Chapter 7: Tuesday With Geoffrey
Geoffrey Marsh had an office on the second floor of a building downtown, above a dry cleaner and a travel agency.
The waiting room smelled like old paper and coffee.
Jasmine sat in the car outside while her father went up alone.
He had asked her to come.
She had driven him there.
But she'd said the meeting should be just him.
"You need him to see that you're thinking clearly," she'd said.
"On your own."
David had nodded and gone up.
He was inside for fifty-five minutes.
When he came back down, he didn't speak until he was in the passenger seat with the door closed.
"Geoffrey says the deed can be challenged," he said.
His voice was flat and careful, like a man carrying something fragile.
"Not easily.
But if there's evidence that Jessica misrepresented her reasons for asking to be added to the property, and if it can be shown that she was already seeking legal counsel about property transfer at the time — he says there's a case."
Jasmine looked at her hands on the steering wheel.
"I showed him the letter," David said.
She looked at him.
"You had it?"
"You weren't the only one who found things," he said quietly.
She absorbed that.
"He also said something else," David continued.
"He said that if Jessica consulted Hartley and Crane under her maiden name, while presenting herself to me as simply wanting security, that is a significant problem for her.
Because it establishes intent."
"What happens next?"
"He wants to file a formal review of the deed transfer.
He says we should also look at the will.
He thinks — based on what I told him — that Jessica may have applied undue influence when I made those changes." He paused.
"He used the phrase *strategic manipulation of a grieving spouse.*"
Jasmine said nothing.
"He asked me how soon after your mother passed I started seeing Jessica," David said.
His voice had gone quieter still.
"She came into my life fourteen months after your mother died.
Geoffrey said that's a window where people are especially vulnerable to — he was kind about it.
He said *to being guided by someone with a different agenda.*"
The traffic outside moved past the window.
Ordinary and unhurried.
"Dad," Jasmine said.
"I know," he said.
"I'm not saying this to hurt you."
"I know that too." He looked out the windshield.
"I feel very foolish."
"You were lonely," she said.
"And you trusted someone.
That's not foolish.
That's just human."
He didn't respond to that.
But after a moment, he reached over and squeezed her hand once.
Brief and firm.
Then let go.
"Geoffrey is going to make some calls," David said.
"He wants to know if Hartley and Crane filed anything officially under Jessica's name.
If they did, it becomes part of the record." He paused.
"There's something else."
Jasmine waited.
"He asked me about a man named Marcus Lowe."
The name sat in the car between them.
"You gave him the name Marcus?" Jasmine said.
"I described the text message.
Geoffrey recognized the name.
Marcus Lowe works for Hartley and Crane." David's voice was steady, but barely.
"He's a property consultant.
He works with clients who are managing joint asset transfers."
Jasmine stared at the steering wheel.
"Marcus works for her lawyer," she said.
"Yes."
"And he was texting her.
Directly."
"Yes."
"*It's almost done.
Just be patient.*"
"Yes."
The dry cleaner's sign hummed in the window reflection.
A couple walked past on the sidewalk, arguing about something small and ordinary.
The whole world outside continuing on as if nothing was happening in this car.
"What do we do now?" Jasmine asked.
"Geoffrey wants to send her a formal notice," David said.
"Something that makes clear he is representing my interests and reviewing the deed and the will.
Something that puts her on record." He looked at Jasmine.
"He says once she receives that notice, she will know the plan has been disrupted.
And he says when that happens, people like Jessica tend to act quickly."
"Meaning she'll try something."
"Meaning she'll try something," David agreed.
May you like
Jasmine started the car.
"Then we need to be ready," she said.
