Chapter 12 - Before the Rain
"Micah!" Becca screamed.
I started after him, but Weller caught my sleeve. "We call him out. We don't send another person into a building under review."
He was right, even if every nerve in my body wanted to move. I stood at the doorway and shouted that the pictures could be replaced with copies, that his mother needed him more than she needed a frame.
Micah appeared at the top of the stairs holding a small white album. Weller guided him outside. Becca pulled her son against her chest and didn't let go until he complained that he couldn't breathe.
Rain hit the porch roof in hard, sudden bursts. We moved everyone away from the house. As the last car pulled clear, a section of the porch sagged with a wooden crack and tore loose from its supports. No one was underneath. Still, Becca screamed as if she'd watched her whole future fall.
Weller radioed the hazard to the emergency crew and sealed off the property. I stared at the exposed work, recognizing from a distance how much of the promised reinforcement was absent. The county's detailed assessment would decide what had failed; my own name would not go on another conclusion without the actual inspection.
Walter put a hand on my uninjured shoulder. "Your daddy used to tell me you could see trouble in a house before anybody else."
"I couldn't see it in my marriage."
"Houses don't lie to you on purpose, sweetheart. People do."
At the hotel, Becca thanked me for speaking plainly. Then she asked whether I thought the lender would still make her pay. I couldn't answer. I gave her Sofia's number and the county's homeowner assistance contact instead.
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That night, Weller sent our investigators a copy of the private financing certificate, obtained with Becca's authorization. The document had been created after my signing credentials were disabled.
Someone was still using my seal.
