Chapter 7 - The Photograph With Two Dates
Rusk drove away before I could answer. Sonia called the detective handling the threats and asked me to write down every word. I was tired of being called brave. I wanted Noah to eat cereal without fearing someone would take him.
Priya brought us to a retired electrician named Calvin Price, who had worked at Juniper House when Lena lived there. We met in the back of the hardware store where he now repaired lamps.
"The west door wasn't supposed to be chained," he told us. "But there was expensive equipment in the storeroom beyond it. Mrs. Kessler worried somebody would walk off with the donations. She ordered the security company to keep that wing sealed at night."
"Did you hear her order it?" Sonia asked.
"No. I got it from Rusk. And I told him it was a fire trap." Calvin rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I should've called the city and kept calling. I didn't."
He gave us a photograph of a staff meeting. On the whiteboard behind him someone had written WEST EXIT REPAIR URGENT. The photo was dated a month before the fire. An inspection form in the foundation's public records, however, claimed the repair had been completed two weeks later. On the photograph and the form the same staff initials appeared beside the work order.
"Who signed the inspection?" I asked.
Calvin swallowed. "That's what I wanted to show you. The city inspector whose name appears there retired six months before that date. Somebody copied his signature."
I stared at the forged form. This wasn't a single bad decision in the dark. Somebody had created proof of a repair that never happened.
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Calvin reached under his workbench and lifted a small binder. Inside were duplicates of the requests he'd filed before resigning. One included a typed answer from the foundation's executive office: HOLD WORK UNTIL AFTER THE CAMPAIGN EVENT. B.K. APPROVED.
And stapled to it was a second page marked: REMOVE THIS COPY FROM THE PERMANENT FILE.
