"Exactly. You want Holt held accountable for something real, not given a chance to say you fabricated a scandal because your wife was arrested."
The distinction followed Marcus throughout the afternoon. He visited the county records office, where a patient clerk helped him locate public deeds and tax assessments. He learned how to compare sale prices against similar properties without relying on the developer's promotional materials. He noted how quickly some transfers had been recorded after citations, and he requested certified copies of documents that might later matter in court.
At four o'clock, he checked his phone and saw two messages from Diana. Her motion challenging the bail amount had been filed, and the prosecutor's office had received preservation demands concerning the original police complaint. A third message came from Jack, who had confirmed that Holt had attended a golf event sponsored by an affiliate of Phoenix Ventures. That did not establish bribery, but it contradicted Holt's public insistence that he had no relationship with the redevelopment company.
Marcus returned to Daniel's small office above the Metro Daily building. The room contained filing cabinets, three monitors, and a wall map covered in handwritten notes. Daniel had received legally obtained disclosures from a whistleblower within a contracting company, but the records were incomplete and required authentication. They showed transfers described as consulting fees after several property clusters closed. Some payments appeared to travel through an overseas entity before returning to a domestic account associated with a business controlled by James Holt.
"Follow the dates," Daniel said. "This payment follows the Jefferson block acquisitions. This one follows the Mercer apartments. And here's one after three houses on Brookside sold. The percentages are suspiciously consistent."
Marcus studied the figures. "Can you prove they were kickbacks?"
"Not from this alone. We'd need bank records obtained through legal process, a witness with direct knowledge, or communications linking the transfers to police activity. But we can show prosecutors enough to ask serious questions."
Daniel produced a small encrypted drive containing copies of publicly available documents, witness-authorized statements, and a limited set of video clips submitted voluntarily by residents. One showed Holt entering a parking garage with a man Daniel identified as a Vision Heights executive. Another captured officers discussing whether a homeowner had accepted an offer during a traffic stop. The evidence was suggestive, but Marcus saw immediately why it had to be combined with properly authenticated files before it could carry the weight of criminal allegations.
"Jack wants everything independently checked," Daniel said. "He's right. A company like this can bury a paper in lawsuits if we rush."
Marcus asked how many families were represented in the research. Daniel consulted his spreadsheet and named thirty-six completed sales, several more pending offers, and dozens of complaints from residents who had not moved. Marcus pictured each entry not as a dot on a chart but as a kitchen like Mrs. Carter's, with a photograph on the wall and a history nobody outside the family could price correctly.