"Let the committee review her management record," Ethan told Daniel. "I don't need the private interviews. I need to know that there is a process other employees can trust and a way to verify it is actually working." Daniel made a note to have an external employment specialist examine the complaints system. They also agreed that any new leadership appointment would require a transparent evaluation of the role, not merely a vote of confidence in whoever had survived the last meeting.
That evening Ethan drove Lucy to a small garage in Queens where Walter had once worked, now owned by a woman named Denise Carter. The building had a peeling sign and a clean service bay lined with shelves of labeled parts. Denise greeted Lucy with a fist bump and asked whether the model bus had finally stopped pulling to one side. Lucy displayed the photograph of her repaired axle and explained her solution with the solemn pride of a person delivering an engineering report.
Ethan had come because Denise was one of Cole Holdings' earliest business partners and because she had asked him to see the new inventory system. Her shop had survived the pandemic years by refusing to abandon customers who needed repairs more urgently than they could afford them. She showed him how the software now predicted which common replacement parts would be required each week, reducing missed appointments and wasted stock. The improvement was modest by corporate standards but enormous to a small garage where one delayed transmission component could disrupt three families' schedules.
"A manager from one of those fancy dealership groups came by last month," Denise said, wiping her hands on a towel. "Told me our customers weren't the right demographic for the service products he wanted to sell. Half the people in this neighborhood keep their cars for twelve years because a car isn't a trophy. It's how they get to work."
Ethan asked what the manager had offered instead of the products they needed. Denise laughed without amusement. "A sales pitch about trading in their cars for ones with bigger monthly payments."
Lucy was sitting on a stool near the office door, drawing pictures of different kinds of vehicles. Ethan made sure she could hear the conversation without feeling responsible for it. "What would a useful partnership with a larger automotive group actually look like?" he asked Denise. She answered immediately: dependable parts supply, honest service prices, training opportunities for young technicians, and financing that explained costs without hiding them behind confusing terms. "And don't talk down to the person with grease on their hands," she added. "That's usually the person who knows whether the car is safe."