Chapter 4: What Ruth Found
Ruth called me back the next morning at seven forty-five.
I had spent the night in a hotel two blocks from my building.
I hadn't been able to make myself go back in.
Not yet.
Not while Lorraine was still in there.
I answered before the first ring finished.
"Talk to me."
"I pulled the filing," Ruth said.
"The transfer was recorded with the county three weeks ago.
The notary on record is a man named Gerald Pitts.
He's licensed, but just barely — there are two prior complaints against him for irregular acknowledgments."
"Meaning he stamps things he shouldn't."
"Meaning he stamps things he's paid to stamp.
Yes." I heard her set something down on her desk.
"Claire, your original signature from the purchase deed is on file.
I've already sent both documents to a forensic document examiner I use.
She can have a preliminary comparison back to me by end of week."
"And if it's confirmed as a forgery?"
"Then we're looking at deed fraud.
That's a felony in this state.
It also voids the transfer entirely — the property reverts to its pre-transfer ownership, which is you."
I sat on the edge of the hotel bed.
Outside the window, the city was already moving, buses and taxis and people who didn't know that somewhere on the twelfth floor of a building two blocks away, a woman was sleeping in a bed that wasn't hers.
"What do I do in the meantime?" I asked.
"You do not confront Daniel again without me present.
You do not speak to Lorraine at all.
And you do not let either of them know what we've found yet." Ruth's voice was steady and precise.
"Can you stay somewhere else for a few more days?"
"Yes."
"Good.
I'm also filing an emergency motion this morning to flag the property as disputed.
That prevents any further transfers or encumbrances while the fraud investigation is open."
"She can't sell it?"
"She can't do anything with it.
Not legally." A brief pause.
"Claire, one more thing.
Daniel's name isn't on the transfer.
It went directly to his mother.
That means he either structured it that way deliberately, or Lorraine directed the whole thing and he just provided access."
I hadn't thought of that.
"You think she planned this?"
"I think someone did," Ruth said.
"A fraudulent notary doesn't appear by accident.
Gerald Pitts has a history.
Someone knew where to find him."
I stood up and walked to the window.
"How long has Pitts known the Marsh family?" I asked.
"I don't know yet.
But I'm going to find out." Ruth paused again.
"Are you all right?"
"I will be," I said.
And I meant it.
Not because I felt fine.
But because something had shifted in me overnight, somewhere between the hotel check-in desk and the gray morning light coming through that window.
The shock had burned off.
What was underneath it wasn't grief.
It was focus.
"Ruth," I said.
"Find everything."
"Already started," she said.
I hung up and looked down at my phone.
There were six missed texts from Daniel.
I hadn't read any of them.
There was also one from a number I didn't recognize, sent at 2:17 in the morning.
*You should know that this wasn't Daniel's idea.
Call me.
— Patricia Holt*
May you like
I stared at the name for a long moment.
I had never heard of Patricia Holt in my life.
