Chapter 13 - THE MAN WHO OWNED THE ROOM
Alderman Richard Keene gave a press conference the next morning.
He smiled into cameras and called the allegations "a private family dispute being weaponized against a public servant."
He denied knowing Emma.
Then a reporter asked why her name appeared on the trust contract.
Keene's smile did not move.
"I don't review clerical witness signatures."
Emma watched from Vincent's office.
"He isn't scared."
Vincent stood by the window overlooking the river.
"Men like Richard don't get scared when evidence appears. They get scared when loyalty disappears."
So they targeted his loyalty.
Marco traced Halcyon's transfers and found payments to Carl, Tessa, Victoria, and three employees inside the Moretti Foundation.
One payment stood out.
Two hundred thousand dollars to a charity controlled by Keene's chief of staff, Miriam Vale.
Miriam agreed to meet Emma secretly.
She chose a church on the South Side.
"Keene keeps a private archive," she said. "Not digital. Paper. He believes paper can't be hacked."
"Where?" Emma asked.
"In a locked office beneath his campaign headquarters."
Vincent asked why she was helping.
Miriam's mouth tightened.
"Because my brother died on a construction site Keene forced open before inspections were finished. He paid my family to stay quiet. I took his money. I haven't slept right since."
She handed Emma a brass key.
"This opens the archive."
Emma stared at it.
"Why give it to me?"
"Because Keene knows every investigator in this city. He doesn't know you."
A shadow moved outside the stained-glass window.
Vincent turned.
The front doors burst open.
Marco shoved Emma behind a pew as two masked men entered.
Miriam whispered one word.
May you like
"Run."
Then the church lights went out.
