“What happened?”
“New credit policy.”
“Only us?”
“They wouldn’t say.”
Adeline called three other independent shops.
None had received the same notice.
The following Monday, a brake-component shipment disappeared.
Tracking showed delivered.
No one at Briggs had signed.
The distributor produced a delivery scan containing initials that belonged to no employee.
Then a longtime customer canceled a fleet-service agreement.
“Nothing personal,” he told Coulter.
“Donovan offered twenty percent lower labor for the first year.”
Another customer left.
Then another.
Adeline began writing dates in a notebook.
Coulter noticed.
“What’s that?”
“Pattern.”
“There isn’t a pattern.”
“Supplier restrictions.”
“Lost shipment.”
“Predatory discounts targeted at your customers.”
“That’s competition.”
“Maybe.”
He looked at her.
“You think Donovan’s doing something illegal?”
“I think he wants this property.”
“So?”
“So people don’t usually offer above-market prices unless the property matters for something beyond its current value.”
Coulter shrugged.
“He wants the highway corridor.”
Adeline searched county planning records that night.
She found something.
A proposed state road improvement project.
Preliminary only.
If funded, the new commercial access road would run less than half a mile from Briggs Auto Repair.
The property could become significantly more valuable.
She printed the map.
Coulter stared.
“He knows.”
“Probably.”
“How?”
“Public filings.”
“You found it.”
“So could he.”
Coulter sat back.
“So his offer wasn’t generous.”
“No.”
“It was early.”
That changed the way Coulter viewed Donovan.
Not enough to panic.
Enough to stop dismissing Adeline.
Then the bank letter arrived.
DEFAULT NOTICE.
A payment was listed as unpaid.
Coulter swore he had made it.
Adeline pulled records.
He had.
But this error was different from the first.
The payment had been reversed three days after clearing.
Reason:
ACH DISPUTE / ACCOUNT INCONSISTENCY.
They had never initiated a dispute.
Adeline called Eleanor Pierce.
The bank president herself answered.
“Come in.”
Eleanor was sixty-three, silver-haired, direct, and had managed Bitter Creek Community Bank for twenty-eight years.
Her office overlooked Main Street.
She listened while Adeline explained the discrepancies.
Then reviewed the new statements.
“This reversal wasn’t initiated by us.”
“Who?”
“Payment processor.”
“Why?”
“Attached notice claims suspected account fraud.”
Coulter looked stunned.
“Fraud?”
Eleanor frowned.
“This is unusual.”
Adeline asked:
“Who reported it?”
“Confidential compliance source.”
“That doesn’t mean anonymous.”
“It does to you.”
Adeline respected the boundary.
“What can we do?”
“Document everything.”
“I’m pausing enforcement while we investigate the processing error.”
Coulter exhaled.
Eleanor continued.
“But I want your complete updated financials.”
Adeline opened her folder.
“They’re here.”
Eleanor looked at her.
“You came prepared.”
“I dislike being surprised twice.”
For forty minutes, they reviewed numbers.
Accounts receivable.
Vendor obligations.
Revenue trend.
Recovered customer balances.
Cost savings.
Winter forecast.
At the end, Eleanor removed her glasses.
“The shop isn’t healthy.”
Coulter’s face fell.
“But it is improving.”
He looked up.