The next morning, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office issued an official statent.
The statent announced that, at the request of Federation Senator Daniel Sanders and considering the case’s potential threat to the security of federal funds, the State Attorney General’s Office would dispatch an experienced assistant attorney general to form and lead a special task force. The team would travel to Pittsburgh to independently investigate the fire at the City Revitalization Committee’s construction site.
The Mayor of Pittsburgh, Martin Carter Wright, only learned of this news from his press secretary during his routine morning briefing.
After hearing the news, the color instantly drained from his face.
He felt a wave of panic.
He never expected that Leo Wallace, a good-for-nothing lowlife in his eyes, actually had the power to reach all the way to the state level and bring in a big gun like the State Attorney General.
He imdiately ended the eting, returned to his office, closed the door, and dialed a number on an encrypted phone.
On the other end of the line was a man with a rough-sounding voice.
"Hello?"
"It’s ," Carter Wright said in a hushed voice. "Sothing’s co up. The state is sending people to investigate. You need to get out of Pittsburgh imdiately, as far away as possible! Don’t contact again for any reason until this blows over!"
He hung up the phone, feeling his back drenched in a cold sweat.
anwhile, Leo’s "Workplace Safety Education Week" event was in full swing at the construction site.
With the dia broadcasting the entire thing live, the event turned into a show.
The governnt officials sent by the Mayor to cause trouble had no choice but to put on a show for the caras, conducting various safety training sessions for the workers and ticulously inspecting the site’s facilities.
In the end, pressed by reporters, they could only reluctantly admit that the construction site’s safety asures were largely up to code.
Leo’s reputation didn’t fall—it rose.
In the eyes of the citizens, he had beco a young leader who was brave enough to take responsibility, bold enough to face problems head-on, and capable of turning a bad situation into a good one.
The investigation team from the state demonstrated an extrely high level of professionalism and efficiency.
Completely unhindered by any of Pittsburgh’s local powers, they directly took over all case files and re-examined all the evidence from the scene.
Soon, they found a blurry image of the arson suspect in the surveillance footage of a privately-owned, 24-hour convenience store near the construction site.
The footage showed that an hour before the fire, a man wearing a baseball cap and carrying a gas can had entered the site.
By tracking the unlicensed old van the suspect was driving, the investigation team quickly identified him.
He was a minor hoodlum in Pittsburgh South District with a long criminal record.
The most crucial discovery ca from investigating the hoodlum’s call records.
Investigators found that around the ti of the arson, he had several long conversations with a specific number.
And the registered owner of that number was none other than the Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office, Martin Carter Wright’s chief of staff—Mark Jennings.
The night before the state prosecutor was scheduled to formally question Jennings, Mayor Carter Wright got a tip-off from a mole he had planted within the State Governnt.
He knew he had been pushed to the brink.
So he made a swift decision: sacrifice Jennings to save himself.
Early the next morning, he held another ergency press conference.
This ti, the expression on his face was even more grief-stricken than the last, and he even choked up several tis during his speech.
"My fellow citizens, I stand before you today with a heart full of imnse grief and sha."
"According to information I have just received, my own chief of staff, Mr. Mark Jennings, may have—out of dissatisfaction with so of the aggressive thods of Mr. Wallace, the head of our city’s Revitalization Committee—taken so extrely irrational and unacceptable personal actions."
"I am shocked and heartbroken by this! I will not tolerate such a person on my team!"
In front of all the dia, he solemnly announced,
"I am imdiately relieving Mark Jennings of all his duties in the city governnt! Furthermore, on behalf of the Pittsburgh City Governnt, I pledge our full cooperation with the State Attorney General’s Office’s ongoing investigation. No matter who is involved, we will show no leniency!"
Mark Jennings watched the press conference on a live broadcast from his own office.
Only then did he realize that his boss had completely abandoned him.
That afternoon, investigators from the State Attorney’s Office took Jennings into custody.
In the interrogation room, to protect the Mayor and to secure a better plea deal for himself, Jennings took all the bla.
He confessed that he had planned the arson alone, with the sole purpose of undermining Leo Wallace.
The entire case, he claid, had nothing to do with Mayor Carter Wright.
In the end, the sensational construction site arson case was closed, with the official conclusion being that "the mayor’s senior aide privately planned and hired an arsonist to undermine a political rival."
Although Mayor Carter Wright successfully "cleared his na" and distanced himself from the case,
his political credibility and leadership ability suffered a devastating blow.
Everyone knew what was really going on behind the scenes.
A mayor who can’t even control his own chief of staff—what ability does he have to run this city?
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