Voss stared at his desk.

“I asked that question,” he said. “I was told there was a court order coming.”

“Did you see it?”

“No.”

Price showed him the forged affidavit bearing Elias Grant’s name.

“Did you know the purported signer was dead?”

Voss removed his glasses.

“No.”

“Who instructed you to arrange the tow?”

He looked toward the window, where a worker was dragging a chain across gravel.

“The request came from Gregory Hartman’s office,” he said finally. “They told me it was a family matter involving an inherited vehicle.”

With counsel present, Voss later supplied dispatch logs and emails showing that Gregory had ordered a secure storage bay for the Mustang several days before Vivien’s 911 call. The instruction had been to restrict the owner’s access until the “identity question” was resolved.

One document specified that the car’s identification markings should be inspected immediately on arrival. Another directed that the vehicle not be released without Lakeview’s written approval.

That was not normal towing procedure for an ordinary HOA complaint.

Price’s team traced the emails to addresses used by Gregory’s firm. A court-authorized review of bank records revealed payments moving from Lakeview to Sterling and then into a consulting company with a beneficiary connected to Hartman family assets.

The links did not yet prove who had forged the signature. They did establish a financial interest and a plan to take control of Elijah’s car.

Voss asked one question before Price left.

“If I cooperate, does that mean I’m not going to lose everything?”

“It means we’ll record exactly what you did and what you knew,” she said. “Anything beyond that is for the prosecutors and the court.”

He nodded slowly.

“Then I need to tell you about the other blue car.”

CHAPTER 16: THE OTHER MUSTANG

The other Mustang was scheduled for sale at a collector auction outside Riverton. Its description claimed it was an exceptionally preserved Boss 429 with a documented history. The car gleamed beneath the exhibition lights. Its paint looked remarkably like Elijah’s.

A catalog listed a provenance package and a title history matching the number on Elias Grant’s car.

Detective Price did not enter the auction house with sirens. She arranged a controlled inspection through the appropriate court process and brought a vehicle-identification specialist who worked with collector-car fraud cases.

The specialist spent two hours examining the vehicle. He photographed welds, original metal seams, areas beneath trim, and the manufacturing marks that could not be easily changed without leaving evidence. The paint was convincing. The story on paper was convincing. The metal beneath it told a different story.