Chapter 6: The Flaw in the Paper
Grace called four days later.
I was at my desk.
Thora was at Patricia's.
The house was quiet in the way it had been quiet when I first walked in and found my daughter in that uniform — held in place, waiting.
"I have the original document," Grace said.
"She filed it with the land registry herself, which is how I obtained a copy.
The witness signature is a woman named Carol Bryce." A pause.
"Ms.
Bryce is Heloise's cousin."
I leaned back in my chair.
"An interested party," I said.
"Precisely.
A witness to a trust instrument cannot be a beneficiary or a party connected to a beneficiary.
Carol Bryce's relationship to Heloise disqualifies her entirely.
The execution is defective." Another pause.
"The trust is not valid, Daniel.
It never was."
I didn't say anything for a moment.
"Can she challenge that?"
"She can try.
She would need to argue that the connection was unknown or immaterial.
But the relationship is documented — they share a surname, they appear together on public records going back fifteen years.
No court is going to accept that argument." Grace's voice was measured, careful.
"The house is yours.
It was always yours.
She has no legal claim."
"When can we move on this?"
"I'm drafting the formal notice today.
I can have it served by end of week." She paused.
"I'd also like to refer the matter to a colleague who handles fraud cases.
What she did — preparing a document for signature without disclosing its nature, using a disqualified witness, filing it with the registry — that is not a civil matter.
That is potentially crjminal."
I stood up and walked to the window.
The garden was the same garden it had always been.
Miriam had planted the rose bed along the back fence the spring before she got sick.
It was overgrown now.
I had not touched it.
"Do it," I said.
"There is one more thing." Grace's tone shifted slightly.
"I made an inquiry about the solicitor whose card your neighbor received.
The man with the briefcase."
"And?"
"His name is Warren Fitch.
He was struck off the register two years ago for preparing fraudulent property instruments on behalf of a client." She let that land.
"The Law Society has a file on him.
I've already been in touch."
I turned from the window.
"She hired a disbarred solicitor to build a fraudulent trust," I said.
"That appears to be what happened, yes."
I thought about the envelope in the kitchen drawer.
Miriam's handwriting on the front.
"Grace," I said.
"The letter.
The one she claims my wife wrote."
"Yes."
"If she had a forger helping her with documents, could he have forged a handwritten letter?"
May you like
A silence.
"That," Grace said quietly, "is exactly the right question."
