One session occurred while I was reviewing confidential drawings with a subcontractor.
Another occurred the night before my final pricing submission.
The logs did not identify every person who watched the feed.
They did show that the account was accessed from a network assigned to Halden Development.
I felt sick when Simone told me.
I remembered making coffee while the subcontractor explained a cost-saving change.
I remembered laughing at a joke about how the client would never notice the difference between two kinds of tile.
I remembered feeling safe enough to leave my notes open on the table.
Someone had treated those ordinary moments as material to be collected.
Simone said we now had evidence supporting a counterclaim, but she would not promise a result.
I told her I wanted the people responsible to answer for what they had done.
She said accountability would require patience, precision, and a willingness to hear facts I might not like.
I said I was learning that lesson the hard way.
Chapter 45: The Man Behind the Invoice
Clearline’s owner, Warren Pike, agreed to speak with investigators after receiving a subpoena.
He was a former security consultant who had built his company by installing cameras in warehouses and vacant commercial buildings.
He said Patricia contacted him about a disputed property line and a possible trespass problem.
He admitted that the interior placement request seemed unusual.
He claimed a client representative assured him the house belonged to a business entity that had authorized the work.
The authorization letter bore my street address but named a company I had never heard of.
A search of public business records showed the company had been formed three weeks before the installation.
Its registered agent was associated with Halden Development.
Warren said he had relied on the letter without checking ownership records.
Investigators were interested in who created the false authorization and who approved the service.
Warren’s testimony did not absolve him of responsibility, but it explained how the operation had been disguised as ordinary commercial work.
I studied a copy of the letter and noticed that the street number was correct while the parcel identification number belonged to an empty lot across town.
The error was small enough to escape a casual glance.
It was large enough to show that somebody had built the paperwork from mismatched records.
I told Simone what I noticed.
She forwarded the observation to the investigators.
For the first time, my knowledge of drawings and property records contributed something useful to the case.
I had spent months feeling like a victim waiting for other people to act.
