Chapter 2 - CLOSE THE SHOWROOM
Claire did not ask the question.
Not yet.
She walked straight to Walter and offered him her hand.
“Can you stand?”
Walter nodded.
He got up slowly.
His left shoulder clearly hurt.
Claire turned to Ryan.
“Office.”
Ryan stared at the mezzanine.
“Claire—”
“Now.”
The man above spoke again.
“No.”
Ryan stopped.
Claire looked up.
The man remained behind the railing, his face still obscured by the reflected showroom lights.
“Leave him down there.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
“You're not supposed to be here.”
“That seems to be everybody's favorite sentence today.”
Walter looked toward the voice.
Recognition passed across his face.
Claire caught it.
“You know him.”
Walter did not answer.
The man upstairs said:
“He knows who I am.”
Then footsteps retreated from the railing.
Not down the stairs.
Away.
Claire looked at one of the showroom security employees.
“Lock the public entrance.”
Ryan snapped around.
“You can't shut the floor in the middle of Saturday.”
“I just watched my sales manager throw a sixty-seven-year-old man beside a car somebody claims disappeared.”
“Our buyer is due in forty minutes.”
“Not anymore.”
There.
That got Ryan.
“This car is under contract review.”
“It was.”
Claire removed her phone.
“Now it's on hold.”
Ryan lowered his voice.
“You don't know what he is.”
Walter looked at him.
“What am I?”
Ryan said nothing.
Claire answered for herself.
“A witness, until I know otherwise.”
Then:
“And you're suspended from the floor until HR and security review that video.”
Ryan stared.
“For pushing him?”
“For grabbing and pushing him after he was already trying to answer my question.”
“He could be running a scam.”
“Then you call security.”
Claire pointed toward the glass door.
“You don't kick his bag and put him on the floor.”
Ryan looked toward the bag.
For the first time, something like worry crossed his face.
Walter saw it too.
He walked to the bag.
Picked it up.
Checked the zipper.
Then checked it again.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Claire asked.
Walter opened it fully.
Inside were:
A thermos.
A folded windbreaker.
Reading glasses.
A small medication bottle.
And an old brown document envelope.
The envelope was open.
Walter looked around the floor.
“No.”
“What’s missing?”
He did not answer immediately.
Ryan said:
“Nothing fell out.”
Walter looked at him.
“You kicked it fifteen feet.”
“And?”
Walter crouched near the display stand.
Claire joined him.
“What was in the envelope?”
“Paper.”
“What paper?”
Walter searched beneath the stand.
Then beneath the car.
Nothing.
Finally he stood.
“A service copy.”
Claire frowned.
“For this car?”
Walter nodded.
“From the night it vanished.”
Ryan laughed.
It sounded forced.
“Convenient.”
Walter looked at Claire instead.
“Your father signed it.”
That stopped her.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Frank Bennett had founded the original Bennett Motor Imports thirty-one years earlier.
Claire had turned the old dealership into a national collector-car group after his death.
Frank Bennett had been dead seven years.
Claire looked at the car again.
“What exactly did he sign?”
Walter's eyes moved toward the mezzanine.
Then back to her.
“A move order.”
Ryan stopped breathing for half a beat.
Claire caught that too.
Before she could ask more, one of the side doors opened.
The man from upstairs finally entered the showroom.
Silver hair.
Dark suit.
Early sixties.
Claire knew him.
“Daniel Shaw.”
Ryan looked away.
There.
Claire's expression hardened.
“You're the provenance consultant Ryan said wasn't coming until Monday.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I changed my schedule.”
Then at Ryan.
“Good thing.”
Walter gave a quiet laugh.
Not amused.
Daniel walked toward him.
“Twenty-two years.”
Walter nodded.
“Something like that.”
Claire stared between them.
“You've met.”
Daniel answered.
“I interviewed Mr. Hayes in 2004.”
“About this car?”
“Yes.”
Ryan spoke quickly.
“That proves nothing.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“No.”
Then:
“But Walter told me then he never saw the vehicle leave the service bay.”
He looked directly at Walter.
“And ten minutes ago he said he watched that dent happen.”
Claire slowly turned.
Walter did not deny it.
Daniel asked:
“So which statement was the lie?”
Walter looked at the car.
“The old one.”
Claire felt the room change.
Then Walter said:
“And if you want to know who was driving when that dent happened, find my missing work order first.”
Ryan's eyes flicked toward the car.
Not the floor.
The car.
May you like
Walter noticed.
So did Claire.
