She forwarded the documents to the banker. Then she opened the invoice and noticed something odd. The unauthorized-modification fee was dated three days before the software hold, yet the underlying repair had occurred more than two years earlier. A different line item described a calibration supposedly performed in late September. Hollis knew the combine had never left her farm that week. Garnet had not visited. There was no signed service ticket. The dealership might have performed a remote diagnostic, but the charge described physical work at an address that was not hers.
She wrote a question mark beside the entry. Then she scanned every invoice Roland had filed in his old metal cabinet, looking for a corresponding authorization. Her father had been meticulous about receipts. He kept screws in jars labeled by size, service tickets in binders, and tax records in envelopes arranged by year. The September charge was not there. But she found a letter from Schaefer Implement dated the previous spring, addressed to Roland before his death. It confirmed that the 2023 harness repair had been reviewed and that the dealership did not intend to pursue a warranty claim related to the affected component. The letter contained no penalty. No reference to an unauthorized-modification fee. She photographed it and sent it to the banker.
At 6:11 a.m., the retired mechanic called her from the barn. The picker had passed a guarded stationary inspection. They were ready for a controlled field test with only the necessary people nearby. Hollis drove Roland's tractor out into the pale morning light, each gear engaging with a solid mechanical answer that felt different from the digital convenience of the S780. The tractor was louder and slower. It required more attention. Its exhaust had the warm, metallic smell of an older engine working through cold air.
They attached the picker, inspected the hitch and drives once more, and used a short section of standing corn near the barn for the test. Ellis watched from a safe distance while Hollis followed the operating procedure they had reviewed. The machine took the first row badly, then settled into a steady rhythm after an adjustment. Ears moved through the mechanism and into the waiting wagon. Hollis stared at the small pile as though she had watched a stone rise from the ground.