Page 108 of Split Decision

D.C. contacts. Policy people. Introductions into the regulatory environment in Georgia.

My list gets a fifth pattern.

Marin's network is operational. Not historical. She's not just someone who used to know people in D.C. She's actively using those relationships now, here, in ways that extend beyond our situation.

I open the kitchen drawer.

I add to the notebook.

CHAPTER THIRTY

ANDI

Igo back to Bill the morning after Daniel's package arrives.

He picks up on the first ring when I call at eight.

"Come at ten," he says. Which means he's been expecting me to surface.

I'm there at nine-fifty with the documents in a sealed envelope and Luke's photographs on my phone as backup. I set the envelope on the desk between us without saying anything. He opens it, removes the memo, and reads it the way lawyers read things—not for comprehension but for the specific texture of what it is and what it cando.

He's quiet for a long time.

"E. Carrington, Principal," he says finally.

"Strategic Crisis Consulting Group," I say. "2011."

He sets the memo down and looks at me. "This is the origin."

"Yes."

"The method I recognized in Jackson's operation. The same one running against you since December." He picks up the client roster. Studies Marin's name in the Associate Staff section. Sets it down. "She was trained in it."

"She was on Jackson's campaign the year Evelyn wrote that memo," I say. "She was twenty-two. She may have known what was done to me before she ever walked through my door."

Bill is very still for a moment.

"May have," he says carefully.

"May have," I agree. "I don't know the degree yet."

He folds his hands. "What you have here is the origin document and a roster that places Marin inside the firm. That's significant. It establishes the methodology chain—from Carrington to Marin to your situation." He looks at me directly. "What it doesn't give you is evidence of instruction. Something showing Marin was operating onCarrington's direction, specifically against you, in the last year. Not just that she was trained in the methodology, but that she was deployed as an asset to carry out Carrington’s orders."

"What would that look like?"

"Communications. Directives. A payment structure connecting Carrington to Marin's engagement with your situation." He pauses. "Or a witness. Someone who was inside the relationship between them and can speak to how it operated."

I look at the card from Daniel on the desk. Five sentences.The source is still standing.

"He sent the documents," I say. "But you need him to testify to what they mean."

"I need him to establish the chain of custody at a minimum," Bill says. "And yes—his testimony about the relationship between Carrington and Marin would be the connective tissue that turns this from a pattern into a case." He looks at me. "Can you find him?"

"Not yet," I say. "But I think he's findable. He sent these knowing where we live. He's not hiding from us."

Bill nods once. He slides the documents back into the envelope and holds it out. "These go somewhere safe. Not your house."

"Your office."