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.

“This is not the car described in the title,” he told Price.

The body had been assembled from parts produced for more than one vehicle. Some were genuine period components. Others had been altered. The identification plate had been replaced. Beneath a repaired panel, the specialist found signs of a number that had been ground away.

“What about Grant’s car?” Price asked.

“We’ll need to inspect it independently, but his father’s restoration records already show several manufacturing details missing here.”

The auction house paused the sale and preserved its records. Its managers had believed the paperwork supplied by Lakeview. They had no immediate reason to think the title history was invented. One employee, however, recalled that Gregory Hartman had insisted the car be sold before the end of the month despite a request for additional verification.