part 4
Roger couldn’t think of anyone who’d want to prank him, particularly in this rather tasteless way. Sure, he’d sort of gone into a shell for a long time, but who would stage an intervention? He didn’t have any relatives he knew of, and no close friends who’d take an interest. And anyone who just wanted to prod him into making a change wouldn’t go to these lengths. And where had this car come from anyway? How do you fake a VIN number?
Roger had a horrific thought. What if the VIN number hadn’t been faked? What if someone had found the wreck of the car, which had been T-boned by a heavy truck and demolished, and spent absurd amounts of money to rebuild it? Maybe this was the actual car his parents had died in. It gave him a chill. Just ahead he saw Tom’s Auto Service, the place his father had always had any work done on the car. On a whim, he pulled in.
Tom remembered him. Tom was an older man, still working daily in his shop, and he greeted Roger by name. “Roger, nice to see you. You found a replacement for the old man’s LTD; it looks great! Mind if I take a look?”
“That’s actually why I stopped in,” said Roger. He explained the odd appearance of the car, and his suspicion that somebody was pranking him. “What bothers me is that the VIN number matches the original,” he said. “That would mean this is the same car. That makes me feel…well, I hope it isn’t. Would you be able to tell if somebody rebuilt the wreck?”
“I seen that wreck,” said Tom. “As I remember, it’d be a major project to rebuild something in that condition. Not sure it’s even possible. But sure, I think I could tell. Let me put it on the lift to look at the frame. When it was hit the frame was all twisted up; you can’t fix that without leaving some telltales.”
Tom took the keys and pulled the LTD into one of his service bays. After about 20 minutes he drove it back out. “Nope,” he said, “this is all original, and in perfect shape. Probably came from a southern or western state; not a speck of rust. You’ve got a real find here, Roger. Your dad always said this was a rare car, Even more so now. You should bring it to the Lions Club car show next summer; people around here still remember your dad and his car.”
“What about the VIN number?” asked Roger. “Whoever parked this in my garage changed it to match the original receipt somehow.”
“Never heard of that,” said Tom. But the VIN is in a few places even on a car this old. They probably didn’t find all of ’em. You can find it here under the hood, on the firewall.” He took out a flashlight and they found the VIN. It also matched.
“Huh, somebody was pretty careful,” said Tom. “Let’s check inside the door.” He opened the driver door and shined his light on the door jamb. Another matching number.
“Don’t know what to tell ya,’ said Tom. This car was never rebuilt, but all the numbers match. Not sure how you’d manage that, but somebody did, it looks like.”
“So this is definitely not the same car?”
Can’t be; there’s no evidence of work underneath. Here, let me check my old records; might still have something.
He led Roger into the office, and rifled through some dusty file folders. “Yep, here it is, did an oil change on your dad’s car back in the day. Not too long before the accident. The mileage at the time was 68,430. Check your odometer; it’ll be different.
It wasn’t. The LTD showed 68,657 miles. Just about the number of miles Roger’s father might have put on the car between the oil change and the accident.
“Well it’s weird, that’s a fact,” said Tom, scratching his head. “Lemme know when you find out who’s behind this and how they managed it. Make a good story, if nothin’ else.”
Roger promised to update Tom when he learned anything, and got back into the LTD. He drove home, feeling an even deeper fog obscuring his senses.
