Laura had taught me that patience was part of loving anything worth keeping

When the pedal finally held firm I sat behind the wheel and looked at the orange warning tag

The tag was dirty and bent from its journey through Merediths driveway

I removed it from the steering wheel and placed it in the evidence folder

I did not start the engine

I wanted the first drive to happen after the investigation no longer required the car to remain available

A few minutes later my telephone rang

It was Marcus and his voice sounded unusually guarded

He said investigators had found a vehicle at the warehouse that connected Conrads business to an earlier complaint

He would not identify the vehicle or its owner over the phone

He asked whether I could come to the county office on Monday morning

I agreed and looked through the garage window at the quiet street

For the first time I understood that the Mustang might have been the car that exposed the scheme rather than the car the scheme began with

I closed the garage door and waited for Monday with more questions than I had carried into the week

Monday arrived under a low gray sky that made the county building look older than I remembered

I parked beside the visitor entrance and sat for a moment with both hands resting on the steering wheel

Laura used to tease me about arriving early whenever I expected bad news

She said I preferred an empty waiting room to the helpless feeling of being late

I could almost hear her voice as I walked toward the glass doors

Marcus met me near the security desk and led me into a small conference room

Dana was already there with a folder and a paper cup of coffee she had forgotten to drink

A woman in a dark blue sweater sat beside the window with a photograph in her lap

Marcus introduced her as Evelyn Mercer

She was a retired school librarian who had lived in Cedar Ridge before the neighborhood acquired its new name

Evelyn studied my face before she spoke

She said she had seen my Mustang at the neighborhood meeting and recognized the color immediately

I told her the paint had been chosen by my wife

Evelyn nodded and unfolded the photograph

The picture showed a pale green coupe parked beneath a maple tree beside a modest brick house