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“One is a birth certificate for Marjorie, my…the youngest Steel child.” Don’t spill the beans, Jade. Right now, she needs to think of you as an attorney looking for information, not the best friend of one Steel and the lover of another.
“What about it?”
“I found it in some boxes of old documents at the Steel home.”
“Why would you have access to documents at the Steel home?”
Shit. And I’d just told myself to careful…
“They were…subpoenaed for discovery in a different case.” Good save. “Anyway, Marjorie’s birth certificate and the marriage certificate for Bradford and Daphne pose some confusion.”
“Why is that?”
“First of all, the marriage certificate is between Bradford Raymond Steel and Daphne Kay Wade. All the Steels remember their mother’s maiden name as being Warren, not Wade. What’s even more curious is that when I search the database of Colorado records, the marriage certificate has been altered. It shows Daphne as Daphne Kay Warren.”
“Maybe the one you found in the Steel documents was a forgery.”
“I’d thought of that. But why would someone forge a marriage certificate, and if they did, why would they change the bride’s maiden name? Seems more likely they’d forge a date, maybe for reasons of inheritance. Or forge the whole certificate itself, not just a maiden name. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Let me think on that. What about the other document? You said it was a birth certificate.”
“Yes, Marjorie Steel’s birth certificate. It shows that she was born Angela Marjorie Steel, yet she was always told by her parents that she had no middle name and was just Marjorie Steel. Again, when I checked the Colorado records database, her birth certificate is shown just as Marjorie Steel. This is another change that makes no sense to me. If you’re going to forge a birth certificate, why not change the date or the whole name? But to take away a first name? I can’t figure it out.”
Wendy cleared her throat and stroked her cheek. “I’m afraid I can’t help you with either of those things.”
I didn’t believe for a minute that she didn’t know anything. I was pretty good at reading people.
“These are both pretty innocuous items. Why can’t you share any knowledge with me?”
“Maybe I don’t know anything.” She stroked her cheek with her index finger. Again.
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, Wendy, but I don’t believe that.”
“Well, it’s immaterial whether I know anything or not. I made promises a long time ago.”
“To whom?”
“To Brad.”
She really wasn’t going to budge. The stern lines of her jaw made that more than apparent. So I’d have to do a little budging.
“Look, Wendy, I’m going to be honest with you. Yes, I am a city attorney, and yes, I am investigating the Steels for my boss, but what you don’t know is that Marjorie Steel is my best friend. She and I went to college together, and up until a week ago, I was staying with her on the ranch. I respect the fact that you made promises that you feel you need to keep. But if those promises were made to a dead man, what’s the harm in telling me the information I need now?”
“It’s for the good of the Steel children.” Her eyes misted up again. Did she actually have feelings for the Steel siblings?
I cleared my throat. I would have to go slowly with her. “All right. I can accept that. Can we at least talk about the birth certificate? Marjorie is beside herself. She feels like she doesn’t even know who she is.”
“That’s silly. The name on a birth certificate doesn’t say anything about who a person is.”
She had a point. But Marj also had a point. “She’s twenty-five years old, and she just found out she was born with a different name.”
“All right.” Wendy sighed. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you about the birth certificate.”
Thank God. I could at least go home to Marj with a tiny bit of information.
“Marjorie was born prematurely. At twenty-four weeks. She wasn’t expected to survive, so Daphne named her Angela Marjorie, Angela meaning ‘angel.’ Daphne was sure that Marjorie would be an angel soon. Then, when the baby survived, Daphne wanted the name changed. I told you she was troubled. She thought if the baby carried the name Angela, she’d become an angel.”
“I guess that makes sense in some convoluted way. Especially for a troubled woman. But how was Daphne able to have the birth certificate changed in the Colorado database? Normally, when you file a name change, your birth certificate doesn’t change.”
