Chapter 9: The Weak Link
I couldn't just rely on the police to piece everything together. The legal system was notoriously slow, and my mother was a master manipulator. If she managed to scrape together bail money from one of my enabling aunts or uncles, she would spend every free moment trying to destroy evidence or intimidate witnesses.
I needed to tighten the noose.
I pulled out the photograph I had snapped of the forged deed on the officer's hood the night before. I zoomed in on the notary seal at the bottom of the page. The stamp read: Brenda Higgins, Notary Public, State of Kentucky.
A quick Google search of the name and the local area brought up a hit. Brenda Higgins wasn't a lawyer or a bank employee. She worked at a shady title loan and check-cashing storefront in a rundown strip mall on the edge of town.
I left Evelyn a note, locked the doors twice, and drove to the address.
The storefront was dingy, with neon signs flashing Cash Now and Auto Title Loans. The bell jingled as I pushed the heavy glass door open. Behind bulletproof glass sat a woman in her late fifties, heavily applied makeup masking deep wrinkles, aggressively chewing a piece of gum. Her nametag read Brenda.
"Can I help you?" she asked, eyeing my clean button-down shirt with suspicion. I didn't look like her usual desperate clientele.
"Brenda Higgins?" I asked, stepping up to the glass.
"Yeah. What do you need?"
I slid my phone under the small gap at the bottom of the glass. On the screen was the high-resolution photo of the forged deed, displaying her unmistakable seal and signature.
Brenda looked down. The chewing stopped instantly. All the color drained from beneath her heavy foundation.
"Where did you get this?" she whispered, her eyes darting toward the door as if expecting the FBI to storm in.
"The police gave it to me right before they locked up Judith Ashford and Marcus Vance," I lied smoothly. "I'm Colin Ashford. The guy whose house you helped steal."
"I... I don't know what you're talking about," she stammered, sliding the phone back to me with trembling fingers. "I notarize a hundred documents a week. I check IDs."
"You didn't check mine," I said, leaning closer to the glass, projecting every ounce of intimidation I possessed. "Because I was four counties away when this was stamped. Now, my mother is sitting in Jefferson County lockup looking at a felony forgery charge. The detective investigating the case is extremely interested in the notary who facilitated the fraud."
Brenda swallowed hard. "Look, mister..."
"Here is what's going to happen, Brenda," I interrupted, keeping my voice low and level. "You are an accomplice to a Class D felony. That carries one to five years in state prison. But my mother is the mastermind. I don't care about you. If you tell me exactly what happened, right now, I will tell my lawyer to offer you immunity as a cooperating witness."
It took exactly three seconds for her self-preservation instincts to kick in.
"She paid me," Brenda blurted out, tears of panic welling in her eyes. "Judith came in with Marcus. Marcus is a regular here. They offered me five hundred dollars cash to stamp the deed without the signatories present. She told me it was a formality! She said you were sick and couldn't leave the house, but that you wanted her to have the property!"
"Will you testify to that?" I asked.
May you like
"Yes! Please, just don't let them send me to jail! I have grandbabies!"
"I'll have my lawyer contact you," I said, taking my phone back. I walked out of the payday loan store, the crushing weight on my chest lifting just a fraction. Judith's defense was completely dismantled.
