Chapter 7 - The Pattern Behind Sarah's Fear
The second clue came from the mortgage.
Ethan's attorney requested the records because Sarah had repeatedly pressured him to refinance the Vienna house and remove his name from the deed.
The lender's file showed something Ethan had never seen.
Three months earlier Sarah had submitted a preliminary refinance application listing her Whitmore shares as collateral support.
The application had been abandoned before Ethan was asked to sign anything.
Her shares were already pledged elsewhere.
Against a commercial line of credit.
Whitmore Industrial Systems.
Sarah had guaranteed part of Claire's company debt.
If the company lost federal contracts, Sarah could lose nearly everything she had inherited from her mother.
The house.
Her investment portfolio.
Possibly the money she had planned to use for retirement.
Her fear suddenly had a shape.
It did not excuse the cake.
It did not excuse Sophie.
But Ethan finally understood why Sarah panicked at the sight of the burgundy envelope.
Then Colonel Sloan called.
The reopened procurement review had not begun because someone suddenly discovered the old complaint.
A newer contract audit had exposed irregular inspection certifications bearing the same internal approval codes used in 2014.
Claire's company was not being investigated simply for her father's history.
There were questions about current practices.
“Is Claire personally implicated?” Ethan asked.
“We don't know yet.”
“What do you need from me?”
“Only what you actually retained.”
Ethan looked at the field case.
“I kept my notebooks.”
Rebecca went quiet.
“Originals?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Because twelve years earlier Ethan had been ordered to revise a safety deficiency he believed was genuine.
He had refused.
Then his report disappeared from the official packet.
So he kept his field notes.
Not to destroy anyone someday.
To prove to himself he had not imagined what happened.
That night, Ethan opened the notebook for the first time in years.
Several pages referenced serial numbers.
One notation contained an unfamiliar set of initials.
C.W.
Ethan had always assumed they belonged to a warehouse supervisor.
Now he wondered whether they meant Claire Whitmore.
May you like
But twelve years earlier Claire had supposedly been in graduate school.
If that was true, someone had been using her initials before she officially joined the company.
