He had, in a sense, forged the mother he remembered from his childhood rather than the mother who was actually alive in front of him, and the gap between those two women, the remembered and the real, was exactly the gap he kept falling into, over and over, throughout the whole affair.

He was committing his crimes against a mother who no longer existed, if she ever had, and being caught, every time, by the one who did. and I looked at him across the courtroom and I said, “You didn’t even know it had been rejected, did you?” And his expression answered for him.

Chapter 15 — A Notary Who Wasn’t

I handed the judge the next document.

“Two weeks after the failed attempt on the savings account,” I said, “a durable financial power of attorney appeared, naming Michael as my agent, authorizing him to act for me in essentially all financial matters.” Gregory Walsh’s face changed again; a durable power of attorney is a serious instrument, and a forged one is a serious crime.