Richard Sterling picked up the document. His hands, usually steady as a surgeon’s, trembled slightly. He looked at the signature. He looked at Julian. The boy in the hoodie wasn’t looking at the floor anymore. He was looking Richard dead in the eye. And for the first time in 10 years, Richard Sterling felt a cold drop of sweat slide down his back. The trap had been set, and he had just stepped right into it.
The recess was meant to be 15 minutes, but Richard Sterling managed to drag it out to an hour, claiming he needed to authenticate the documents Julian had slapped onto the table. Judge Halloway, looking less like a conspirator and more like a man realizing his golf game was ruined, granted the time, but warned Richard that his patience was thinning.
Richard stormed out of courtroom 4B, his entourage of three junior associates trailing behind him like terrified ducklings. He didn’t stop until they reached the private attorney conference room on the second floor. A glass-walled fishbowl designed for high-end settlements.
He slammed the door so hard the glass pane rattled in its frame. How? Richard hissed, turning on Sarah, the Yale graduate. How did a kid in a hoodie find a forgery that we missed? Or worse, how did he manufacture it so quickly? Sarah was shaking. Mr. Sterling, I ran the title search myself. The name on the deed was Marcus Thorne.
There is no Marcus Thorne, Richard shouted, throwing his iPad onto the table. That’s what the kid just proved. It’s a ghost employee, which means the Apex Horizon Group bought that land from a phantom. If that deed is fake, the Banks woman still owns the house. And if we try to evict her based on a fake deed, we aren’t just losing the case. We’re looking at RICO charges.
He paced the small room, his Italian leather shoes clicking aggressively on the tile. He needed a pivot. He needed to kill the messenger. Get me distinct information on Julian Banks, Richard ordered, pulling out his phone. I want to know where he buys his underwear. I want to know if he has unpaid parking tickets. I want to know if he cheated on a math test in the third grade.
