The Inventory Visit Stopped At The Number Beneath Mara's Frame

Garrett opened the door before Svetlana reached it.

"Good morning! Coffee? We've had a big month."

He wore polished boots. He had moved the repair stand beside the gold rug, where it looked less like a tool and more like a stage.

Then he saw me behind June.

"This is a private appointment."

Svetlana kept her folder under one arm.

"Our borrower is the company. We've received conflicting records about who can speak for it. Both members will remain while we inspect, if we are to proceed today."

Garrett looked toward her car, where the other examiner waited with a tablet.

"Sure. Transparency. That's what I want."

He stepped aside.

I smelled old flux and cold coffee. My apron still hung from its nail. Someone had folded it inward so the burned front did not show.

I left it there.

Svetlana asked Garrett to identify the pledged frames.

He swept his arm toward the rack.

"Our custom range. Premium steel. All built in-house."

"Which ones have buyers?"

"Interest. Some interest. Nothing that affects title."

"Please answer for each frame."

He picked up a red repair frame first.

"That's older stock."

"That's Luis Ortega's," I said. "He's had it nine years. We were replacing the cracked bridge."

June handed the second examiner the repair ticket. It included the number Luis had provided and a photo of him beside the bike before it came to us.

Garrett put it down.

"Chinedu gets attached to the jobs. He calls everything by a customer's name."

Svetlana looked at him.

"Names seem useful here."

She moved to Mara's bare frame.

"Turn this one over, please."

Garrett took it from the hook. He held it by the top tube as if it might stain his sleeve.

Under the shell, the stamped number read SW-214.

The second examiner photographed the number beside the tag. Svetlana opened my register to the matching entry. Then she opened Mara's signed terms, deposit receipt, and dated cutting sheet.

"You listed no customer interest," she said.

"Deposits aren't ownership."

"Your customer contract says otherwise for this identified frame. You signed the order too."

He leaned over the page.

"That's just our shop form."

"A signed shop form."

He looked at me then. The grin went thin.

The frame hung between his hands. I remembered clamping its first tube, filing the miter until no light showed through the gap. Mara had stood right there when we checked her reach. Garrett had brought her coffee that day. He had known her name before he made her frame disappear into a stock list.

"You set this up."

"I wrote down the number when I cut her tubes."

Svetlana checked all eleven. She did not stop with the ones that helped me. She asked about unpaid balances, canceled jobs, and parts still loose in bins. We found company-owned tubing and small parts that belonged on a stock list. We found no company-owned frame among the eleven Garrett had pledged.

The new builds belonged to seven customers under their signed terms. The four repair frames already had owners when they entered the door.

Next came the equipment.

My ledger gave the purchase price. The invoice gave the seller and serial number. Our contribution sheet showed the transfer into the company.

Garrett watched as she matched the mill's plate to my receipt.

"He likes receipts," he told her. "That's his thing."

"Today it is also mine."

At the office table, she placed our agreement beside the paper Garrett had used to claim sole authority.

"Mr. Eze holds sixty percent and is named manager here. Where is the signed amendment changing that?"

"We had an understanding."

"Where is it?"

He rubbed a bright tooth with his tongue.

"He wanted to build bikes. I ran the business."

I had imagined that moment from my kitchen table. In my head, I made speeches.

Inside the shop, I only said, "I wanted to build bikes. I also read our agreement."

Svetlana closed the folder.

"I'm recording the eleven frames as excluded customer property. No new advances will be made while our loan review is open. Neither of you should read this inspection as a court ruling about the debt. You'll receive written notices."

Garrett's face reddened.

"You're killing our cash flow over his hobby notebook."

"Your schedule identified other people's property as the borrower's assets. That is what stopped this visit."

She asked that the frames stay secure and available for documented return. June requested a written access plan. Garrett said he needed time to think.

We left without touching the locks.

At noon, June received an email from him.

He offered me $3,000 to sign away my share by five. If I refused, he wrote, a freight carrier would collect the frames Saturday morning.