The way he had said standard twice easily like a man who had said it many times before and found that it always worked. He had other clients, Emily said slowly in the years around 2019. Other small businesses, that's what I need, Patricia said immediately. Names, anyone you know of who used Gerald Simmons around that period who also had financing from a source that turned out to be connected to Meridian or Cross. Because if this is a pattern, if Gerald was a pipeline feeding Cross's targets.
He's Frank Kowalski, Dax said from across the garage. Everyone looked at him. Frank's machine shop, Dax said. Frank used Gerald Simmons. I know because Frank told me he used the same attorney as a business acquaintance he trusted.
He paused. The acquaintance was Walter Carter. Emily's throat tightened. Her father had recommended Gerald had trusted Gerald enough to recommend him. And Gerald had pointed Frank Kowalski toward the same trap he'd helped set for Walter Carter.
There are more, Dax said. I can make calls. Make the calls, Patricia said. While Dax made calls, Patricia walked Emily through what came next and what it would cost. Not money.
Emily had offered what she had, and Patricia had told her with brisk kindness that the fee arrangement was not Emily's immediate concern. What it would cost was different. It would cost Emily her privacy temporarily. It would cost her time. It would potentially cost her the 60-day window entirely if cross moved the appraisal up.
If he activated Section 4B before they could get an injunction in place. Emily could find herself in an active default proceeding while the larger case was still being assembled. And if that happens, Emily said, then we fight the default proceeding and the fraud case simultaneously. Patricia said, "It's harder. It's not impossible."
She looked at Emily directly. " "But I want you to understand that going forward means the situation gets worse before it gets better. That's almost always true in these cases. The question is whether you can stand in the worst part long enough to reach the better part. Emily thought about her father's handwriting on the sign above the door.
She thought about the note in the 2019 binder. Something still reads wrong. Keep watching it. And the fact that he had been right. And the fact that he had documented being right.
And the fact that she had kept the documentation. Tell me what I need to do, she said. At 5:30, Dax's phone rang. He listened for 40 seconds without speaking. His expression didn't change in any dramatic way.
It was more that it became more still. The specific stillness of a man receiving information that confirms something he'd been afraid to fully believe. He said, "You're certain." And listened for another 10 seconds. He said, "Don't move anything.
Don't talk to anyone. I'll call you back." He ended the call. He looked at Patricia Frank Kowalski. He said he got a visit today.
Two men from Meridian. They came to his shop in person and told him that they were accelerating the timeline on his agreement. They showed him paperwork, an independent appraisal dated yesterday, showing the machine shop's property value had decreased 15%. Patricia's jaw tightened yesterday. Commissioned and completed in a single day, Dax said, which is not how independent appraisals work.
No, Patricia said it isn't. She was already opening her laptop. It's also not how they work if they're genuinely independent, which this one clearly isn't. An appraisal commissioned and delivered in 24 hours by a firm that Meridian uses is not independent. It's a prop.
Her fingers were moving. Frank has the paperwork they showed him. He photographed every page before they left, Dax said. He had the presence of mind. Smart man, Patricia said.
He's 30-year machinist. Dax said he's been reading documents people hand him his whole career. He knows when something's being done to him. Tell him to send me the photographs. Patricia said everyone.
She looked up from the laptop and tell him not to sign anything. Not one page, not a receipt. Nothing. Dax was already on the phone. Emily stood beside Patricia and looked at the laptop screen where Patricia had pulled up a legal research database and was moving through it with the speed of someone who knew exactly what she was looking for.
What does this mean? Emily said quietly. Them moving on Frank today. Patricia glanced at her sideways. It means Cross knows we're looking.
She said or suspects it. He's accelerating the timeline across the board, trying to lock in the default proceedings before we can get organized. She paused. It also means he doesn't know about your father's binder. He doesn't know about the brake line.
If he did, he'd be moving differently. She kept type. He thinks he's ahead of us. That's an advantage we need to use in the next 48 hours. Emily felt something cold move through her.
Not fear exactly, but the recognition of fear's near neighbor, the understanding of what was actually at stake and how fast it was moving. Tell me what to do in the next 48 hours, she said. Keep the garage open, Patricia said immediately. Keep working. Don't change your schedule.
Don't contact Meridian. Don't call Gerald. Behave exactly as you have been behaving, which is like a woman who has a business to run and is running it. She glanced at Emily. Please, can you do that?
I have a Sportster with an electrical fault I haven't finished diagnosing, Emily said. And two other jobs coming in Thursday. Then do that, Patricia said. That's your job. Let me do mine.