She had been asked to compare signature images, not declare that every named person was guilty.
Her first finding was subtle.
Several signatures displayed identical pixel patterns and pressure-like artifacts that do not occur in separate handwritten acts.
Some pages also contained tiny repeating marks near the edges, suggesting a shared digital source or copying workflow.
She needed higher-resolution originals to draw stronger conclusions.
Simone requested them.
The following afternoon, Lila’s attorney contacted her again.
Lila wanted to meet with investigators because she believed someone had used her electronic seal without authorization.
That possibility complicated the story I had been telling myself.
If Lila’s seal had been stolen, another person had built the scheme to impersonate not just homeowners but the official who supposedly verified them.
I was forced to admit how much I still did not know.
George Ellis remembered a man who had visited his workshop the previous spring offering to buy his house outright.
The man wore a charcoal coat and said he represented a neighborhood renewal initiative.
George kept the business card because he intended to call back and refuse politely.
The card identified its owner as Everett Pike.
George had not considered the encounter important until the deed surfaced.
He told Simone that Everett knew the amount remaining on his mortgage even though George had not shared it.
Everett had also mentioned George’s late wife’s medical bills.
“It felt like he was reading my mail,” George said.
We did not know whether that information came from public records, a conversation, or something less legitimate.
Simone asked George to preserve the card and write down everything he remembered.
Three days later, George found a second card tucked into a drawer.
This one advertised a moving company called Willow Transit Solutions.
A handwritten note on the back said RELOCATION READY WHEN COURT CLEARS.
George stared at it for a long time.
“I never agreed to move,” he said.
The phrase suggested someone had anticipated a legal event that had never actually happened.
The moving company turned out to be owned by a cousin of Everett Pike.
That connection did not establish wrongdoing on its own.
It did reveal a network of companies positioned to profit if occupants left the seven homes.
Simone added the information to a chart with arrows connecting records, people, and dates.
I joked that it looked like the wall of a television detective.
She said a good chart was useful only when every arrow could be explained.
