She looked back with the equanimity of a woman who finds it mildly tedious to always be the one who knows things. I was with him when he did it, 12 years ago. I witnessed the signature. The land office copy is a legal duplicate. She paused.
I went there yesterday afternoon. The copy is intact. I have it. She reached into her coat and put a folded document on the table. Garrett took it, read it, set it down with the particular deliberateness of a man placing something valuable.
Good. That establishes Lily's inheritance claim and eliminates Wade's legal standing as an heir entirely. He turned back to Martha. Second, the two men who tied you to the post, do you know their names? Roy Finch and a man called Decker.
Decker I only know by that name. Finch has worked the Briggs property for four years. Can you identify them to Alderman under oath? Yes. Will they lie?
Roy Finch will say whatever Wade tells him to. Decker, I'm less certain about. He's not a Briggs man by loyalty. He's a Briggs man by paycheck. They're different things.
Garrett made a note. Third, he looked up. Reverend Holt. Agnes tells me he agreed to testify. He did.
Wade will argue he's biased. I need to know, is there anything in Holt's history with Harold that Wade could use to suggest a personal grievance? Any dispute, any resentment? Any reason Holt might want to damage the Briggs name independent of Martha's situation? Martha thought.
Harold and Holt disagreed about the church expansion fund 3 years ago. Harold wanted the money used for a new building. Holt wanted it used for families who'd lost cattle in the drought. Harold won because Harold always won. But Holt was not happy about it.
She paused. Wade will use that. Wade will try, Garrett said. But a man who advocated using church money for struggling families is a difficult person to paint as malicious. It may help us more than it hurts.