Chapter 2 - THE REPORT WITH TWO ENDINGS
Robert denied it before Katherine finished speaking.
“I was operations director,” he said. “I didn’t control an insurance investigation.”
“You controlled who kept their job after it.”
Katherine handed the hidden phone to Grace, then pushed herself upright against the dresser.
Three years earlier, she had worked as a claims analyst for Atlantic Mutual, the insurer covering Lawson Infrastructure’s highway project near Short Pump. Beatrice Shaw was the project’s field engineer.
Five weeks before the collapse, Beatrice reported that a subcontractor had installed the wrong drainage material behind the retaining wall. Replacing it would have delayed the project and cost more than a million dollars.
Katherine interviewed her twice.
“The first report recommended shutting down that section of the site,” Katherine said. “The version issued after the collapse said Beatrice had approved the substitution.”
Caleb stepped closer. “Your name was on it.”
“My name was on the draft.”
“You signed the final page.”
“My electronic signature was attached after I was removed from the file.”
Robert gave a humorless laugh. “Convenient.”
Katherine looked at him. “You told my supervisor that if Atlantic Mutual blamed Lawson Infrastructure, your company would move every policy to another carrier.”
Grace turned toward her husband.
“Did you?”
“We were being blamed before the facts were known.”
“And Beatrice died,” Caleb said. “Katherine kept her job while Beatrice’s family was told she caused the collapse.”
“I resigned six days later.”
Caleb’s expression flickered.
He had not known that.
Katherine explained that she had attempted to give her draft report to state safety investigators. Atlantic Mutual’s attorneys warned that she had accessed documents outside her assigned authority and could face a lawsuit if she distributed confidential files.
She was twenty-four, recently orphaned and carrying student debt. She backed down.
“I told myself the state would find the same evidence without me,” she said. “They didn’t.”
Caleb looked at the hidden phone.
“Why didn’t you tell me when we met?”
“I didn’t know you were connected to the project. You told me your father built office parks. By the time I saw his company name on an old award in your apartment, we’d been together eight months.”
“You still stayed silent.”
“Yes.”
The word landed harder because she did not defend it.
Grace picked up the photograph again.
“Why was Caleb at the site?”
Robert answered too quickly.
“He was visiting me.”
Caleb stared at his father.
“I worked there.”
Grace’s face emptied.
Caleb had told his parents that his first engineering job was in North Carolina. Robert had supported the lie.
Katherine turned the photograph over again.
A fourth person had been cut from its right edge.
Only one hand remained, resting on Caleb’s shoulder.
The hand wore a square silver ring Katherine recognized.
She had seen it in Beatrice’s interview.
“Who did you cut out of this picture?” she asked.
Robert did not answer.
May you like
Caleb did.
“Me,” he said. “Because I was standing beside the wall when Beatrice told us it would fail.”
