The authorization was false.
The auction manager called Detective Price before allowing the gates to open. She and two investigators arrived while the transporter waited in a loading bay. The driver, who had been hired through an online dispatch service, appeared genuinely confused. He showed them the order on his tablet. It contained a digital signature from someone whose account had been compromised.
Price asked the driver to wait while they verified it.
Ten minutes later, security footage showed a man in a baseball cap approaching the storage office from the side entrance. He had no business there. When staff challenged him, he left quickly and walked toward a dark sedan parked beyond the fence.
An investigator obtained the plate number and notified the nearby units. The sedan was located a short distance away. Its driver was an employee of a company that had received payments from Gregory’s office. A later search, conducted under warrant, produced messages about removing documents and changing the auction vehicle’s storage location.
The effort failed.
With the second car secured and the chain of communications intact, investigators had enough to seek arrest warrants related to the suspected forgery and attempted vehicle fraud.
Price did not come to Elijah’s house to celebrate. She called him as she would call any witness whose property was central to an investigation.
“We have made significant progress,” she said. “There may be more hearings. You’ll need to testify about the car and your father’s records.”
“Is it safe?”
“Your vehicle is where you left it. The auction car is secured.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Price paused.
He looked toward his front window, where the motion light beside the garage had just come on in the rain.
“Is this finished?” he asked.
“The immediate threat looks much smaller than it did yesterday,” she said. “But an investigation is not a movie. It doesn’t end when the right people walk into a room.”
He knew she was right. He had spent his career explaining that to victims who wanted a single satisfying moment to erase months of harm.
For the first time in his life, he understood just how unsatisfying the truth could feel while it was still unfinished.
The rain continued. Elijah locked the garage, checked the doors, and went back inside.
He did not sleep much that night.
CHAPTER 21: THE FALL OF THE HARTMANS
Gregory Hartman was arrested after prosecutors reviewed the financial trail, the disputed title documents, the attempted transfer of the auction vehicle, and the communications connecting him to the recovery plan. The charges concerned alleged forgery, fraud, and the attempted unlawful transfer of property. He was entitled to defend himself, and the case would take months to resolve.
