The deed recorded three days earlier showed the property transferred to me.
Before that, the owner was Millstone Residential Holdings LLC.
Brooks read the screen.
“So who called us claiming to be the owner?”
Cole answered before Patricia could.
“Daniel.”
Brooks slowly turned toward him.
“How did you know that?”
Cole rubbed his jaw.
Patricia closed her eyes.
I felt something settle into place, not the whole explanation but enough of its outline.
Daniel hadn’t just called the sheriff’s office after Patricia saw me.
Cole had known who he was dealing with before he arrived.
I asked Brooks if I could retrieve my closing file from inside. She hesitated, then nodded and came with me.
Cole stayed outside.
The house was quiet except for the ceiling fan in the living room. Boxes covered most of the floor. I walked toward the kitchen, where I’d left the closing folder on the counter.
Something was wrong.
A cabinet door beside the refrigerator was open.
I knew I had closed it because I’d wiped every cabinet front that morning.
Brooks noticed me stop.
“What?”
“I didn’t leave that open.”
Inside the cabinet, behind a stack of paper towels, was a narrow gray box attached to the back panel.
Brooks reached toward it.
“Don’t touch it.”
She pulled her hand back.
The box had a tiny status light and a wire running through a hole that had been drilled into the cabinet.
I followed the wire with my eyes.
It disappeared into the wall.
Brooks whispered, “Is that a camera system?”
“Maybe.”
There was no camera lens.
That bothered me more.
I took pictures without touching anything and called my attorney. Then I called my office supervisor, gave him the shortest version possible, and asked for a contact with the local field office.
When Brooks and I stepped outside again, Cole’s SUV was gone.
Patricia was gone too.
Only the younger deputy’s vehicle remained in front of my house.
Brooks swore under her breath and reached for her radio.
Dispatch told her Cole had not reported leaving the scene.
A supervisor was already on the way.
I checked my phone again.
The title company had sent a second message, this time with an attachment.
It was a scanned affidavit signed two months earlier by Daniel Keller. The document claimed he was the sole authorized manager of Millstone Residential Holdings.
Underneath it was an email from the title officer.
We verified this document during closing. This morning, another attorney contacted us and said Daniel Keller had been removed from the company eleven months ago.
I scrolled farther.
There was one more attachment.