Chapter 3: What Patricia Saw
I stepped away from the courthouse counter and lowered my voice.
"Patricia, what did you see?"
"A moving truck," she said.
"A big one.
Backed right up to Eleanor's front door.
Two men were carrying things out — furniture, boxes, lamps.
I thought maybe Eleanor had arranged it herself, but then I saw your father directing them from the porch."
I turned toward Grandma.
She was still standing at the counter, watching me.
"How long were they there?" I asked.
"Three hours, maybe more.
They left around noon." Patricia paused.
"Ivan, they took the dining room set.
The one with the carved legs.
I've sat at that table for forty years of Christmas dinners."
I pressed my hand flat against the courthouse wall.
"Did they take anything else?"
"The cabinet from the hallway.
The one with the glass doors.
And there was a man in a suit who went upstairs.
He was carrying a briefcase.
He stayed about twenty minutes and left before the truck did."
"A man in a suit."
"I didn't recognize him.
But I wrote down his license plate." She read it out slowly.
"I wasn't sure if I should call.
I didn't want to cause trouble."
"You did the right thing," I said.
"Patricia, don't go anywhere.
We may need you."
I hung up and walked back to Grandma.
She read my face before I said a word.
"They went to the house," she said.
It wasn't a question.
"Moving truck.
Arthur was there directing it.
And a man in a suit with a briefcase."
Grandma closed her eyes for exactly two seconds.
Then she opened them.
"The briefcase man is named Gerald Holt," she said.
"He's your father's attorney."
The clerk was still standing behind the counter, pretending to look at her screen.
"Ma'am," Grandma said to her, "I need a certified copy of that transfer document and a certified copy of the revocation.
Both.
Today."
"I can have those ready in about twenty minutes."
"Then we'll wait."
We sat down on a wooden bench near the window.
Outside, the afternoon light was flat and gray.
I looked at my phone.
Four missed calls from Arthur.
One from Wendy.
No voicemails.
"Grandma," I said quietly.
"How long have you known something was wrong?"
She folded her hands in her lap.
"Since February.
Your father started calling more often.
Asking questions about the house.
What it was worth.
Whether I'd thought about what would happen to it after I was gone." She paused.
"I told him I'd already thought about it.
That seemed to make him nervous."
"Did he ever mention the nursing facility?"
"He mentioned it three times in six weeks.
Each time he called it a different name, but it was always the same pitch.
That I deserved to be somewhere comfortable.
That managing a house alone was too much for a woman my age." Her jaw tightened.
"I am seventy-nine years old.
I still grow my own tomatoes."
I almost smiled.
Almost.
"The revocation," I said.
"When did you have that prepared?"
"The morning after he mentioned the facility for the third time.
I drove myself to a notary.
I didn't tell anyone."
"And the bank statement — the circled withdrawals.
When did you find those?"
"Four days ago.
I keep paper copies of everything.
Your grandfather taught me that." She glanced at me sideways.
"He didn't trust computers."
The clerk reappeared with a manila envelope.
"Your certified copies, ma'am."
Grandma took them without looking inside.
She already knew what they said.
"Next stop," she said, rising to her feet, "is the bank."
We walked out into the gray afternoon.
My phone buzzed again.
Arthur.
I answered it this time.
"Ivan." His voice was careful.
Measured.
The voice he used when he was managing a situation.
"I've been trying to reach you.
I think there's been a misunderstanding about your grandmother."
"Where are you right now, Dad?"
A short pause.
"I'm at home.
Why?"
"Were you at Grandma's house this morning?"
Another pause.
Longer.
"I stopped by briefly, yes.
To check on a few things."
"With a moving truck?"
The line went quiet.
"Ivan, I think we should talk in person.
There are things about your grandmother's situation that you don't fully understand."
"I understand fifty-five thousand dollars," I said.
"I understand a property transfer filed eleven days ago.
And I understand a revocation that was signed three days before that transfer."
Silence.
"I'll call you back," he said.
And he hung up.
Grandma was already in the passenger seat, the manila envelope on her lap, looking straight ahead.
I got in.
Started the engine.
"He's going to call Gerald Holt," she said.
"Right now, while we drive to the bank."
"I know."
"Then we need to move faster than he does."
I pulled out of the parking lot and pressed down on the accelerator.
My phone lit up on the console.
Not Arthur this time.
A text from Wendy: *Ivan, please don't do anything rash.
Your father is only trying to protect her.
May you like
Call me.*
I set the phone face-down and kept driving.
