“The police are looking for Mark,” I said. “They have open warrants for bank fraud.”
“Did he spend the rest of the fourteen thousand?” she asked.
“The fourteen thousand is gone,” I said. “But he took much more than that. He used Vanguard Engineering to sell fake structural safety inspections to local families.”
Maya looked down at Liam, her fingers tightening on mine. “How is that possible, David?”
“He forged my professional license,” I said. “He signed off on major construction projects in Brooklyn using my credentials.”
“Oh, David,” she whispered.
“If any of those buildings are unsafe, the liability falls on my firm,” I said. “The state could revoke my license permanently.”
“But you were in Germany,” she said. “You have the passport stamps to prove you were out of the country.”
“That protects me from criminal charges,” I said. “But it does not protect my professional reputation. If the local papers get hold of this, no municipal contractor will ever hire me again.”
