CSI: Paint Splatter

“What’ve we got?” Esti­ma­tor Brady from New­Start Paint­ing stepped con­fi­dent­ly into the foy­er of a tow­er­ing home, fresh­ly built in the swanky North­ern Peak Heights Ledge neigh­bor­hood. The street reeked of new wealth and HELOCs.

“Home­own­er, age 41. Claims she received a ​‘Wel­come to the Neigh­bor­hood’ fli­er from a local painter, boast­ing a 40% dis­count for first-time customers.”

“40%,” Brady said know­ing­ly, snap­ping a rub­ber glove over his right hand, then open­ing and clos­ing his fin­gers. ​“So that’s how they got in.”

It was a mess — too much for a weak­er stom­ach. Two appren­tices had to wait out­side, one col­lect­ing him­self in the back of the van, try­ing to process what he had seen.

Keep­ing cool, Brady ran a fin­ger along a base­board. The key was to stay detached. ​“Still tacky,” he said qui­et­ly. ​“They were just here.”

Drips and splat­ters were around the perime­ter of the hard­wood floor, sun­light illu­mi­nat­ing flecks that had reached as far as the walk-in pantry. This was bad. Maybe one of the worst he had seen.

Stand­ing slow­ly, Brady walked into the din­ing room to find the worst of it. Just behind the Live, Laugh, Love sign cen­tered between the wain­scot­ing and tray ceil­ing, he could see dis­crep­an­cies in col­or. The crisp white of Win­ter­time Thigh (he knew the col­or well) was bare­ly cov­er­ing what looked to be a soft blue. Roller marks zig-zagged in a sick­en­ing pat­tern, dis­cern­able with a squint. 

“Dear God,” he said. ​“They only used one coat.” Brady tried to con­trol his emo­tions before find­ing the home­own­er, hud­dled in the liv­ing room.

“I have good news and bad news,” he said. ​“You were hit hard, but we can turn this around.”

“You can?”

“We can. And remem­ber, this isn’t your fault. I see it all the time.” The images haunt­ed him every night, flick­er­ing into view when he closed his eyes. Lap marks, brush strokes on the ceil­ing, tape every­where… So much tape…

Brady reached out gen­tly. ​“You’re in good hands now.”