant not hurting." His voice got quieter, more raw. " But yesterday, I sat in this room and listened to 18 people tell stories about losing everything, about shame so deep they couldn't look their own children in the eye, about giving up, about wanting to die, and I realized something. The opposite of caring isn't safety. It's death.
Maybe not physical death, but the death of everything that makes us human." He looked around the room, met eyes, held gazes. " Wade Kimball is offering you 10%. I'm offering you something else, your dignity, your self-respect, the knowledge that you stood up when it mattered, that you fought back when everyone said you'd lose, that you chose the hard right over the easy wrong." Margaret Sterling was crying, quietly, tears running down her face. "
My husband put a gun in his mouth because of Wade Kimball, because he couldn't face me, couldn't face himself, couldn't live with the shame." Her voice broke. " If I take Wade's offer now, if I accept his money and sign his paper and promise to be quiet, what does that say about my husband's death? That it was meaningless? That I value 10% more than I value justice for the man I loved?"
She shook her head. " No. No, I won't do it. I won't take his money. I won't sign his paper.
I won't be quiet." Harvey stood. " Neither will I." One by one, the others stood. Evelyn, Robert, and Linda. All 18 families standing together, choosing the hard path, choosing dignity over discount.
Douglas had been watching from the side. Now, he stepped forward. " You just did something remarkable." he said. His voice was thick. "
You chose principle over pragmatism, justice over expedience. That's rare. That's powerful. That's how we win." The group spent the rest of the afternoon fortifying their case, more details, more documentation, more preparation for the battle ahead.
At 6:00 p.m., Garrett's phone rang, unknown number. He stepped outside to answer. " Holloway? Mr. Holloway, this is Agent Naomi Pritchard, FBI field office in Phoenix. Do you have a moment?"
Garrett's pulse quickened. " Yes, ma'am." " I received a complaint today from a lawyer named Richard Brenner, claims you and several others are engaged in harassment and defamation of his client, Wade Kimball. He's demanding an investigation." " That's interesting timing.
We were about to contact you about Wade Kimball ourselves." A pause. " Go on." Garrett explained. The pattern, the 18 families, the predatory lending, the evidence they'd gathered.
Naomi was quiet when he finished. Then, "Mr. Holloway, I need you to understand something. Loan sharking cases are difficult. Victims often recant, evidence disappears, and if local law enforcement is compromised, it becomes nearly impossible to prosecute." " I understand.
But" another pause "my father was a veteran, Desert Storm same as you. He came home and got caught up with a loan shark in Nevada. Lost everything. Killed himself when I was 17." Garrett closed his eyes. "
I'm sorry." " I became an FBI agent because of that, because I wanted to stop people like the man who destroyed my father. So, when you tell me there's a loan shark in Arizona who's been operating for 12 years, who's targeting veterans, who's driven people to suicide, that gets my attention. What do you need from us? Evidence, lots of it, organized, documented, and I need victims willing to testify, not just affidavits, actual testimony, on record, under oath.
Can you provide that? Yes. How many victims are willing to go on record? 18 so far, possibly more. Naomi's breath caught.
18? That's That's substantial. That's enough to establish pattern and practice. That's enough to build a RICO case if the evidence supports it. What's your timeline?
I need 72 hours to review what you have. If it's as strong as you say, I can open an official investigation. But, Mr. Holloway, the moment I do that, Wade Kimball will know. He'll escalate. He'll destroy evidence.
He'll threaten witnesses. Things will get dangerous. They're already dangerous. They'll get worse. Are your people ready for that?
Garrett looked through the window. 18 families working together, supporting each other, standing together. " Yes," he said, "we're ready." Then send me everything you have, encrypted email. I'll send you the address.
And, Mr. Holloway, be careful. Men like Wade Kimball don't surrender. They burn everything down rather than lose. The call ended. Garrett stood in the parking lot for a moment, letting it sink in.
The FBI was interested, actually interested. There was a path forward, a real one. He went back inside, told the group. The energy shifted immediately. Hope, fragile but real. "
72 hours," Douglas said. " That's tight, but doable. We work through the night if we have to. Get everything organized, every contract, every testimony, every piece of evidence. Make it impossible for the FBI to say no."
They worked until midnight, then started again at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. Douglas coordinated. William kept everyone fed and caffeinated. Harvey managed the digital files. Garrett kept morale up, moving from person to person, listening, encouraging, reminding them why this mattered.
Sarge stayed with Evelyn mostly. The dog had claimed her as his primary charge. Wherever she went, Sarge followed, guard mode permanently engaged. By noon on the second day, they had everything compiled. Douglas wrote a 20-page summary brief.
Harvey created a digital archive with encrypted backups. The case was as strong as they could make it. Garrett sent it to Agent Pritchard, then they waited. The response came 8 hours later, short, professional. " Received, under review, will contact within 48 hours.
Stay safe." Stay safe, like that was possible. That night things escalated. Garrett was home, asleep, Sarge on the floor beside the bed, both of them exhausted from 2 days of constant work. At 2:15 a.m., Sarge started barking.