Chapter 9: The Morning After the Night That Changed Everything
I slept three hours on a couch in a room down the hall from Patricia Holt's office.
Grace brought coffee at six.
Daniel was already at the table with his laptop open when I came back in.
"The warrant executed cleanly," he said.
"Thomas's accounts are frozen as of 2 a.m.
His lawyer filed an emergency motion to contest at four, which tells you his lawyer was awake and waiting."
"What about Sandra Okafor?"
"Patricia's on a call right now."
I sat down.
The coffee was bad.
I drank it anyway.
At 6:40, Patricia came back into the room.
She sat across from me.
"Sandra Okafor is alive," she said.
"She's been in a federal program for four years.
She's been waiting for someone to come back to her with enough to make a case." She paused.
"She wants to testify."
The room was very quiet.
"She kept records," Patricia continued.
"Personal records, separate from anything she submitted in 2019.
Dates, names, amounts, conversations.
She wrote everything down because she didn't trust the system to protect her.
As it turned out, she was right not to." She looked at her legal pad.
"With her testimony and the documentation you brought in last night, we have enough to move forward on wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and interference with federal contracting.
The supply contract angle opens additional exposure under procurement law."
"How long until charges?" Daniel asked.
"Formal charges within seventy-two hours if everything holds.
His lawyer is going to fight the account freeze first.
That buys us time to build the filing." She looked at me.
"Ms.
Vale, I want to be honest with you.
This process will take months.
Possibly longer.
Thomas Veil is going to contest everything, and he has resources to do it with."
"I know," I said.
"But the freeze means he can't acquire anything in the interim.
Your shares are protected.
Vale Cold Chain stays in your name until this resolves."
I nodded.
"There's one more thing," Patricia said.
She slid a single page across the table.
"Carl Briggs.
The warehouse supervisor who recanted in 2019.
He contacted us this morning.
He saw Thomas Veil's name in the early news alerts about the account freeze." She paused.
"He wants to correct his statement."
I looked at the page.
Carl Briggs.
Pennsylvania.
A phone number.
A date and time for a call already scheduled.
Thomas Veil had spent thirty years making people afraid.
One frozen account and his name in the news, and they were already coming back.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Grant.
*They took the file.
I gave them everything.
I'm going to cooperate fully — whatever that means for me.
I thought you should know.*
I set the phone face-down on the table.
Daniel was watching me.
"How do you feel?"
I thought about that.
"Like I need breakfast," I said.
"A real one.
Not for anyone else."
May you like
He smiled.
It was the first time either of us had smiled since the morning before.
