CHAPTER 32: The Inspection
We moved carefully over the next ten days. Every claim Corvo had made, every contract he’d signed, every favor he’d called in—we documented it all, cross-referenced every name, every date, every payment. We spoke to shop owners too scared to talk before, to workers who’d been cheated out of wages, to families who’d lost their homes to forced evictions.
When we handed the full file to the state ethics board, Corvo laughed it off publicly. “Victor Voss has been making up lies for thirty years. Why would anyone believe him now?”
But he stopped laughing when the first official inspection team showed up at his main casino. Every permit was out of date. Every safety violation flagged. Every financial record didn’t match what he’d filed. By sunset, the place was closed pending a full investigation.
That evening, I walked through the clinic doors to find the waiting room full—more people than ever before. A woman who’d run a bakery for twenty years came straight to me, tears in her eyes. “He was going to tear my shop down next week. Said I owed him more than I had. Thank you for seeing us.”
Victor stood by the door, watching quietly. “They don’t need us to fight their battles for them,” he said later. “They just need someone to stand beside them while they fight their own.”
---
