👉 Previous Decision: Continued linear path from CHAPTER 2A after standing firm against Governor Finch.
Arthur was still at the same diner counter hours later, surrounded by the legal papers that represented his financial demise. The stack of injunctions and complaints sat like a cruel monument between him and his cold cup of coffee. He traced a finger over the bold red letters of a Federal Election Commission document.
“FEC, huh?” a voice rumbled from the stool beside him.
Arthur looked up. An elderly man in a faded raincoat, a half-eaten plate of scrambled eggs in front of him, was watching Arthur’s papers. The man had a blunt, weathered face and sharp eyes.
“Marcus Holloway,” the man said, extending a hand. “Retired. Spent twenty-eight years as a senior audit director for the FEC. Inspected more political trusts than I care to remember.”
Arthur shook his hand, his grip weak. “Arthur Finch.” He gestured vaguely at the stacks. “My father’s trying to bury me.”
Holloway grunted, his eyes already scanning the document Arthur held. “Governor Finch, isn’t it? Saw his name on some of these. Pretty aggressive.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Mind if I take a look? Just a habit.”
Arthur pushed a few of the more prominent court orders across the counter. Holloway picked them up, his fingers surprisingly nimble. He flipped through the pages, his expression unreadable, for five minutes that stretched like hours.
Then he stopped. His finger stabbed at page 84 of one of the injunction filings. A small section, buried deep within the legalese of campaign finance regulations.
“Here,” Holloway said, his voice flat. “This is interesting.”
Arthur leaned closer. Holloway pointed to a set of confidential committee loan guarantees. Documents that should never have been made public, much less attached to an injunction.
“In their haste to freeze your control, Finch’s lawyers made a catastrophic error,” Holloway explained. “They attached the Governor’s personal loan guarantees. See here? He illegally pledged Senator Albright’s future PAC proxy as collateral for a private $6,000,000 bank loan.”
Arthur stared at the words. Six months prior to her death, while she was still alive and controlling the PAC, Governor Finch had taken out a massive loan against funds he didn’t own. And the bank had accepted it.
“This isn’t just a political ethics violation,” Holloway continued, his voice low. “This is outright bank fraud. And the moment it hits a federal court, the FEC will have no choice but to initiate an automatic freeze on his entire campaign.”
Arthur felt a sudden, dizzying lightness. The 1,200 pages in his bag suddenly held a very different kind of power.
➡️ Read CHAPTER 4A to continue the story
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