A Service Appointment in February
Chapter 08 - A Service Appointment in February
Samuel Price placed the old service invoice on Miriam's desk. It described a routine inspection of Amelia's car three hours before her last drive. The authorization signature did not resemble Amelia's. The garage listed on the invoice had been sold, and the mechanic named on the document had moved out of state.
"Does that mean someone tampered with the car?" Dominic demanded.
"No," Miriam answered. "It means we should verify the service history and compare it with the crash evidence. We cannot responsibly jump from suspicious paperwork to murder."
Dominic hated how reasonable she sounded. He wanted someone to blame for all the years Amelia had been gone. But he nodded. His son was watching him closely now, learning which kind of man his father became when he was frightened.
The original crash investigation had found dangerous conditions, an unidentified vehicle, and no clear evidence of mechanical failure. An independent reconstruction specialist reviewed what records remained. His preliminary conclusion was cautious: the documented collision was consistent with a road accident, but the identity of the other driver and the reason for Amelia's late trip remained unresolved.
For Dominic, the uncertainty was almost as painful as the possibility of foul play. He visited Amelia's grave on a gray morning, carrying Leo's painted moon. "I should have listened," he whispered. "You tried to show me that people were stealing from clinics, and I asked you to wait until Monday. I was always telling you to wait."
He did not blame himself for the weather or the collision. He blamed himself for dismissing her concerns because examining them would have disrupted his business.
When he returned, he found Nora teaching Leo how to fold paper birds. The child's hand shook as he tried to crease the wings. Nora waited while he tried again, neither correcting him too quickly nor finishing the task herself.
"I did it," Leo said eventually, delighted.
"You did," Nora answered.
Dominic sat beside them and attempted one of his own. His bird looked like an uneven envelope. Leo laughed so hard he slid from his chair.
"Daddy, that's a potato."
Dominic held it up. "An unusually talented potato."
The child's laughter filled the kitchen, surprising the cook and the guards at the door. It was a sound Dominic had almost forgotten.
The following week, the investigators located the mechanic. He remembered the appointment being scheduled urgently through Peter's office, but he denied making any unusual changes to the car. He had conducted a standard inspection. No evidence contradicted that part of his account.
Then Miriam received a recording from an archived voicemail account Amelia had used for foundation work. In it, Amelia told Teresa that a caller had claimed a clinic patient urgently needed help. She sounded irritated, not afraid. "I know this isn't our normal protocol," she said. "But someone might be stranded out there. I'll check and come back."
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At the end, another voice entered faintly in the background. Dominic recognized it immediately: Celeste, then a consultant attending a meeting at the estate, asking Amelia which road she planned to take.
The recording did not prove intent. It did prove that Celeste knew Amelia's route before the fatal drive, a fact she had denied when questioned. And Dominic began to wonder whether the sharpest betrayal was not the collision itself but the years of lies constructed after it.
