Chapter 6
Leo stepped past Detective Vance and closed the door behind him with a soft click. He didn't look at the officer; his entire focus was locked onto Elena across the metal table. The anger that had defined their interaction on the roof had transformed into a raw, burning curiosity mixed with profound grief.
"Repeat what you just said," Leo demanded, his voice barely above a whisper, though it carried an immense emotional charge. "What did you say about Marcus?"
Elena did not flinch from his piercing gaze. "Your brother didn't take bribes, Leo. I worked with him for three months before he disappeared. He found out that GreenHorizon was burying toxic chemical sludge beneath the foundations of these new suburban developments, and he was putting together a dossier to expose them at the state senate hearing. The day before the hearing, his apartment burned down, and his name was smeared across every financial audit as a corrupt employee."
Leo gripped the back of the empty chair, his knuckles turning white. "They told me he embezzled fifty thousand dollars. They showed me bank statements with his signature. I spent five years believing my own flesh and blood was a crook who abandoned me."
"It was all fabricated," Elena said, her voice softening slightly. "A digital forgery created by the company's chief legal counsel, Arthur Pendelton. The same man who oversaw the installation of the solar panels on your client's roof today. Those panels aren't just green technology, Leo. They're built from aluminum frames salvaged directly from the scrap yard of the burned-out Oakridge warehouse. I tracked the batch numbers."
Detective Vance crossed his arms, looking between the two of them with growing concern. "If you have proof of document forgery and a cover-up of this magnitude, Ms. Hayes, why didn't you go straight to the federal prosecutor's office instead of throwing a tantrum with a spray can?"
"Because federal prosecutors in this district have been sitting on GreenHorizon's anonymous tip line for six months without moving an inch," Elena said bitterly. "I needed to force an audit. I needed someone high up enough to notice, someone connected to the victims, to look at the physical evidence on site before Pendelton's cleanup crew could swap out the hardware."
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Leo looked down at his calloused hands, the reality of the situation washing over him in slow, heavy waves. The resentment he had carried for half a decade dissolved, replaced by a cold, unifying fury. He slowly pulled out the chair and sat down directly across from Elena, bridging the physical divide between them.
"What do we do next?" Leo asked quietly.
