Chapter 14: Verification

The verification took three weeks. Dana worked from her apartment with the forty-three pages and her editor Marcus, who had the specific quality of attention that made him the best editor she'd worked with: he never told her what story to tell, he told her whether the story she was telling was proven by what she had. 'The holding company chain is solid,' he said, on the second week. 'Three shells, Cayman parent, documented. The permit timeline is documentable from public records — I had our researcher pull the county filings independently and your numbers are right. Driscoll's contract connection is the shakiest.' 'I have the contract number and the timeline,' Dana said. 'You have a timeline that is consistent with influence but doesn't prove it. You need a second source on Driscoll.' She found the second source through the mine's out-of-state staffing company — a former worker who had been let go in the second year and who had, when Dana found him through a staffing database, no particular loyalty to the operation and a specific grievance about unpaid overtime. He knew Driscoll's name. Not from the contract — from a site visit. Driscoll had come to the compound personally, eighteen months ago, and the workers had been told to refer to him as 'the inspector' but the site foreman had used his actual name in front of the former worker twice. 'That's your second source,' Marcus said. 'It's not documented.' 'It corroborates the timeline and the connection. With your documentary evidence, it's enough.' He looked at the forty-three pages on his desk. 'We're publishing. Get me the final draft by Friday.'