Chapter 13 - The Media Counterattack
By mid-afternoon, Chloe’s father, Arthur Vance Senior—a man who had built his real estate empire on bullying municipal governments and buying local politicians—launched a desperate, high-priced public relations counterattack. Knowing he couldn't stop the federal legal machinery inside the courthouse, he attempted to try the case in the court of public opinion.
I was sitting in the hospital cafeteria with Agent Chen, reviewing the preliminary indictment drafts, when the wall-mounted television switched from national news to a live local broadcast outside the Oakridge County Courthouse.
On screen stood a slick, five-hundred-dollar-an-hour corporate defense attorney named Harrison Vance—a cousin of Lieutenant Vance—flanked by Arthur Vance Senior and a battery of private crisis publicists.
"What we are witnessing in Oakridge today is an unprecedented, unconstitutional abuse of federal executive power," Harrison Vance proclaimed into a forest of microphones, pounding his fist onto the podium. "A rogue, out-of-control Department of Justice investigator, Vera Sterling, has weaponized her federal credentials to intervene in a private, tragic family health crisis!"
"Here we go," Agent Chen muttered, taking a sip of his coffee and shaking his head in disgust. "The classic 'rogue agent' spin."
"Let’s listen," I said calmly, watching the attorney’s sweating face.
"Martha Sterling has been suffering from severe, documented dementia and violent psychiatric episodes for over a year," Harrison Vance lied without batting an eye. "Last night, during a manic episode, she violently attacked her loving daughter-in-law, Chloe Sterling, inside their home. When local law enforcement appropriately intervened to detain the aggressor, Vera Sterling used her federal task force to storm a municipal police station, illegally arrest decorated police officers, and kidnap her own mother from lawful custody to cover up the family’s mental health secrets!"
A reporter shouted from the press scrum: "Mr. Vance! What about the allegations of bribery and attempted murder being filed by the U.S. Attorney's office?"
"Those charges are completely fabricated!" Arthur Vance Senior shouted into the microphones, his face purple with indignation. "This is a witch hunt designed to extort my family’s real estate holdings! We are filing an immediate federal civil rights lawsuit against Vera Sterling and the Department of Justice for ten million dollars in damages, and we demand the immediate release of my daughter and Lieutenant Vance!"
I pulled out my phone and dialed Assistant U.S. Attorney Henderson’s direct line. He answered on the second ring.
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"Are you watching this press conference, Vera?" Henderson asked, his tone dry and unimpressed.
"I am," I replied. "They want a public spectacle, Mark. I think it’s time we give them one they will never forget. Authorize the public release of Exhibit A and Exhibit B."
