Hollis sat upright in the quiet bedroom. No one at the dealership was supposed to know about the offer to buy her southern acreage. Only the buyer, the realtor, the bank, and a few trusted family friends knew she had declined it. She stared at the message until the screen dimmed, then copied it into her records and called the banker. Whatever was happening now, she realized, might be larger than a service department trying to collect fourteen thousand dollars.
The banker's voice became very still when Hollis read the unknown message aloud. She asked Hollis not to respond, to preserve the original, and to record the number and time. The banker could not tell her who had sent it. She could not even be certain it was connected to the machinery dispute. But the reference to the land offer was specific, and its timing made it worth preserving. Hollis agreed to share it with her attorney, then realized she did not have an attorney retained for this kind of trouble.
"We can provide the name of an agricultural-business lawyer who has represented lenders and borrowers," the banker said, "but you'll need independent advice. I don't want you relying on our interests as if they were identical to yours."
That distinction made Hollis trust her a little more. The bank wanted its loan repaid and its collateral protected. Hollis wanted to keep the farm, preserve her crops, and understand what had happened. Those goals overlapped, but they were not always the same. She wrote down the referral, thanked the banker, and made the call. The lawyer's office was closed for the weekend, but the emergency line transferred her to an associate who agreed to review the documents that evening.
Garnet answered her call from his truck. She could hear traffic in the background. He said he was parked outside the dealership, where his supervisor had ordered him to hand in the tablet. Hollis waited for him to explain. He took a breath and told her that the September calibration entry on the invoice belonged to another customer's machine. The machine identification number was close to hers but not identical. Someone had copied the charge into her account without a corresponding service ticket.