Chapter 5 - The Desperate Call
Agent Miller closed his briefcase, but before he stepped toward the door, he turned back to look at me with genuine respect. "Mr. Vance, you should also know that Whitmore attempted to claim this morning that you planted those drives during the repair process. But because your security cameras are high-definition, hard-wired, and timestamped from the exact second the tow truck dropped the car off, our digital forensics unit has already validated that the hidden compartment was intact and sealed long before the vehicle crossed your threshold."
"I don't play games with my livelihood, Agent Miller," I said calmly. "I run an honest business."
"And that honesty just shut down the largest municipal embezzlement scheme in the county's history," Miller replied, shaking my hand firmly. "The city owes you a debt of gratitude. And as for your mechanic’s lien? Because that vehicle was seized as civil asset forfeiture connected to a federal indictment, the Department of Justice is required by law to settle all valid commercial mechanics' liens out of escrow within forty-eight hours."
Twenty minutes after the agents drove away, my personal cell phone buzzed. It was Melissa again, calling from an unknown number. Her voice was cracked, shrill, and bordered on complete hysteria.
"Evan! You have to retract the statement! You have to tell them the car was damaged when you got it and that Grant didn't know about that paperwork!" she wept openly into the phone. "They froze everything! The joint checking accounts, the investment portfolios, the house—they froze all of it! They won't even let me use my debit card at the grocery store!"
I wiped grease from a socket wrench, keeping my tone perfectly even. "Melissa, Grant made his choices long before he brought that car to my door. You brought his mess into my life and tried to use our children as bargaining chips to steal eight thousand dollars of honest labor."
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"I was trying to survive, Evan! You don't understand the pressure Grant was under!"
"No, Melissa," I cut in firmly. "You weren't trying to survive. You were trying to exert control. You stood in my office, looked me in the eyes, and threatened to take Owen and Lucas away from our fishing trip if I didn't let Grant walk all over me. You treated my time, my work, and our children's happiness like disposable currency. You made your bed. Now you have to lie in it."
