He could see Emma's future in it. College without loans, a real house, a properly capitalized business. He could see himself sleeping without the particular low-level anxiety that had been the background noise of his existence for 5 years. He photographed the letter and the business card and sent both to Victoria. Her response came back in 3 minutes.
Don't touch the envelope again. We may want prints. I'm coming down Monday. He put the letter in a clear plastic bag and set it on the shelf above the desk where he could see it from anywhere in the shop. He looked at it a lot over the weekend.
He wasn't proud of that, but it was true. Victoria arrived Monday morning with Reyes's preliminary findings printed and bound. 12 pages of technical analysis with material testing results, spectroscopic date range confirmation, and a clear professional conclusion that the titanium plate and multiple carbon fiber components were consistent with manufacture between late 2016 and late 2017 and showed no evidence of retrospective modification or forgery. She set it on the workbench and Cole read through it standing up, not wanting to sit down for this part. "This is enough to take to a publication," Victoria said when he finished.
"Not yet. " He set the document down. "It's enough to establish the car is what we say it is. It's not enough to explain why it matters, why someone built it, what it was supposed to prove, why it was hidden, and who specifically is trying to make it disappear now. " He looked at her. "If we go public with just the authentication, we get a story about a rare car. We need the full story.
Otherwise, Stratton issues a statement, buries it in legal language, and the whole thing becomes a he-said-she-said about a burned salvage car. " Victoria looked at him with the particular expression she got when she was deciding whether to agree with something or argue it. She agreed. "The shipping manifests fill some of it. The property records fill more. "We need the acquisition records," Cole said.
"From 2017. The actual terms of the acquisition, what Stratton Group was told about the project status, what they signed off on, what they should have known. He met her eyes. That's the part that exposes them, not just Marsh. Those records are not public, Victoria said carefully.
No. And getting them would require access to either Stratton's internal documentation or the original company's final legal filings, both of which both of which would require someone with connections inside the UK automotive legal community, Cole said, or someone who was involved in the original acquisition process and might still have documentation they were never asked to return. Victoria was very still. You were approached by Stratton 6 months ago, Cole said. Not accusatory, just following the logic.