Rachel leaned back.
“That’s why they sold so many tickets.”
I stared at the screen.
“Witnesses.”
“Exactly.”
“One thousand eight hundred witnesses showing they used the land.”
“Plus vendors. Sponsors. Marketing. Event insurance.”
“Manufactured evidence.”
“Yes.”
She zoomed in.
“Jack.”
“What?”
“Look at the notary.”
The recorded easement carried my forged signature.
Beneath it was a Missouri notary seal.
The name looked familiar.
I couldn’t immediately place it.
Then I did.
I had seen it every year when paying property taxes.
Margaret Elaine Turner.
Current Cedar County Recorder of Deeds.
The woman responsible for maintaining the county’s land records.
The woman whose office supposedly recorded the document.
Rachel didn’t speak for several seconds.
“Your father said someone inside the county had verified it.”
I read the signature again.
Margaret Turner had notarized the supposed agreement eight years earlier.
She wasn’t recorder then.
She worked in the county planning department.
