Chapter 23: The Kitchen Floor

The deed hearing barely took fifteen minutes.

Ingrid sat at the far table in a plain gray suit, with a public defender beside her and a bracelet on her ankle.

She didn't look at me once.

The young assistant took the stand with his hands folded to stop them shaking.

"Was Mrs. Halvorsen present when you stamped the guarantee?" my lawyer asked.

"No, ma'am."

"Was she ever shown that page?"

"No."

"Who told you to date it the day of the kitchen signing?"

He looked at Ingrid then.

She looked at the table.

"Ms. Paulsen did," he said. "She said it was easier than explaining."

The judge took her glasses off and set them down.

"Ms. Paulsen, do you wish to say anything?"

Ingrid raised her head.

"I protected my property," she said, in a thin, careful voice.

"By having a woman five months along with Maisie sign away her own house without reading it."

"She signed it."

"She signed what you put in front of her."

The judge drew a long breath.

"The deed to 14 Marlow Street is void for fraud. So is the personal guarantee."

"Title returns to the marital estate, and I will award it to Mrs. Halvorsen in the divorce."

She turned to Ingrid.

"I am sending this file to the county attorney, with the recordings from the courthouse steps. Find a better lawyer."

Nobody in the room made a sound.

In the corridor afterward, Joel's crew stood along the wall in their good jackets, because they had taken the morning off.

Britt held Maisie out to me, and I kissed her hair and turned around.

Tobin stood by the water fountain with his hands in his pockets.

He had signed the divorce papers an hour earlier at my lawyer's table, without reading them.

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