Chapter 17 - The Price of Silence
Colin was found the next evening at a roadside motel thirty miles south. Detectives questioned him, and investigators later sought charges tied to the financial records and the attempted removal of evidence. The fire's cause remained under separate investigation.
Brielle's lawyer called mine the following morning. She wanted to meet. I refused a private conversation and agreed only to let the lawyers exchange documents. I had nothing left to gain from hearing her explain my son's fear away.
But a statement she made through counsel reached me anyway. She claimed Colin had threatened to expose her fake pregnancy unless she helped him divert money. The dates didn't support it. Her first suspicious account changes came weeks before his first message to her about the fake belly.
The money had moved in stages: legitimate renovation bills padded with false quantities, payments routed to TrueSpan, then transfers to personal accounts. The independent audit identified at least two hundred sixty-three thousand dollars diverted or unsupported. Some of the goods were installed; some existed only on paper.
I asked Asha the question I'd been avoiding. "How much of this could I have stopped?"
She leaned on the desk. "You didn't order it. But you gave someone broad access and stopped checking. We need new controls. Two approvals, independent field inspections, and nobody using somebody else's badge."
"Do you think people will trust us again?"
"Some won't," she said. "We still have to do the work."
That night I visited Owen. He was building another cardboard city. This one had exits marked in green and a little fire station near the park.
"Did they catch the bad people?" he asked.
"They're being investigated. The grown-ups who broke the rules will have to answer for them."
May you like
He nodded, then pushed away his paper scissors. "Dad, when you get married again, can I meet the person without being asked to call her Mom?"
The question struck harder than any accusation at the wedding.
