Chapter 2 - Claire Found My Original Signature
I stayed beneath the walnut desk until Travis and Victor left.
My knees hurt.
My hand did not stop shaking.
Claire locked the office door.
“Come out.”
I crawled into the open holding the transfer authorization.
“Where did they get my signature?”
Claire opened a drawer and removed a photocopy.
I recognized it immediately.
Northgate’s first major construction loan.
Eleven years earlier, Travis and I had signed it together.
My signature sat at the bottom in blue ink.
Claire placed the new $3.4 million authorization beside it.
The forged signature had the same unusual upward stroke on the F.
The same compressed w.
The same tiny break before the final k.
Too similar.
Not natural similarity.
Tracing.
Claire had found a high-resolution scan of the old loan document in a folder called LEGACY AUTHORIZATIONS.
Someone had isolated my signature as an image file.
The file metadata showed it had been opened repeatedly during the previous six months.
By Travis.
And by Northgate’s controller, Martin Voss.
I whispered:
“Why are you helping me?”
Claire looked toward the closed door.
“Because three weeks ago, Travis asked me to backdate a board consent.”
She refused.
The next day, her system permissions were reduced.
That frightened her enough to start looking.
May you like
What she found frightened her more.
The $3.4 million transfer was not the first document carrying my copied signature.
