The mechanical review was the piece Harrison had been sitting on.

He had ordered it in a bad month, received it, put it in a drawer, and left it there for twenty months, because at the time he had a son who had stopped speaking and no capacity for one more thing.

Priya read it at four in the morning and put it down and said one word: “Harrison.”

The left front brake line had been compromised in a manner the reviewer described as “not consistent with abrasion, corrosion, or road damage.” There was a clean lateral cut, partial-depth, in a position that would produce gradual fluid loss under normal driving and complete failure under sustained braking — on, for instance, a long descent.

The route from the Vance house to the lake road includes a mile-and-a-half descent.