Instead, I asked Iris to explain when and where she'd heard the statement and whether anyone else was present.
She answered as precisely as she could.
When the interview ended, Iris looked exhausted.
Then she asked, “Am I in trouble?”
I shook my head.
“You've provided information that needs to be checked. We'll discuss the appropriate next steps and protections with you and your attorney.”
She nodded.
For a moment, she looked as though she might cry.
Then she whispered, “My mother always said you shouldn't sign your name to something you know isn't right.”
I smiled faintly.
“She sounds wise.”
Iris laughed shakily.
“She was a bookkeeper too.”
For the first time during the interview, she looked less frightened.
I watched her leave with her attorney.
Then turned toward Adrian.
He was already studying the notes.
“This gives us a financial path to examine.”
I nodded.
“And somebody who can explain the records.”
He looked toward me.
“Not enough to prove the entire scheme.”
“No.”
I closed the folder.
“But enough to ask better questions.”
Over the next several weeks, investigators worked to corroborate the accounts.
The task force sought records through the required legal processes.
Financial specialists analyzed payments between Cedar Line, the community foundation, consulting businesses, and entities associated with the freight development.
They compared dates of towing activity with contract decisions, property negotiations, and financial transfers.
The analysis was painstaking.
There was no magic spreadsheet that automatically identified corruption.
Some transactions had ordinary explanations.
Some dates were coincidental.
Several payments initially looked suspicious but proved unrelated to the allegations.
Those findings mattered.
A good investigation wasn't only the process of collecting information that confirmed a theory.
It was also the process of removing conclusions the evidence didn't support.
Our team spent hours correcting assumptions.
Revising timelines.
And distinguishing the actions of individual employees from those of the people directing the business.
But as the records accumulated, several patterns remained.
Money from towing-related business activity passed through entities linked to people with influence over county contracts.
Certain consulting arrangements lacked credible documentation of the services described.
And several property transactions involved overlapping interests that had not been clearly disclosed when public decisions were made.
The financial evidence was no longer merely suggestive.
It was beginning to connect specific decisions with specific beneficiaries.
Then the insider leak became clearer.
The information about my meeting with Nora had not come directly from Adrian or Leah.
It had passed through an administrative support contractor assigned to part of the task force's scheduling operation.
His name was Elliot Vance.
He was thirty-three.