Chapter 10: Three Days

The former clerk remembered the witness's burial month.

Rita remembered the winter because the pipes had frozen at South Rail.

By morning, we had a date to check.

Valerio drove me to the county records room.

I found the witness six pages into the death index.

He had died four months before my mother's alleged oath.

Bianca's forfeiture notice came two years after his burial.

I bought a certified copy and kept it flat against my coat.

"Did you find him?" Valerio asked outside.

I showed him the seal.

"His signature appears on two documents made after he died."

"And the iron seal has the same nick."

"The nick links the pages. The death record proves their named witness could not sign either one."

We brought both facts to the tribunal that afternoon.

The seventy-two-hour stay would expire the next night.

Orson arrived with Damon and two collectors from the van.

They sat opposite us while the tribunal officer laid out the photographs.

I kept the original oath sealed in Valerio's case.

The officer checked its clasps before admitting the photographs.

Orson smiled at me across the table.

"A dead clerk's name proves nothing. Someone could have copied an old form."

"That is exactly what these pages look like," I said.

Damon shifted in his chair.

The officer held the death record beside the signature.

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