Business improved.
Then Miles Donovan made his final move.
The letter arrived from the state tax authority on a Tuesday.
Formal inquiry.
Allegations of income underreporting across multiple years.
Records requested.
Potential penalties.
Coulter read the first page and turned pale.
“I can’t survive this.”
Adeline took the letter.
“Maybe.”
He looked at her.
“Maybe?”
“Maybe you can’t survive actual tax fraud.”
“I didn’t commit tax fraud.”
“Then that helps.”
“This is serious.”
“I know.”
He ran both hands through his hair.
“Who does this?”
Adeline already suspected.
But suspicion was not evidence.
Coulter called Gavin Ross, the lawyer who had handled a lease dispute for him years earlier.
Gavin arrived within the hour wearing work clothes because Coulter had reached him while he was helping repair fencing on his brother’s property.
He read the notice.
Then looked at both of them.
“First rule.”
Coulter waited.
“Do not panic.”
“Helpful.”
“Second rule. Do not destroy, alter, hide, backdate, improve, or mysteriously discover anything.”
Adeline nodded.
“Agreed.”
“Third. Cooperate through counsel.”
“What happens?”
Coulter asked.
“Inspector reviews records. We answer questions. If your books are clean, we prove they’re clean.”
Adeline looked toward her file cabinets.
For months she had been reconstructing those books.
Receipts.
Deposits.
Payroll.
Sales tax.
Invoices.
Supplier statements.
Bank reconciliations.
Everything.
A strange calm came over her.
She recognized it.
The same calm she had felt before reporting the brake-component failures years earlier.
Fear remained.
But the work was already done.
The inspector arrived unannounced two days earlier than expected.
A woman with a rolling case and a practical expression.
She requested five years of records.
Coulter looked at Adeline.
Adeline rolled out the boxes.
The review lasted three days.
Every sale.
Every deposit.
Cash transactions.
Parts purchases.
Payroll.
Tax filings.
Service orders.
The inspector occasionally stopped.
“Why is this entry corrected?”
Adeline produced the supporting reconciliation.
“This deposit?”
Bank record.
“This customer balance?”
Payment history.
“This discrepancy?”
Old bookkeeping error documented months earlier.
By the second afternoon, the inspector looked almost impressed.
“I don’t usually see books this clean in a shop this size.”
Coulter leaned toward Adeline.
“Don’t let that go to your head.”
She whispered back, “Too late.”
Gavin Ross attended the formal interviews.
The allegations centered on revenue numbers that supposedly did not match reported deposits.
Adeline asked to see the underlying comparison.
Something bothered her.
The alleged hidden account included a routing trail she did not recognize.
She took notes.
That night she stayed in the office.
Again.
Coulter refused to leave her alone this time.
They ordered diner food.
Adeline traced account references.
Public registrations.
Business entities.
Addresses.