Chapter 47 - Becker Industrial Services
The company records listed Becker Industrial Services as a contractor that had removed waste from the Kalamazoo depot. Its mailing address was an apartment in Battle Creek, and its registered agent was a bookkeeping firm that had closed years earlier.
Tom Becker denied owning the company. He said his name had appeared on work orders because he supervised the maintenance crew, but he had never received a contractor payment.
Daniel checked the payment records. Becker Industrial Services had received money from Northline, not Whitmore. The account was opened only a month before the renovation.
“Could someone have used Tom’s name without his knowledge?” I asked.
“Possibly,” Daniel replied. “We need the account-opening records.”
The state agency asked Whitmore to provide all documents related to the renovation and the contractor payment. The company’s records included a work authorization signed by Victor Hale and an invoice approved by Northline.
The invoice listed special handling, off-site disposal, and site restoration. There was no certificate showing where anything had gone.
Tom looked at the signature on the work authorization.
“That isn’t mine,” he said.
The signature appeared to be his initials, but the letter shapes did not match his notebook. The document’s date was two days after he had retired from the company.
The audit team sent it to the document examiner.
The story reached the press by afternoon. The headline said a former Whitmore worker denied signing a waste authorization. The article carefully noted that the allegation had not been proven.
Tom called me, angry and frightened.
“They’re using my name,” he said. “I never signed that paper.”
“I believe you.”
“Can you prove it?”
“We’re having the signature examined. The agency has the document.”
“I don’t want to be dragged into a lawsuit.”
“You can have your own attorney review it. The company will provide a copy.”
He asked whether his pension could be affected. I assured him the company would not retaliate against him for cooperating, but I did not promise that the dispute would be easy.
Charles authorized the company to cover reasonable legal consultation for former employees asked to provide evidence. The employee council agreed to oversee the process with outside counsel.
It was a meaningful step. It also cost money the company could not spare casually.
The customer renewals remained uncertain. One client accepted our updated testing schedule. Another demanded an independent review of all regional sites before signing. The third threatened to transfer business to a competitor.
At the warehouse, I reviewed the weekly staffing plan. We could keep everyone on their current hours for another month, but beyond that, the numbers depended on customer decisions.
Earl noticed the schedule and asked whether there was a problem.
“There may be pressure on the budget next month.”
“Are we losing shifts?”
“Not yet.”
“Then don’t tell people it’s fine. Tell them what you just told me.”
I looked at the schedule. He was right. A carefully worded message could be truthful and still conceal the practical risk.
I asked Charles to hold a town hall and share the projected revenue gap. He agreed, though he worried it would worsen morale.
The meeting was tense. Charles explained that one contract was at risk, but no shift reductions had been approved. Workers asked for the company’s financial assumptions and the date of the next update.
The employee council requested a weekly report. The board approved it.
After the meeting, Tom Becker called again. The document examiner had found that the signature on the authorization did not match his known writing. The examiner could not yet say who had signed it, only that it was unlikely to be Tom.
“I’m glad,” Tom said, though he still sounded shaken. “But whose signature is it?”
No one knew.
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The auditor searched the company’s digital files for the document’s original author. The system record showed that it had been created under a temporary user account assigned to an outside contractor.
The account belonged to Bridgeway Communications.
