Stopped.
“You got it running.”
Ellie smiled.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am shocked.”
Frank circled the machine.
“What was wrong?”
“Fuel-control linkage.”
“That's it?”
“Mostly.”
Frank crouched.
“Installed backward?”
“Yes.”
He frowned.
“That’s odd.”
Ellie looked at Daniel.
Frank noticed.
“What?”
Daniel answered.
“Found a service note suggesting it may have been deliberate.”
Frank straightened.
“What?”
They showed him the photograph, not the original.
He read.
His smile disappeared.
“C.R.”
Ellie asked:
“Who do you think that is?”
Frank did not answer.
“Frank.”
He looked toward the open shed doors.
“You kids need to stay out of this.”
Ellie stiffened.
“I’m not a kid.”
Frank ignored her and looked at Daniel.
“Seriously.”
“Why?”
Frank rubbed his jaw.
“Because this isn’t the first tractor.”
Silence.
Daniel pulled another stool over.
“Sit.”
Frank did.
Three months earlier, his brother-in-law had attended an auction forty miles west.
A nearly new combine had been listed with catastrophic hydraulic failure.
A dealer bought it for less than half normal value.
Two weeks later, the same machine appeared online fully operational.
“Who bought it?” Daniel asked.
Frank looked at them.
“Rusk Machinery.”
Ellie felt a chill.
“Problem?”
“Ninety-dollar pressure sensor.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
Frank continued.
“Everybody laughed about it. Said Calvin got lucky.”
“Anything else?”
“My cousin sold a loader through Pike last year.”
“Wouldn’t start.”
“Auction catalog said injection-pump failure.”
“Rusk bought it.”
“Repair?”
“Relay.”
Ellie whispered:
“Somebody’s misdiagnosing machines.”
Frank nodded.
“Maybe.”
Daniel said:
“Or disabling them.”
Frank stared.
“That’s a much bigger accusation.”
Ellie pointed at the tractor.
“So is writing ‘disable before sale.’”
Frank looked at her.
For the first time since the auction, there was no amusement in his face.
“You really found that?”
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
“Then you should call the sheriff.”
Daniel did.
Sheriff Mark Callahan arrived after lunch.
He had been sheriff in Stanton County for eleven years and knew Daniel well enough to skip unnecessary introductions.
He read the card.
Examined the photographs.
Then looked at the linkage.
“This part could be accidentally installed backward?”
Daniel answered.
“Yes.”
“Could somebody honestly believe the engine failed because it wouldn’t run?”
“Yes.”
“Could somebody write a note saying disable before sale for legitimate reasons?”
Ellie stared.