Chapter 7: The Woman Who Made It Legal
Mark stepped into the corridor and pulled the door closed behind him.
"Who are you?" he said.
The woman lowered the card.
She was in her fifties, composed, with the kind of stillness that came from spending a lot of time in rooms where things went badly.
"My name is Carol Fenn.
I'm an attorney." She paused.
"I was also, until this morning, the person Diane used to make her paperwork look legitimate."
One of the officers spoke.
"Ms.
Fenn came in voluntarily.
She's cooperating."
Mark looked at her.
"You notarized the documents."
"Some of them.
Not all." She didn't look away.
"I need to speak with the detective on this case.
And I need to speak with your ex-wife, if she's willing."
"Why?"
Carol Fenn glanced at the door behind him.
"Because I have the originals.
Not copies.
The originals, with my actual seal — and a second set Diane had made without my knowledge, using a forged version of my credentials." She held his gaze.
"She used me to build the case, and then she built a backup case that would have destroyed me along with your ex-wife if it had ever gone to court."
Mark studied her face.
"You found out," he said.
"This morning.
When Detective Reyes called my office." A pause.
"I didn't know what Diane was using the documents for.
She told me your ex-wife was mentally unwell and had signed everything willingly.
She told me it was a compassionate arrangement." Her jaw tightened.
"I should have asked more questions."
"Yes," Mark said.
"You should have."
She didn't argue with that.
Detective Reyes arrived within the hour.
She set up in a family consultation room down the hall — a small space with a round table and chairs that didn't match — and Carol Fenn laid out everything she had brought.
The originals were in a sealed envelope.
Reyes opened it carefully and went through each page.
Lucy had been brought down in a wheelchair, her IV pole beside her, Jack walking next to her with his hand on the armrest.
She sat across from Carol Fenn and looked at the woman who had put her name on documents while she was locked in a freezer.
Carol Fenn looked back.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Lucy said nothing for a moment.
"Tell me what you knew," she said finally.
"Not what you didn't know.
What you actually knew."
Carol Fenn told her.
It took twenty minutes.
She spoke carefully, without softening anything.
She had known Lucy's name.
She had known the property addresses.
She had known the psychiatric evaluation was being prepared.
She had not known Lucy was being held.
She had not known the documents would be used to cover a kjdnapping.
When she finished, Lucy looked at Reyes.
"Is that enough?" she asked.
"Combined with the storage unit, the phone records, and the photograph — yes," Reyes said.
"The forged credentials alone add a separate charge.
The property transfers will take longer to unwind, but they will be unwound."
"What about the house?"
"The transfer was made under duress and with a forged witness.
It'll be voided." Reyes looked at her notepad.
"The two additional properties Harwell acquired — those are more complicated, but your attorney can pursue them."
"I don't have an attorney."
"You will," Carol Fenn said quietly.
Lucy looked at her.
"I owe you that much," Carol said.
"I'll represent you.
No fee.
For as long as it takes."
Jack, who had been sitting very still beside his mother, spoke for the first time since they'd entered the room.
"How did Diane find you?" he asked.
"How did she know you'd do it?"
Carol Fenn looked at the boy.
"She didn't find me," she said.
"I've known Diane for eleven years.
She was my client first.
Then she became something I thought was a friend." A pause.
"I was wrong about what kind of person she was.
I was wrong for a long time."
Jack nodded slowly.
He looked like he was filing that information away somewhere.
Reyes closed her notepad.
"I need to get these to the DA tonight.
We're looking at kjdnapping, unlawful confinement, fraud, forgery, coercion, and property theft.
That's before we finish going through the phone."
She stood.
"The contact saved as N," Mark said.
"Did you find out who that is?"
Reyes looked at him.
May you like
"We did," she said.
"And that's the part that's going to surprise you."
