Chương 9
“They’re proposing a settlement.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“How much?”
“You already know?”
“He offered forty.”
“His attorney offered twenty-five.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“Michael’s negotiating against himself.”
“Don’t enjoy it.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Daniel took a sip of coffee.
“What else?”
“They claim your brother had authorization to act concerning the property.”
“He didn’t.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel stiffened.
“What does that mean?”
“Did you ever sign a power of attorney?”
Daniel leaned against the brick wall.
Years earlier, after his father’s stroke, Michael had brought hospital paperwork.
Daniel had signed something allowing Michael to handle property taxes, insurance renewals, and estate matters while Daniel cared for their father.
“I don’t know.”
“That is not the answer I wanted.”
“It was years ago.”
“Find out.”
“How?”
“Ask the lawyer who prepared your father’s estate.”
Daniel knew the lawyer.
Richard Keene.
Retired now.
Michael had chosen him.
Judith continued.
“And Daniel?”
“Yeah.”
“Do not agree to anything by text. Do not tell Michael you’re considering the money.”
“I’m not.”
Judith was silent.
Daniel stared at traffic.
“Okay,” he said. “I was.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because you’re homeless and have a kid.”
Daniel looked toward the motel.
“Does taking the money make me stupid?”
“No.”
“Coward?”
“No.”
“What does it make me?”
“A man who needs forty thousand dollars.”
Daniel waited.
“But if you validate a fraudulent transfer, you may solve tonight’s problem by permanently surrendering the asset and complicating the evidence. So do not make a desperation decision before we know what you own and what he did.”
Daniel let out a breath.
“Fine.”
“And I found the notary.”
His attention sharpened.
“Marsha Bell?”
“Yes. She works at a shipping store twenty minutes from you.”
“Did you talk to her?”
“No. I sent a preservation request through counsel.”
“For what?”
“Whatever records exist from the date of the deed.”
Daniel looked at his coffee.
“You think there’s video?”
“I think we don’t guess.”
When he returned to the room, Elena had received another call from Margaret.
The clinic had scheduled a disciplinary meeting for Friday.
Daniel placed the doughnut beside Lily.
“Good news,” he said.
Elena raised an eyebrow.
“Is it actually good?”
“No.”
“Then don’t call it that.”
He sat.
“We may have signed something years ago giving Michael authority.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
“I don’t remember.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
She was breaking the doughnut into tiny pieces before eating it.
He said quietly, “Apparently not.”
Richard Keene lived forty minutes away in a subdivision built around a golf course.
He answered Daniel’s call on the third ring and sounded older than Daniel expected.
“Yes, there was a limited power of attorney.”
Daniel gripped the steering wheel.
“What did it cover?”
“Your father’s financial affairs while he was incapacitated and a narrow set of estate administrative matters afterward.”
“Property?”
“Your father’s property, initially.”
“My house?”
“It was your father’s at the time.”
“Did it let Michael transfer it after Dad died?”
“No.”
Daniel exhaled.
“You’re sure?”
“I drafted it.”
“What happened after the estate closed?”
“It terminated.”
“Do you have a copy?”
“I may.”
“Can I get it?”
A pause.
“Daniel, what is this about?”
Daniel told him.
Keene became very quiet.
“I see.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“I said I see.”
“Michael forged a deed.”
“That is what you are alleging.”
Daniel’s hand tightened.
“You sound like his lawyer.”
“I am trying to be precise.”
“Fine. Precisely, can he use that power of attorney?”
“No.”
“Could he make it look like he could?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared through the windshield.
“How?”
“It had your signature.”
There it was.
A clean sample.
Witnessed.
Notarized.
Stored in files Michael had handled.
Daniel felt sick.
Keene said, “I will look for the original file.”
“Do that.”
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“I remember your father being worried about the two of you.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“My father was worried about everything.”
“He was especially worried about the house.”
“Why?”
Keene hesitated.
“Ask Michael.”
Daniel hung up.
Elena had been listening from the passenger seat.
“What did he mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel.”
“I don’t.”
They were parked outside the county records building because Judith had asked them to obtain certified copies of the deed and earlier property documents.
Daniel stared at the entrance.
“You know what I hate?”
Elena looked at him.
“Buildings like this.”
She waited.
“They make you take a number to prove your own life happened.”
Elena almost smiled.
“That may be the most you thing you’ve ever said.”
Inside, they waited forty-three minutes beneath fluorescent lights.
A toddler screamed near the marriage-license counter.
An elderly couple argued about a tax bill.
Elena folded and unfolded the number slip.
Daniel watched her.
“You wanted to leave me?”
She stopped.
“What?”
“Michael said you could stay with your sister.”
“That came from the screenshot.”
“No. Before.”
Elena stared at the number board.
“Sometimes.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
She looked at him.
“You asked.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to be angry because I answered.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
He looked down at his hands.
“I am.”
Elena nodded.
“That’s different.”
They sat another minute.
Then Daniel asked, “Were you going to?”
“I don’t know.”
“That means yes.”
“No. It means I didn’t know.”
The number board beeped.
Seventy-four.
They were seventy-six.
Elena said, “I didn’t want another marriage. I didn’t want another house. I wanted you to be home enough that Lily stopped asking whether Friday meant this Friday.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“She notices.”
“Children notice everything we hope they don’t.”
Seventy-five.
Daniel rubbed the scar on his forearm from the hydraulic burn.
“I thought I was helping.”
“I know.”
“That almost makes it worse, doesn’t it?”
Elena looked at him.
“Sometimes.”
Seventy-six.
They stood.
By Friday, Judith had enough to seek emergency court relief against any further transfer of the property.
She refused to promise what the judge would do.
May you like
Daniel appreciated that about her.
He hated nearly everything else.
