Chapter 5: The Buyer Has a Name
Daniel called at seven the next morning.
Alison was already awake.
She had slept on her mother's couch with Abigail curled against her, and she had lain there for two hours in the dark listening to her daughter breathe before her phone lit up the ceiling.
"I need you to come to my office," Daniel said.
"Bring Christopher if he's available."
"What did Renata tell you?"
"Come to the office."
Christopher was already in the parking lot of Daniel's building when Alison arrived.
He was holding two coffees and handed her one without being asked.
They sat across from Daniel at a desk covered in printed pages.
"Renata gave a full statement last night," Daniel said.
"Gregory contacted her five weeks ago, not six.
He asked for three things.
The notary office name.
A copy of your signature.
And your mother's home address."
Alison set the coffee down.
"Why my mother's address?"
"Because Abigail is registered there for school and medical records.
Gregory needed to establish that the apartment was effectively unoccupied by a dependent minor — that there were no complications to a clean sale." Daniel turned one of the pages around.
"He was thorough.
He had done this before."
Christopher leaned forward.
"What do you mean, before?"
"I ran a search last night using the notary stamp number from the contract photo.
That stamp has appeared on two other property transactions in the last three years.
Both involved women.
Both involved partners of less than a year.
Both apartments were sold.
Neither woman ever recovered full value."
The room was very quiet.
"He's done this twice already," Alison said.
"At minimum."
"And the buyer?" Christopher asked.
"The man who called Alison to confirm the appointment?"
Daniel turned another page.
"His name is Warren Schultz.
He runs a property acquisition company out of Brookfield.
On paper it looks legitimate.
In practice, he targets distressed or fraudulently cleared properties and flips them fast before anyone can challenge the title." He paused.
"He had a closing scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
The purchase price was listed at sixty-two percent of market value."
"He was going to sell my apartment for sixty-two cents on the dollar," Alison said.
"And pocket the difference before you could file an injunction."
Christopher stood up and walked to the window.
He stood there with his back to the room.
"What do we do?" Alison asked.
"We have Renata's statement.
We have the call log from Warren Schultz's office to your number.
We have the notary stamp trail linking Gregory to the previous transactions." Daniel stacked the pages neatly.
"I filed an emergency title freeze this morning.
The closing tomorrow cannot proceed."
"Gregory doesn't know that yet," Christopher said from the window.
"No," Daniel said.
"He doesn't."
Christopher turned around.
"Then we let him show up to it."
Daniel looked at him for a moment.
"That," he said carefully, "is exactly what I was about to suggest."
Alison looked between the two men.
Eight months ago she had believed Gregory when he told her Christopher was her enemy.
She had believed it so completely that she had stopped trusting her own instincts.
"There's something else," Daniel said.
He slid one final page across the desk.
At the top was a name Alison didn't recognize.
Below it was a photograph.
She looked at it for a long time.
"Who is this?"
"The woman from the first transaction," Daniel said.
"Three years ago.
She lost her apartment on the north side.
She has been trying to find Gregory ever since." He let that settle.
"She wants to talk to you."
Alison picked up the page.
The woman in the photograph looked about sixty.
She was standing outside what must have been her old building.
She was not crying.
She was just looking at the camera with an expression Alison recognized immediately.
It was the same expression Alison had worn on the bus the night before.
May you like
The moment you understand that someone you trusted was never what you thought.
"Set up the call," Alison said.
