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“Can you please speak up so everyone can hear?”
He straightened his back and gathered his courage. “I said that I had written the day your grandmother was found dead on the death certificate instead of her actual death date.”
“I’m not going to ask you why you did it. I’m sure mistakes happen in all professions. But how different were the two dates?”
“There was a three-week difference between the two.”
“Three weeks? That’s a long time.”
“It is,” he admitted.
“And that means that if paperwork was filed with my grandmother’s signature on it during those three weeks, it would be considered fraud. Right, Mr. Thompson?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not a legal expert. I would know nothing about that,” he replied sheepishly.
“I guess you’re right. You wouldn’t. Luckily, another person I would like to thank for being here is, Anthony Dean. He is the lawyer at the firm my grandmother hired to execute her will and manage her estate after her passing. Can you stand Mr. Dean?”
A round, mid-fifties man stood up. His balding head shined in the sun.
“Mr. Dean, as a lawyer, is it your expert opinion that any documents filed with my grandmother’s signature on them after she died would be considered fraud?”
“Indeed. Whether it was signed before their passing or not, she must be alive to file that paperwork. It’s a law that prevents bad-faith actors from claiming they stumbled upon documents that were created by illegal means.”
“Illegal means?” I asked.
“Yes. To file manufactured documents after a person’s death would be illegal.”
“And I imagine it would come with quite a bit of jail time.”
“That, I do not know,” Mr. Dean said confidently.
“I guess you wouldn’t. Luckily, the last person I would like to thank for coming is Sheriff Bradley McGee and his lovely wife. Can everyone kindly give Sheriff McGee a round of applause for keeping our town safe and being here today?”
I gestured for him to stand as the guests applauded. When they stopped, I spoke.
“So, Sheriff McGee, can you answer that question? How much jail time does a person get for illegally filing paperwork after someone’s died? And since I know it’s a broad question, we’ll narrow it down and say that the paperwork was filed to steal a rather large inheritance.”
The sheriff stuck his thumbs behind his belt buckle and dipped his head as he considered the question.
“It would, of course, be up to the judge. And I’m not an expert on white-collar crimes. We don’t get a lot of that around here,” he said with a practiced smile.
“I’m sure. But if you were willing to oblige a groom on his wedding day, how long would you guess?”
“Ten years? Maybe seven with good behavior,” he nodded agreeing with himself.
“That’s a lot of time in jail,” I acknowledged.
“It is. But, as I said, we tend not to have a lot of crimes like that in this town. Most of the time they are misunderstandings that can be cleared up and easily corrected.”
“That’s good to know. Thank you for that, Sheriff McGee. And, again, thank you for coming.”
I turned back to my mother and father. Both were ghostly white. Chris was doing his best not to laugh his head off.
“So, Mother, was there something you were going to say. Wasn’t it something about Grandma Aggie?”
She looked at me in terror. “No. There was nothing,” she said backing down and returning to her seat.
I had won and she knew it.
