This time she called someone else.
A personal attorney from outside the company.
A woman she had used once during estate planning.
“Where are you?” the attorney asked.
“In a garage.”
Silence.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I need you to come here.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
“Should I ask why?”
“No.”
“That means yes.”
“Bring a forensic document specialist.”
Another silence.
“That is not normal estate planning.”
“No.”
“Police?”
“Not yet.”
“Security?”
“Not company security.”
The attorney understood.
“I’ll arrange.”
The CEO hung up.
The father leaned against the workbench.
“What about my eviction?”
She looked at the notice she had thrown earlier.
Then walked over.
Picked it up from the bench.
Tore it in half.
Then stopped.
Looked at him.
“Actually, that was stupid.”
He blinked.
“Why?”
“It’s evidence.”
The boy laughed.
The CEO stared at the torn paper.
Then laughed too.
For the first time since entering the garage, the single father smiled.
“Tape?”
He handed her a roll.
She repaired the notice badly.
The boy said:
“That looks terrible.”
The CEO looked at him.
“I run an automotive company.”
“I don’t work in crafts.”
The boy smiled.
The father shook his head.
The moment lasted only seconds.
Then the CEO looked again at the prototype.
“What about the recorder?”
They had almost forgotten it.
The microcassette device was old.
Battery corrosion had ruined the original compartment.
The single father had an electronics bench.
He refused to power it immediately.
“If tape is fragile, one bad motor pull can damage it.”
The CEO looked impatient.
“Can you recover it?”
“Maybe.”
“How long?”
“Not today.”
She took a breath.
“Fine.”
The attorney arrived ninety minutes later with two independent investigators and a forensic document consultant.
By then, the CEO had changed.
Not clothes.
Everything else.
The anger that had been aimed at the mechanic had been replaced by a controlled stillness.
The attorney entered the garage, saw the race car, and said:
“You were not exaggerating.”
“No.”
“You should do that more often.”
The CEO ignored the joke.
The opening video was copied.
Documents photographed in place.
Fingerprints were not immediately dusted because contamination by legitimate family handling was expected.
Paper, ink, and printing were cataloged.
The engineering notebook appeared authentic to its era.
The signatures required laboratory verification.