Simone turned another page. "This is the document filed with the proposed transaction. It claims Mr. Bennett resigned as trustee on August fourteenth. According to the attached certificate, his signature was witnessed and notarized at an office on the north side. Mr. Bennett, did you sign this?"
"No," Arthur answered.
"Dad, you signed a lot of paperwork in August," Malcolm said. "You remember the hospital forms?"
"I remember being in this kitchen on August fourteenth, painting a cabinet door. Dottie came over to borrow the ladder. I didn't go to any office." Arthur stared at the copy. His name was there in a crooked imitation of his handwriting. Someone had even attempted the little backward curl of the final letter. He felt something colder than anger. A stranger had tried to make his own name testify against him.
Simone laid out an email printout. "The notary whose name appears on the certificate says she did not witness this signature. We have a written statement from her. She says the seal number on this copy is not the one assigned to her. The county recorder has been notified, and we've requested preservation of every document submitted to the buyer and title company."
Malcolm's eyes moved across the page. "Grant gave me that paper. I thought it was something you already signed."
"Then he should be able to explain where it came from," Simone said. "But there is another document I need to ask you about."
She drew a single sheet from a brown folder. It had Malcolm's name at the top and a signature at the bottom. The words between them described Arthur as forgetful, increasingly confused, unable to manage bills, and at risk of living alone. Malcolm stopped reading midway through and looked at the floor.
"Is that your signature?" Simone asked.
"Yes," he said quietly.
Arthur did not move. He had expected something bad in the files; otherwise he would not have gone to the clinic. But he had not expected to see his own son endorse the idea that he no longer deserved to make decisions about his life. He studied Malcolm's bent head and felt the memory of teaching him to ride a bicycle rush up without warning. Arthur had run behind that bicycle until his chest burned, promising not to let go until the boy was ready. Now it seemed Malcolm had never noticed the difference between support and control.
"You told them I couldn't take care of myself," Arthur said.
Malcolm swallowed. "Grant said it was just background information. He asked whether you'd been forgetting things since Mom died. You have been. Sometimes you call me and ask the same question twice. Sometimes you leave the television on all night. I thought he needed to know so we could find somewhere safer."
"Safer for me, or easier for you?"