But I knew I had never written it.

Barnaby hired a forensic document examiner. The examiner found inconsistent pressure, unnatural pauses in the pen strokes, and letter formations that did not match genuine samples held by our mortgage lender.

It was a convincing imitation. It was not flawless.

Barnaby warned me not to expect a quick outcome. A suspected forged property filing, he explained, would move first through the county recorder’s office and possibly then to the district attorney.

The process would require documents, interviews, subpoenas, and months of examination. No matter how disturbing the evidence looked, cases like that rarely moved quickly.

Then the Wake County recorder’s office confirmed something that stopped me cold. Their standard verification process had flagged the transfer months earlier.