"They already followed me to my apartment." Decker said the next calls should go to people whose work involved protecting evidence and handling formal complaints. Pauline had contacts who understood county records, and Reyes knew a retired federal investigator who had once examined financial crime cases involving land transactions. Silas agreed they needed both, not because he believed the club helpless, but because intimidation was easier when people kept their problems inside a single room.
Harwick Auto Repair stood on a neglected parcel outside the next county, behind white oaks and a gravel track half swallowed by weeds. The building had not been open for years. Its roof sagged near one corner and faded letters remained above the former office entrance. Pauline confirmed through public records that the property was still administered by a court-appointed receiver after an unresolved estate matter. She contacted the receiver, explained that belongings from a long-missing mechanic might be stored inside, and obtained permission for an accompanied inventory of those items. It took calls, identification, and promises to document what they found, and Nolan was grateful for every tedious minute.
"Your father would have liked this part," Pauline said over the phone. "Doing it in a way that can survive questions afterward." Nolan looked through his windshield at the darkening trees. "I wish he'd been here to tell us where to look."
Pauline paused. "He may have done exactly that, in the only way he could at the time." She asked him to keep any documents in their original order and to resist opening containers unnecessarily. "A story isn't evidence until someone can show how it was preserved. Don't let urgency ruin what patience saved."
By the time they reached the old garage, rain was moving through the trees. The receiver's representative arrived with a county officer and unlocked the office entrance, checking the property record against its posted identification. Silas had brought several riders to help carry whatever the inventory uncovered, but most remained by the road to avoid crowding the building. Nolan entered with Pauline, Cord, and Decker, feeling the same uneasy affection for old machinery that came over him whenever he stepped into a workplace long abandoned. A hydraulic lift stood in one bay beneath a ceiling stained by leaks. Empty tool racks faced the wall like rows of missing teeth.
The office smelled of damp paper and old oil. The receiver's representative identified cabinets, shelves, and storage compartments on an inventory sheet. Nolan walked slowly along the wall, studying places where furniture had been removed and the marks it left behind. Elias had worked as a mechanic. He would have understood how to build storage that looked like part of a shop rather than a separate hiding place. Nolan examined a section of wall near a row of metal shelves and noticed that the paneling on one side ended slightly differently from the other.