Chapter 6 - THE SIGNATURE HE REMEMBERED
Miriam Shaw’s office sat above a pharmacy.
No marble lobby.
No gold lettering.
Just a woman with sharp glasses who read every page before speaking.
“Helga, did you authorize anyone to sell your home?”
“No.”
“Did you sign a power of attorney?”
“No.”
She turned to Alexander.
“Tell me about the documents your wife presented.”
He described the dinner.
The sticky tabs.
The fatigue.
His trust.
Miriam did not call him foolish.
She asked for dates.
He searched his calendar.
Then his email.
“There was a business dinner the next night,” he said.
“Ewald asked me to meet a lender.
He said I was there to explain an engineering issue.”
“What business?”
“Mercer Renovations.”
I knew that company.
Ewald mentioned it whenever he wanted to remind me he was successful.
Miriam wrote down Nolan Pierce’s name.
“We need the actual loan agreement.
And we need the title company’s entire file.”
Alexander called Bianca.
She did not answer.
He sent a message requesting copies of every document bearing his signature.
Miriam sent her own requests.
Then she looked at me.
“The recorder may help establish what was said, but documents will be central.
We’re going to verify what we can.”
I liked that.
She did not treat my anger as proof.
She treated my facts as something worth checking.
Outside, a woman stood beside Alexander’s car.
Dark coat.
Canvas bag.
One hand pressed against the other.
“Tessa?” he said.
Bianca’s younger sister.
I had met her twice.
Both times, Lydia corrected her before she finished a sentence.
“I heard about yesterday,” she said.
“From Bianca?”
“From Mom.
She said Helga was confused and Alex had a breakdown.”
Alexander gave a short, bitter laugh.
Tessa looked at me.
“You’re not confused.”
“No.”
She held out a flash drive.
“I did bookkeeping for Dad last winter.
I copied records when he started asking me to change invoices.”
Alexander reached for it.
She pulled it back slightly.
“There’s something you should know first.”
Miriam stepped into the doorway behind us.
“Come upstairs,” she said.
Tessa’s eyes filled.
“I tried to warn Bianca.”
“When?” Alexander asked.
“Before you signed.”
He stared at her.
Tessa opened her bag and removed a printed email.
Bianca’s reply was only two sentences.
May you like
GET HIM THROUGH DINNER.
ONCE HE SIGNS, HE CAN’T WALK AWAY.
