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Jada had definitely been thinking in that direction. “What about from another computer in the courthouse?”
“No. The entry would have been keyed to that computer.”
They sat quietly, each lost their own thoughts.
“Seems like there’s one person who could answer this question,” Jada said.
Ian said aloud what Jada was thinking. “Looks like you and I need to talk to Sylvia Watson.”
“Don’t we all,” Ophelia said with a steely look.
Mrs. Nell began to snore lightly.
IAN PULLED INTO A PARKING space in front of the small park that Jada had guided him to. It was a quaint little place, complete with benches, wooden picnic tables and leafy, giant oak and maple trees. He turned off the engine and reached into the back seat for the bag of burgers and fries they’d picked up at a drive thru.
Jada looked up from the folder of documents Ophelia had given them. “I wish we could take our food to one of the picnic tables.”
“Best not risk it,” Ian said, handing her a paper-wrapped burger and a small container of french fries. “There’s quite a few people out there. Someone would recognize you.”
“Or you,” she said. “You’re way more famous than I am. Wait. I’m infamous. You’re famous. Never mind. Let’s just eat. Are the windows in this rental car dark enough for me to take off my glasses?”
“Go ahead,” Ian said, thinking that as long as they were in the car, they could always speed away if anyone recognized them.
They ate in silence for several minutes. Ian contemplated what they’d learned at the courthouse.
“You were right about Ophelia Wyatt,” he said. “She was a great help. I don’t know how we would have gotten the whole story from Mrs. Nell without her.”
“I’ve always like Ophelia. But that isn’t why I called her in on this. I figured she’d have a vested interest in finding out the truth: one, she’s the DA and there could be a fraud case here; and two, she’d want to make sure her grandmother was okay.”
“Do you think everything we heard in there was the truth?”
“I do,” Jada answered with confidence, squeezing some ketchup onto a thick fry. “You?”
“Yes.”
“Good. And do you think the blonde woman who was so mean to Mrs. Nell and got the printout on Friday afternoon was Piper Sandy from CGTV?”
“I do,” he said, following Jada’s cue and squeezing some ketchup on his own fries.
“I’m surprised high and mighty Piper would come all the way to little old Springers Glen to check out Marina’s tip. I would have thought the network would send someone lower in the pecking order, like you did.”
“I wish I would have sent someone more capable,” Ian said. “Maybe that’s why Piper came herself.”
“Do you think we should contact her and ask her about this?”
“No, not yet.” Ian watched a pair of children in the park fight over a rubber ball. “Let’s hold off on confronting anyone at CGTV until after we find Sylvia Watson and learn what she knows.”
“You’re right.”
Ian took a bite out of the hamburger, surprised at how good it was. Jada had recommended the burger shack and he’d been less than impressed with the shabby exterior. He had to admit though, the food was good. How long had it been since he’d eaten a burger from a drive-thru joint? He couldn’t recall.
“So here’s a rundown of what we think we know,” Jada said briskly, setting her hardly-nibbled food aside and leafing through the folder. “Some time before noon on Wednesday, a tall woman in a disguise came to the records department and bribed Sylvia to accept a fake, out-of-state marriage license and to call CGTV to tip them off to the document’s filing.”
She studied the copy of the license. “This thing is obviously fake. It looks like something you’d print out off the internet as a prank. There’s no official seal, no notary, nothing. And the signatures look like they were all done by the same person.”
Ian swigged down some soda then held out his hand. “I haven’t gotten a good look at it yet. Let me see.”
She gave him the license and he studied it. Everything she’d said was true. It couldn’t have looked less official if it had a red stamp across the top of the page declaring, “Not an actual license.”
“I don’t see how it could have fooled anyone with decent eyesight and half a brain,” he said, handing it back to Jada.
“Exactly,” she said, “which means Sylvia had to know it was fake. So when she told Marina that she only took the money to call in the tip, she was definitely lying. She accepted a bribe for the tip and to file a forged document.”
“That seems the likeliest conclusion,” Ian said.
Jada blew out a long breath. “Wow. Poor Sylvia.”
“How so?”
“She must have really been hard up for cash to break the law and risk her job. I don’t see how she’ll get out of this without being fired at the very least, and she might get charges filed against her, depending on what Ophelia decides to do.”
Ian marveled that Jada could sympathize with someone who had been partly responsible for everything that had happened in the past week. “We don’t know everything yet. Don’t get too worried over her until we know the whole story.”
“I won’t,” Jada said. “Anyway, going on with the timeline, Sylvia accepted the money and the license Wednesday morning, but before she could enter it into the system, she was called away by her son’s emergency at school. That afternoon, Mrs. Nell entered incorrect information into the database. The next morning, Sylvia called Marina and asked her to leak a story to CGTV about shocking information regarding you and Sasha. Marina tried to get the network interested, but she didn’t have any luck until Friday morning, when she talked to a different person.”
“I’m following so far,” Ian said.
“Good. On Friday afternoon, a woman, probably Piper Sandy, came to the records department, got a printout of Mrs. Nell’s incorrect entry, then left. She didn’t keep CGTV’s promise to Marina that they’d share whatever they found with her. That sounds exactly like something Piper would do.” Jada’s upper lip curled. “She’s shady.”
“I would have called her something worse than shady.” He eyed the rest of Jada’s lunch. “Can I have that?”
She laughed. “You sound like Sasha. You can have half of it.”
He tore the burger in half and dug in.
Jada forged onward. “Piper broke the story online and on TV some time over
night. We found out about it Saturday morning. Marina called Sylvia to bitch her out for what she did, and discovered Sylvia had left town and that she planned to hide out until everything blew over. When she was asked about how she could use Marina to harm me, Sylvia said she didn’t know I was involved, implying she hadn’t seen the license. That was a blatant lie, probably so she wouldn’t be connected to the fake license, only to the tip.”
“Exactly,” Ian said. “And she didn’t want to admit how badly she’d used both you and Marina.”
“When Marina tried to call her again, Sylvia ducked her calls and texts and everything else Marina tried. She went off-grid.”
Ian laughed briefly. “Off-grid. Doubt she’s that sophisticated.”
Her pretty eyes twinkled. “Don’t tease. You know what I mean. So, that’s where everything stood until this morning, when thanks to your pressure over the weekend, CGTV was at the courthouse bright and early to get the copy of the marriage license. Instead, they got a second bombshell and raced off to spread the news. Do you think it was Piper who showed up at the courthouse this morning?”
“No. I think Violet would have mentioned the woman was rude, or obnoxious. She said the woman was young and polite.”
“Not Piper then. Probably a random employee,” Jada said. “Next, Zeke showed up and found out there was no hard copy of your marriage license. Not long after that, CGTV broke the story that I married Sasha. And that brings us up to now.”
“It’s a lot of information to keep straight,” Ian admitted.
“How much longer do you think it will be before your people track down Sylvia?”
“Could be any time. It won’t be difficult for them.”
Jada’s nose wrinkled in dismay. “If only I had been on top of this during the weekend. We’d already know where Sylvia is, would have already talked to her and CGTV would never—”
“You don’t know that,” Ian interrupted. “Don’t play the ‘if only’ game. It never does any good.”
