I asked whether we could request the identity of the proposed custodian.
Nora said she would do more than request it.
She intended to oppose the injunction and seek the documents Karen had relied upon.
She also wanted a sworn explanation of how Karen learned about a supposed problem with the car’s history.
I felt an immediate urge to call Victor and demand an answer.
Nora saw that impulse before I spoke.
She reminded me that I was both a private litigant and the town’s police chief.
Those roles could not be allowed to overlap simply because the matter frightened me.
I told her that I understood.
She asked me to repeat the rule in my own words.
I said that I would not use departmental resources to investigate a dispute involving my personal property.
I would not direct officers to question Karen or Victor.
I would not use my badge to gain access to records that an ordinary citizen could not obtain.
Nora nodded and closed the folder.
She said the county could examine possible crimes independently while she handled the civil case.
Before I left, she pointed to the note Daniel Finch had written beside the Mustang’s identification number.
Not part of the switch.
She asked what that sentence meant to me.
I said it sounded like Daniel was protecting the car from an accusation rather than identifying it as stolen.
Nora agreed that the interpretation was possible.
She also warned that possibilities could become dangerous when people treated them as facts.
That evening, I parked the Mustang inside the garage and locked the door.
I had always thought of the car as a piece of my father’s life.
Now I wondered whether it had also carried somebody else’s last attempt to tell the truth.
Chapter 14: The Mechanic Who Remembered
Rebecca Finch called me on Tuesday while I was replacing a cracked hose in the garage.
She had found an old address book among her father’s belongings.
One entry belonged to a mechanic named Harold Sutter, who had worked beside Daniel at Victor’s former shop.
Rebecca had not spoken with Harold in nearly twenty years.
She wanted to know whether Nora could contact him.
I gave her Nora’s number and stayed away from the conversation.
Two days later, Nora invited me to her office because Harold had agreed to speak voluntarily.
He arrived wearing a brown work jacket with a broken zipper and carrying a grocery bag full of papers.
