The Deposit List Led Us Past the Company Bank Account

The old email was still in my saved mail. Its subject line was Final Signed Company Documents.

I opened it at Janel's office. She saved the message and its attachments without changing them. Her own closed file held the same set.

There was no correction sheet.

"This helps," she said. "Now we find out where his version came from."

I asked if that meant I would get the tools back that afternoon.

"It means we have strong evidence. He still has to answer it."

Waiting was hard work with no place to put my hands.

Lan gave me a job that helped. We called each person on the prepaid list and asked for the same four things: their order, amount, date, and proof of payment.

"Don't ask them to guess," she said. "People guess high when they're scared."

She cleared a corner of her office. Between feed invoices and lesson schedules, we built a list.

Nineteen customers had paid $14,760 for unfinished work. Eleven had already left harnesses with us. Eight had paid to hold later dates and still had their equipment at home.

Some payments went through the company. Some did not.

One woman sent a picture of a handwritten receipt for $900 cash. Wyatt had signed it while I was working under an awning at her barn.

"He said cash saved you the card fee," she told me.

"Did he give you a company receipt later?"

"That is the receipt."

Another customer had paid $1,200 to an account bearing Wyatt's name.

"He said the business account was being updated."

I wrote down her exact words.

I had received bank summaries each month, but Wyatt ran the booking calendar. I had watched the balance without seeing all the promises behind it. That had been my mistake. It did not make his promises mine to erase.

My existing bank access let me download the company's statements. Janel told me to save complete copies, including the dull pages with no activity.

The company held $4,200. Its records showed that much in unpaid customer deposits. The other $10,560 never appeared there.

We could show where those customers sent their money. We could not yet show where Wyatt spent it.

"We need the missing records through the case," Janel said. "Don't fill that gap with a story."

Lan drew a line across our sheet. Above it were facts with documents. Below it were questions.

I liked that line more than any guide mark I had seen.

By the third evening, calls had worn my voice down. One man called me a thief before I could say hello.

"I paid you people last month," he said.

"Yes. I have your receipt now."

"You going to blame your partner?"

"I'm going to account for your eight hundred dollars. Then you'll have something better than blame."

He stayed angry, but he gave me his email address.

We sent each customer a copy of their own entry. We did not send anyone else's private information. Every message said that a refund plan was being sought and gave a way to correct our figures.

There were two corrections. One receipt included a separate repair already completed. Another customer had typed an amount wrong. We checked both against the original orders before the final total settled at $14,760.

On Friday, Wyatt came to the stable.

Lan met him outside the office.

"Appointment?" she asked.

"This isn't a dentist."

"Then stop making everyone grit their teeth."

He held out a sheet to me. It offered $1,500 if I released all claims, worked the prepaid jobs, and stopped contacting customers.

"You'll get your bench when it's done," he said.

"The bench belongs to me now."

"You can't pay lawyers forever."

He was right about that. My roof savings were already thin. The truth of it made me read the page more carefully.

I folded it and gave it back.

"Send it to Janel."

"You used to be easy to work with."

"I used to have a key."

He left without coming inside.

That night, Ellis emailed a message Wyatt had sent before the sale. Ellis had agreed to let Janel use their full exchange, including the parts that made him look careless.

Wyatt had promised the shop would be delivered empty of repair work, despite listing those orders as part of the deal.

Ellis had asked who would finish them.

Wyatt's reply had arrived nine days before the closure notice.

Khoa will find a way. He won't let the horse people down.

I read that line with Lan beside me. Then Janel called with our hearing date in Carthage.