After the call, Frank opened Chad's sales performance reports. The numbers were impressive, but the methodology bothered him. Completed deals counted immediately, regardless of later warranty disputes, cancellations, financing complaints, or whether customers returned. Repeated business counted separately and was rarely discussed in monthly meetings. The system rewarded a salesperson for getting someone to sign, not for making sure the person understood what they signed.
Frank wrote a note in the margin of one report: WHO PAYS FOR THE SECOND VISIT? He knew that customer trust did not disappear the day a buyer drove away. It disappeared gradually when a person discovered that the dealership remembered the contract but forgot the promises made before it. He made a list of reports he wanted the next morning, including refunds, complaints, service visits and turnover, and placed it beside the truck purchase order.
Chad spent the same evening at his apartment staring at his phone. His video of Frank had spread through the sales team before Pruitt ordered everyone to preserve relevant messages and stop circulating it. Several people had sent laughing reactions when they thought it was an ordinary joke at an elderly visitor's expense. Once Frank's identity became known, those reactions were deleted or replaced with awkward apologies, but Chad could still see the originals.
His girlfriend asked what happened when she arrived home. Chad described the story as a misunderstanding made worse by a stubborn old man who should have identified himself. He complained that Kayla had turned a harmless joke into a disciplinary proceeding and that the owner had humiliated him in front of people he was supposed to lead. He did not mention the accusation of theft until she asked why the dealership's security team had called for a statement.
"You accused somebody of stealing because of his jacket?" she asked.
"It wasn't just the jacket. He had cash. It looked suspicious."
"Did you check the bills?"
"No."
"Did he threaten anybody?"
"No."
"Then what made him suspicious?"
Chad stared at the screen. For the first time, he had no comfortable answer that sounded reasonable when spoken to someone who was not afraid of him. He wanted her to say that Frank had been unfair and Kayla had been disloyal, but she asked him whether he would have treated her father that way if he came in wearing his old work coat. Chad answered no immediately, and the speed of that answer made his own face warm.
"Then you know what was wrong," she said.
He slept badly. At three in the morning he opened the video again and watched himself pointing at the bus stop. What had felt commanding in the showroom sounded shrill through a phone speaker. Frank had stood there calmly, asking for a price and a truck specification, while Chad made joke after joke that did not become clever when repeated.