Garrett met them outside, a lean, dryvoiced man in his 50s, who shook Clara's hand without hesitation and looked at the folder she was carrying with professional interest. "Are those your own notes?" He said. And the relevant code sections. She said, "I found three points in Dunar's argument that have no statutory basis." Garrett looked at her, then at Amos, then back at Clara. Something moved in his expression.
A recalibration, swift and professional. "Good," he said. "Show me." They went over it in a side room for 40 minutes before the hearing. Garrett confirmed two of her three points immediately and refined the third with a precision that told her he had been doing this long enough to know the difference between a point that was legally correct and a point that would land with a commissioner. She told him she would let him speak unless directly addressed.
He told her to look at the commissioner rather than at Dunar. She said she understood. The hearing room was smaller than she had imagined. A long table, chairs on both sides, a raised desk at the far end where Commissioner Aldrich sat with a clerk beside him, and the patience of a man who had seen many land disputes and was not easily moved by them. Dunar was already there with Vance, his lawyer, broad-shouldered and smooth, the organized confidence of someone accustomed to winning rooms before arguments started.
Dunar looked at Clara when she came in with young Henry on her hip, and his expression did something that he controlled quickly. She had expected that and she was satisfied by it because surprise meant she had not been what he was preparing for. She sat down. She put young Henry in her lap. She set her folder on the table and looked at Commissioner Aldrich.
Vance presented Dunar's case first. He was good. The argument about Cole's residency was laid out clearly, framed as procedural integrity rather than opportunism. He cited two previous territorial cases where improperly witnessed transfers had been voided. One from 1878 and one from 1880, both of which she had already read in Garrett's summary, and both of which differed from her situation in ways she had written down.
Then Garrett spoke. He presented Cole's statement first. Residency documented, three years on record, two territorial addresses, tax filings in both years prior to the transfer. Then the timeline. Cole had witnessed the transfer before the Whitmore claim was registered, making the procedural argument moot, even if the residency argument had merit, which it did not.
Then the settlement documentation, Amos' statement, Jesse's, Tommy's, each one dated and specific. Then Garrett reached into his folder and produced three photographs. And Clara had not known about the photographs. She looked at Garrett. He produced them without looking at her with the manner of a man who had already decided this was the right move and was past the point of defending it.