I leaned back in my chair.
“Yes, Mr. Stevens.”
“I need to ask you something directly.”
“All right.”
“Did you authorize your sister, Michelle Harper, to sign documents on your behalf for the sale of your condo?”
His voice was trying very hard to sound professional. It failed around the edges.
“No,” I said.
Silence.
Not empty silence.
Working silence.
I could hear muffled voices behind him, a door opening, a low question, paper moving quickly.
“Miss Johnson,” he said, quieter now, “are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Did you grant your sister power of attorney?”
“No.”
“Did you sign any listing agreement, sales contract, disclosure statement, closing authorization, or representation document connected to this transaction?”
“No.”
Another silence.
This one had a different weight.
“Mr. Stevens,” I said.
He exhaled shakily. “There has been an issue.”
“I assumed.”
“The title company submitted preliminary documents this morning. During compliance review, the transaction was flagged. There are agency investigators in my office reviewing the file.”
I said nothing.
Silence can be useful when a nervous person has more to give.
“They’re asking why identity verification wasn’t completed in person,” he continued. “They’re asking who supplied the authorization documents. They’re asking about your sister, the buyers, the agent, source of funds, communications, everything. Miss Johnson, there are notations on your property file I have never seen in an ordinary residential closing.”
“No,” I said. “I imagine not.”
His breathing changed.
“Your sister told us she had authority.”
“My sister told twenty-three people at Thanksgiving dinner that she signed where I would have signed anyway.”
The line went quiet.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
“In front of witnesses?”
“Yes.”
I turned slightly in my chair and looked at the river. A gull moved through the gray air beyond the glass, rising briefly and then dropping out of sight.
Stevens made a sound under his breath that was not quite a word.
“Mr. Stevens,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Do you have counsel?”
“I am counsel.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
He understood then.