Vivien slammed her binder shut.

“You’re all being manipulated,” she said. “By him.”

She pointed directly at Elijah.

For the first time that evening, he rose.

“I didn’t bring those people here,” he said. “They live here. You’ve known their names for years.”

“You’re using your title to turn them against me.”

“Nobody asked my title when they paid your fines.”

A low murmur ran through the room.

Elijah continued. “My ownership dispute will be handled independently. The neighborhood’s finances should be, too. Those are separate questions. Don’t let anyone confuse them for you.”

Vivien opened her mouth, but Gregory was suddenly at her shoulder. He whispered something into her ear. Her expression changed from outrage to alarm.

She looked at Elijah once, then hurried toward the exit.

Sandra noticed Gregory leave by a different door.

Neither Hartman stayed to hear the final motion: the board had requested an independent forensic review of the association’s recovery contracts and financial authorizations.

For the first time in years, Vivien could no longer dictate what happened next.

CHAPTER 18: THE PERSON WHO KNEW ALL ALONG

Detective Price received the recovered communication records two days later. Most were mundane business messages: invoices, title questions, payments, and arrangements for auction transportation. One message was different.

It had been sent from Gregory Hartman’s phone to an investor in Lakeview Collector Holdings on the morning Vivien received the neighborhood’s new-owner roster.

The Grant heir moved into Maple Ridge. The genuine car is in his garage. He’s also the city’s incoming police chief. Do not tell V. If she knows, she’ll either panic or overplay it before the vehicle is secured.

Price read it twice.

Gregory had known exactly who Elijah was.

Vivien had not.

Another message, written shortly before the false police complaint, was even more revealing.

We have a narrow window before the auction. V can create the complaint. The ownership dispute will keep him occupied and restrict what he can do as chief. Sterling must be ready to recover the car as soon as law enforcement clears the driveway.

The plan depended on a sequence of assumptions: Elijah would be embarrassed by a public accusation, the local police would treat the complaint as grounds to remove the Mustang, and his own conflict of interest would stop him from intervening quickly enough to prevent a transfer to Sterling’s yard. Once there, the car could be held under disputed paperwork and its identifying features examined or altered.