Chapter 7 - The Identical Signature
The identical signature did not automatically prove a crime. Electronic document systems sometimes reuse signatures with a person's valid authorization. Paige said the crucial questions were whether June knowingly agreed to that use, for which instrument, and how the notary's acknowledgment had been performed.
June reviewed the date on the earlier scan. "I was at the clinic that morning for my hearing aid check. Skye drove me."
Skye remembered. She'd waited in the parking lot and bought her grandmother a cinnamon roll afterward. The visit was recorded on the clinic's schedule and in Skye's phone calendar. But the notarization on the deed purported to have occurred late that afternoon at a closing office across town, so the clinic visit by itself didn't exclude it.
"Did you go anywhere afterward?" Paige asked.
"Home. I planted beans."
Skye opened a photo from that day. June stood in the garden at four thirty, holding a trowel. Its location metadata supported the picture's ordinary story. The alleged acknowledgment was listed at four forty-five, more than thirty minutes away in normal traffic. That made the timeline difficult but not impossible; phone clocks and travel details still needed verification.
The notary, Laurel Price, retained counsel and ultimately provided information about her commission, appointments, and office procedures. She said she had notarized a set of documents for Ridgegate that month but did not recall meeting June for the full-property deed. She had allowed a coworker to prepare electronic packets under her supervision, a practice whose compliance with applicable rules required separate examination. Laurel did not admit knowingly notarizing a false signature.
Bennett Cross resigned from Ridgegate before the deposition. His attorney said the resignation was for personal reasons and disputed allegations of misconduct. The financial records showed that the account receiving supposed Bellamy proceeds was associated with his consulting operation. He claimed the funds were held temporarily under an internal escrow arrangement authorized by the company, an explanation the closing firm and Ridgegate later challenged.
Skye found herself wishing for a confession that would make the rest of the case unnecessary. Instead she got dates, entries, and ordinary people explaining procedures they had stopped questioning because they performed them every day.
At a community meeting about the proposed development, Skye listened to neighbors who wanted the new homes. Younger families complained about high housing costs and the lack of places their children could afford to live. A teacher said she couldn't rent anywhere near the school. Another neighbor worried that clearing the lower pasture would worsen storm runoff onto his property.
When Skye spoke, she did not say that all new construction was wrong.
"My grandmother and I disagree about what parts of our land should change," she said. "We're allowed to have that conversation. What none of us agreed to was a transfer based on signatures and ownership claims we're now contesting. Development can be argued honestly. It doesn't need people to be misled."
Several residents nodded. Others remained skeptical. That was fair. The land meant different things to people who had different stakes in it.
Afterward a young woman approached with a toddler on her hip. She asked whether the orchard could ever host community harvest days again. Skye remembered the years when her grandfather handed children paper bags and let them pick apples until their hands were sticky.
"I'd like that," she said. "We have to figure out liability and safe access, but I'd like it."
For the first time her idea of protecting the property included opening a gate rather than merely standing in front of one.
Two weeks later a forensic document examiner reported that the repeated signature appeared mechanically reproduced from the earlier specimen image, subject to the limits of the available copies. The conclusion strengthened the challenge to the deed but did not identify the person who placed it there.
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Paige called Skye with the news and one more concern: an internal Ridgegate memo showed Mason had received a warning about the unresolved co-ownership deed before closing.
His claim that he'd known nothing was now in doubt.
