PART 14:

The document analysis is going to take another 2 to 3 weeks after we leave. Dr. Voss needs lab time for the paper tag composition. We’re also waiting on the metallurgical results from the sample. I know the timeline. I’m telling you because I want you to understand that when the findings come back, she paused. when they come back, they’re going to be defensible.

Every element of the methodology is going to be documented to a standard that cannot be reasonably challenged. He looked at her. Why are you telling me that specifically? She was quiet for a moment. Because I’ve seen what happens in this industry when someone makes a discovery that powerful interests find inconvenient. The findings themselves aren’t always enough.

People challenge the methodology. They challenged the credentials of the people involved. They manufactured doubt in the gaps between findings. She looked at the car. I want you to know that I am closing every gap. He understood what she was saying and he appreciated it in the way you appreciate someone doing a difficult thing well when they didn’t have to. Thank you, Dr.

Ash. Patricia, she said, which was the first time she’d used her own name that way. Thank you, Patricia. She went back to her notes. He refilled his terrible coffee and watched Carl Howser crouched at the rear axle talking quietly to the other panel member and thought about 40 years and what they weigh.

The panel left on Wednesday evening. The property went quiet again. He drove home. Maya was doing homework that was right side up this time and she looked at him when he came in and said, “Eat something.” In the tone of someone who has decided not to have the argument about it and is simply stating a fact about what needs to happen. He ate something.

He showered. He slept for 11 hours, which was the most he’d slept in a single stretch since October. The 2 and 1/2 weeks before the panel’s findings were due back were the hardest part of the whole thing, which surprised him. He’d expected that part to feel like relief. The work was done.

The documentation was in professional hands. There was nothing left to do but wait. Instead, it felt like the particular anxiety of a mechanic who has diagnosed a problem, written up the repair, and then has to stand aside while someone else does the actual work. He trusted the panel. He still hated the waiting. He fixed the tick in the valve train on a Thursday afternoon, which helped.

The worn stem seal on cylinder 6 was exactly what he’d suspected, and addressing it gave him 4 hours of clean, specific work with a clear outcome, which was what his hands and his brain needed. He also took on two other restoration jobs that he’d been putting off. A 68 Camaro that needed a full engine rebuild for a collector in Louisville and a brake overhaul on a customer’s daily driver that was straightforward but required attention. He worked steadily.

He sent Maya a good morning text that she responded to with the economy of a teenager who has decided her father’s emotional health is her responsibility but doesn’t want to make it obvious. Raymond Hollis called him on a Friday morning which Ethan had not expected. He looked at the number on his phone for a moment before answering. He picked up.

“Mr. Walker,” Paula said. The voice was still smooth. It was the kind of smooth that doesn’t come off. I imagine you’re surprised to hear from me. “A little,” Ethan said. “I want to be direct with you.” “Please, a brief pause. I’ve been in this industry a long time. A very long time.

I was involved in certain decisions in the early 1970s that had consequences I didn’t fully anticipate at the time. I’m not going to elaborate on that because it’s not something that will help either of us. Another pause. What I will tell you is that the interests I’ve been representing with respect to this vehicle have concluded that the situation is no longer manageable in the way they’d hoped.

Ethan said nothing. He let the silence work. That doesn’t mean they’ll cooperate with the panel. Hollis continued. But it does mean they’ve decided not to actively oppose the findings, whatever those findings are. That’s generous of them, Ethan said, and kept his voice flat enough that the sarcasm was only just audible.

It’s pragmatic, Hollis said, acknowledging the sarcasm without reacting to it. There’s a difference. Who are they? Ethan said specifically. I’m not going to answer that. Are they the same people who sent someone into my workshop? A long pause. Long enough to be an answer. Mr. Walker, I’m calling to tell you that the opposition has stepped back.

I’m not calling to confess to anything. I know, Ethan said. I appreciate the call anyway. Sincerely. Hollis made a sound that might have been a short laugh. You’re a difficult man to argue with. I’ve been told. Good luck with the findings,” Hollis said and hung up. Ethan sat with the phone in his hand for a while.

He was not satisfied by the call exactly. He wasn’t sure satisfaction was available for this particular thing. The theft of his research, the months of obstruction, the way the industry had been managed around this vehicle for 50 years. That damage was real, and none of it would be undone by a phone call from a smooth voiced man stepping carefully back from his own fingerprints. But it was something.

👉 [Tap here for the Next Part ] 👈