He laid it all out for his boss, Voss, from the photograph to Whitfield’s testimony. She listened with the stillness of one calculating the exposure, then said, “Aldridge has money and lawyers, Marcus. Lay every brick carefully.” She paused. “And find the couple before he gets them. If they’re your witnesses, they need to be safe first.”
The Knoxville credit union account gave them a geographic anchor. The address on file placed the couple in West Knoxville. Stroud found two more traces in the same area—a utilities connection and a lease—both from the 2010s, both in matching false names. The question now was—Were they still there in 2026?