Chapter 5 - THE CAR THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE MOVED
The Lamborghini should never have left the service center.
That became the next problem.
The service restriction had been placed in the manufacturer system.
Normally, the car’s road authorization would remain blocked until a technician cleared the fault.
Yet Derek drove it.
Someone cleared the restriction at 9:02 that morning.
Twenty-three minutes before Derek demanded the key.
Account used:
JAMES CARTER — MASTER ADMIN.
Samantha stared.
James Carter was her father.
Dead for four years.
Naomi looked at Marcus.
“That account still exists?”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Who has access?”
“No one officially.”
“Unofficially?”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“Old executives may know recovery procedures.”
Howard Price had been CFO under James.
Derek had joined the company before James died.
Several others knew pieces.
Samantha asked:
“Did I clear it?”
“No.”
“Could someone make it look like I did?”
“Possibly.”
The police investigation shifted.
If Samantha had cleared the restriction, Derek’s case against her became stronger.
If Derek cleared it himself, his case collapsed.
But the dead founder’s account made both sides uncertain.
Then service-center footage showed Derek entering the facility two nights earlier.
He spent fourteen minutes alone near the diagnostic terminal.
His attorney said he was reviewing his vehicle.
Not enough.
Then a technician testified Derek asked:
“If the road restriction is lifted remotely, does the driver get a warning?”
The answer:
Yes.
A dashboard warning.
Samantha frowned.
Derek had driven out without mentioning one.
Maybe he ignored it.
Maybe the warning had been suppressed.
Then Marcus recovered one more system event.
At 9:04, two minutes after James Carter’s master account cleared the road restriction, someone disabled the dashboard service-warning overlay.
Same account.
Naomi whispered:
“This was deliberate.”
Samantha looked at her father’s name on the screen.
May you like
Someone had made an unsafe car appear normal.
And wanted the action to lead back to a dead man.
