Outside, she sat on a low stone wall beneath the courthouse flag and called Marisol. The northern van had developed an engine fault after two hours of detours. Marisol could still complete the morning route if a volunteer covered the afternoon appointments. June began making calls. A veterinarian offered his truck, but it was too high for two patients. A school principal could lend a minibus after three, but only with insurance approval. By the time June solved the transport problem, the afternoon vote had been delayed again.
She drove to her grandfather's workshop, where the old fabrication tables were still lined up beneath windows that looked out across fallow fields. Silas was disassembling a pump motor. On the bench beside him lay the first patent certificate the company had ever received, its glass frame chipped at the corner.
"I think they're trying to make us miss the deadline," she said.
Silas wiped his hands and listened. He had learned not to interrupt June when she was angry; the facts came faster if she could say them in the order they arrived. When she finished, he opened a drawer and removed a folder labeled COUNTY LAND USE.
"Your grandmother made me keep these," he said. "She believed every public promise should come with an address where you could ask why it wasn't kept."
The folder contained the original depot lease, correspondence about accessible parking, and an old community-use agreement that required the county to provide replacement space if the depot was reassigned to a commercial purpose before the lease expired.
June read the clause twice. "Does Keene know about this?"
"I suspect she does. Which may be why she wants you too tired to find it."
"You make it sound like a game."
"It is not a game," he said. "That's why we need to play carefully."
He suggested they ask Helen for the official minutes, retain a procurement attorney for a short review, and avoid accusing anybody until they had facts. June objected to spending trust money on lawyers when passengers were missing appointments. Silas reminded her that an unnecessary legal expense might be cheaper than losing an entire transport network.
At the door she paused. "If the dealer can't certify the vans, what do we do?"
"Find another," he said. "Or build the solution ourselves, if we must. But no one gets trapped in a machine because a committee was in a hurry."
- • •
By Thursday, the rumor that Bell County Access was preparing a large fleet order had reached every sales desk at Haven. Consultants who had ignored the old transport lead now asked Tessa whether she needed assistance. One offered to split the commission if she would introduce him to June. Another claimed to know a supplier in Tulsa who could obtain six conversions at a discount. The question that had seemed tedious in the showroom had acquired a remarkable power to make people helpful.
Tessa declined the offers. She had begun to dislike her own capacity for calculating value from appearances, and she disliked it no less when the calculation produced generosity.
Grant called her into his office shortly before lunch. Philip Rusk sat across the desk with a sealed envelope between his hands. Grant's computer displayed a proposed fleet contract. The total at the bottom was large enough to turn Tessa's stalled promotion into a certainty.
"We've prepared a compliant offer," Grant said. "Six units, staged deliveries, service coverage, a generous introductory discount. You will take it to the Bells this afternoon."
Tessa read the summary. Under accessibility requirements it stated that all emergency-release systems had passed current certification tests. She knew Mina had refused to sign the inspection sheet. She asked to see the supporting documents.
Philip slid a photocopy across the desk. It carried a corporate seal and a signature whose last name was difficult to read.
"Is this a new certificate?" Tessa asked.
"It's the supplier's assurance of compliance," Philip said. "Exactly what your customer requested."
"It doesn't identify the batch numbers."
"Certification applies to the model family."
"Mina says she tested one under load and it failed."
Grant leaned forward. "You were not invited here to conduct a hearing."
Tessa looked at the contract again. Page three included an option for an expedited delivery fee. Page five listed a limited warranty that excluded modifications made after release, language that appeared to shift responsibility for the lift conversion onto the transport office. She asked whether the exclusion applied to factory-installed parts.
"It's standard language," Philip said.
"That isn't an answer."