Behind her was a tow truck.
On it sat Brent’s black Mercedes.
The entire front end was destroyed.
Crushed hood.
Missing bumper.
Damaged headlight.
Bent front wheel.
Cracked windshield.
“What happened?”
“I hit a deer.”
I had repaired plenty of cars that hit deer.
That Mercedes hadn’t hit a deer.
She tossed the keys onto my desk.
“I need it Friday.”
I looked at the damage.
“Laura, this could take more than a week. I have customers already scheduled.”
“Cancel them.”
“I can’t. They need their cars.”Compare Cars
She removed her sunglasses.
“Rick and Noah are supposed to stay with you this weekend.”
My stomach tightened.
“It would be a shame if they couldn’t.”
I stared at her.
“You’d keep my children away from me over a car repair?”
She moved closer.
“Don’t make me prove it.”
Then I asked the obvious question.
“Why bring it here? Brent owns six dealerships. They all have body shops.”
Something changed in her expression.
Only for a moment.
“Because you’re cheap.”
Then she added that Brent didn’t want employees at his dealerships gossiping about his wife’s wreck.
“Friday. Five o’clock.”
The tow truck unloaded the Mercedes.
Marcus stood beside me, staring at the damage.
“Boss?”
“Yeah?”
“That wasn’t a deer.”
“I know.”
I worked on that Mercedes for six days.
I postponed customers.
Lost two jobs.
Ordered nearly four thousand dollars in parts on the shop credit card.
Marcus and I worked until midnight.
Then we started finding things.
First came silver paint embedded in the damaged bumper.
