CHAPTER 15: THE MAN AT STERLING YARD

The manager of Sterling Asset Recovery was named Aaron Voss. He had gray hair, a tired face, and a habit of polishing his glasses whenever he needed time to think. Price found him at the company’s yard beside a row of impounded vehicles. Some had flat tires. Others sat with auction numbers written across the windshields.

Voss had spent twenty years towing wrecks off highways. He had joined Sterling because the salary was dependable and because he was tired of midnight recovery calls in bad weather. He insisted he was just the person who managed dispatch.

Price placed the photograph of Elijah’s Mustang on his desk.

“Why was your truck on Hawthorne Lane before police completed the complaint?”

“We received a preliminary recovery request.”

“From whom?”

“A client.”

“Which client?”

He hesitated. “Lakeview.”

“Why was a collector holding company asking you to remove a car from an occupied private residence?”

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.