I simply bent over the desk to study my grandfather’s forged signature on the 2021 mortgage note.

Dalton lowered his reading glasses and slid the second mortgage record into a heavy manila sleeve.

He pointed to the bottom corner of the county abstract file, where a blue rubber stamp had faded into the yellowed paper.

“This lien was recorded on the fifteenth of November three years ago,” Dalton said.

“Your father named himself co-signer under a power of attorney, but Arthur never signed a real estate power of attorney.

The bank in Canton paid one hundred ten thousand dollars straight into an account Richard controlled.”