Chapter 15 - THE LAND BENEATH THEIR JUSTICEVincent believed the legal-aid center belonged to the restitution trust.
The deed showed otherwise.
The building had been transferred through three shell companies and leased back to the trust for one dollar per year. The final owner was a Liberty Urban Renewal subsidiary.
Grant Mercer had allowed the center to operate because every tenant entering for help provided updated addresses, claims, and legal strategies.
The place meant to protect displaced families had become a machine for monitoring them.
Laura ordered every computer disconnected.
A city official warned that closing the system would interrupt hundreds of active cases.
Mercer arrived surrounded by attorneys and reporters.
He wore no expression of guilt.
“Unlike Mr. Caldwell,” he said, “I never locked anyone in a basement.”
“No,” Sophie answered. “You built a city where they had nowhere else to go.”
Mercer smiled at the cameras and announced that Liberty would terminate the lease unless Laura returned the stolen records.
Families outside began to panic. Without the center, many would face court alone.
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Then Vincent received a message from Hale Metropolitan’s current chairwoman.
Help Mercer—or thirty thousand employee pensions collapse by Friday.
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