Chapter 7 - The Trap
We didn't call the police immediately.
Instead, I called Marcus Thorne—the senior partner at Vance & Thorne, the premier forensic litigation firm in the city where my friend worked. Within two hours, Marcus had reviewed the forged quitclaim deed, the hospital ICU records showing my father's comatose state on the date of execution, and the wire transfer logs.
"This is open-and-shut corporate fraud, grand larceny, and document forgery," Marcus said, laying out the documents across his glass conference desk downtown. "Your sister used a notary public named Donald Vance—who happens to be the brother of her defense lawyer—to illegally notarize a forged signature on a dying man."
Elias, who had taken the afternoon off work to sit beside me, leaned forward. "What happens if we go straight to the District Attorney?"
"With this level of documentation?" Marcus smiled grimly. "Marlo and her notary friend will be arrested within seventy-two hours. But if you want to ensure she can't use her lawyer's legal tricks to dodge the charges, we set a trap."
"What kind of trap?" I asked.
"Your sister thinks she's safe because she returned the fifty-two thousand dollars," Marcus explained. "She thinks the case is closed. Tomorrow night is your family's annual autumn charity dinner at the downtown community center—an event your father founded ten years ago."
I remembered. The dinner was tomorrow. Every major member of our family, along with local community leaders and business associates, would be attending.
"Marlo will be there," I said. "She wouldn't miss a public event where she can act like the grieving, dutiful daughter."
"Exactly," Marcus said, pulling a voice recorder and a legal summons from his briefcase. "We invite the district attorney's financial crimes investigator to sit in the back room. You confront Marlo in private with the notary documents. Get her to confirm on tape that she used the commercial property mortgage to pay back the estate. The moment she admits it, the investigator steps in."
I looked at Elias, then at my mother, who sat quietly in the corner of the office.
"Mom?" I asked gently. "Are you sure you want to do this publicly?"
May you like
My mother looked up, her eyes clear and sharp for the first time since my father's death.
"She used your father's dying breath to steal from this family," my mother said, her voice firm and unwavering. "She tried to ruin your marriage and destroy my grandbaby's peace. She made her choice, Chloe. Now she gets to live with it."
