Chapter 9 - The Broker's Good Suit
Cole Darrow wore a blue suit that fit too well for a man who claimed he knew nothing about missing money.
He met Tessa and me in a conference room at Ashbrook after the firm's compliance manager agreed to a recorded conversation. Tessa made clear that we were there voluntarily, not to settle anything.
"Who inspected my house?" I asked.
"A contractor," Cole said.
"What's the contractor's name?"
"I don't have that information in front of me."
Tessa pushed the porch photograph across the table. "Then why are you in the reflection?"
Cole's smile failed. He claimed he'd visited only to verify the address. The compliance manager took notes and ended the meeting as soon as Cole began describing me as an unreliable witness.
In the parking garage, I wanted to punch a concrete pillar. Tessa handed me a bottle of water instead.
"They know the file's contaminated," she said. "That doesn't mean they'll admit it today."
I returned to my shop, where my foreman, Luis, was waiting with a broken sash window balanced on two sawhorses.
"You want me to handle your calls for a few days?" he asked.
"I want you to tell me if this place can survive without me."
"It survived that flood in February. We'll figure it out."
His plain kindness nearly undid me.
That evening, Ashbrook's compliance manager sent Tessa a formal notice: collection activity on the disputed mortgage was suspended during an internal review. It wasn't a release, but I could breathe again.
Attached was a disbursement summary. The loan proceeds had gone to Whitcomb Development, then to a contractor called Northlight Safety Solutions.
Northlight had billed $224,000 for fire exits at Eastbank Housing.
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I had inspected those exits during a preservation bid last spring.
They hadn't existed then.
