She has told me since that she does not do that and that no notary does, because comparing signatures is not what a notary is for and most people’s signatures do not match their own identification.

What she did was ask where the principal was.

And Patricia said she was at work and that she had signed it that morning at the kitchen table.

And Bennie Arceneaux said no.

Not because she suspected anything.

Not because she was protecting my daughter, whom she had never heard of.

She said no because an Arizona notary may not notarise a signature that was not made in her presence, and that is the first line of the first page of the manual, and she has refused on that ground — she looked it up for me later — two hundred and eleven times since 2004.

Two hundred and eleven.