Chapter 7 - THE FORGED SEAL
My engineering firm placed me on administrative leave.
The decision was automatic after investigators discovered reports bearing my seal.
My supervisor, Thomas Reed, called from the hospital parking lot.
“I believe you.”
“But the company has to protect itself.”
“I understand.”
The words still hurt.
I had spent fifteen years building a reputation.
Adrian copied it in one night and attached it to a dangerous tower.
The state engineering board opened an investigation.
I voluntarily surrendered access to my digital seal while forensic experts reviewed every report.
The forged documents had been created from scans stored on my home computer.
The access logs showed someone copied them at 3:12 a.m. six months earlier.
I had been asleep upstairs.
Adrian had told me he was watching a basketball game.
Federal agents searched our apartment.
They found a hidden drive behind the desk.
It contained revised foundation plans, false invoices, and emails between Adrian and the project manager.
One message read:
CLAIRE WILL TAKE THE FALL IF THE CITY ASKS.
Another read:
AFTER THE CONDO TRANSFER, HER MOTIVE IS ESTABLISHED.
The plan was complete.
First, connect me financially to the development.
Then use my professional credentials.
If the tower failed or the fraud surfaced, the Caldwells would describe me as the independent engineer who traded approval for property profits.
Adrian’s affair also appeared in the drive.
He had been seeing the project’s permit coordinator, Lauren Pierce.
She altered inspection schedules and removed failed test results.
Their messages mixed romance with fraud.
After Adrian hit me, he did not run to a lawyer.
He called Lauren.
She arranged the helicopter and a vehicle near the construction site.
Detective Ortiz believed Adrian was heading there to destroy physical evidence.
The deepest foundation samples were stored in a temporary laboratory beneath the tower.
Those samples proved the soil could not support the revised design.
If Adrian destroyed them, the Caldwells could argue the reports were disputed.
I called Ortiz.
“There is another copy.”
“Where?”
“The original geotechnical firm keeps core logs inside the east service vault.”
“Can Adrian access it?”
“Only if he knows the old construction plans.”
“He stole files from my office.”
He knew.
Ortiz ordered police to surround the site.
Then Maya called from a protected number.
Julian had taken their children.
He left a message demanding the basement server in exchange for them.
May you like
Adrian was not running alone.
The brothers were heading toward the same unfinished tower.
