She looked at them, then at him. “Really?”
“You want to look around, put them on.” Holt shook them in front of her.
“If it’s my mother’s truck, I can assure you there’s years and years of my DNA in it.” Margo took them.
“It’s not your mother’s truck,” Harvey, Holt, and June said all at once.
Margo blinked. Then she nodded slowly. “Right. That’s true. Hers is at the junkyard.”
“You told her?” Harvey looked shocked.
Margo took the gloves as June nodded.
“Don’t worry. She hasn’t told Lucy, and she won’t until we’re all ready.” June gave Harvey a soft smile.
“I won’t,” Margo confirmed. “But are you sure those are my mother’s bumpers?”
“Yeah.” Harvey nodded and moved closer to the rear one. “I made them for her.” He pointed beneath the metal, then crouched slightly and angled his light. “See that?”
“That tiny mark?” Margo leaned in.
“Yes, that’s my logo,” Harvey told her.
“Neat. I didn’t know you did that.” She smiled faintly despite herself.
“Yup.” Harvey looked faintly pleased. “And here’s something else.”
He took out a small flashlight from his pocket and clicked it on. The light looked ordinary at first, then shifted in a way that made Margo realize it was a black light.
“I use invisible ink when I do insurance jobs,” Harvey said. “So I know my work if anything comes up later.”
He swept the light along a damaged section of the rear bumper. A small notation glowed into view.
“There,” Harvey said. “That mark is from the first hit that bumped Lacey, and that one is from the second hit that forced her off the road.”
Margo moved closer.
The damage was ugly enough under normal light, but under Harvey’s careful explanation, it seemed to tell a story someone was trying to twist into their own narrative.
Then he moved the light a little farther.
“And this bump,” Harvey said, “is a third hit that wasn’t there when the truck was brought in after Lacey’s accident.”
“How can you tell that?” Margo asked, interested.
“Because of the angle, compression, paint transfer, and freshness.” Harvey turned the light off and straightened. “The metal deformation from the first hits had already happened. This one came later, and I think while it was on this truck.”
“Oh?” Holt leaned in.
“I got some paint from the third hit,” Harvey told them. “It was the exact same blue as the car that made the first two impacts.”
“That same car?” June’s brows shot up, and she glanced at Holt. “That would be impossible unless it happened on the same day.”
“I don’t think it did,” Harvey told them. “There’s another car that came into the shop with the same blue paint.”
“Yes, we know…” Holt started to say, and his brows rose. “Dr. Vernon’s car?”
Margo’s mind started spinning. “Her rental?” She glanced from Holt to Harvey for confirmation.
