Chapter 13 - THE MUSICIAN’S DIARY
Back at Julian's penthouse, the room was littered with old boxes brought from Elena’s seaside cottage—yellowed sheet music, faded photographs, and cassette tapes stored in velvet pouches.
"If Richard forged the signature two years ago," Sarah said, scouring through financial audits on her laptop, "he must have obtained her handwriting sample from somewhere. Elena lived an isolated life in the coastal village."
Maya was silently sifting through a small wooden memory chest her mother had left her. At the very bottom lay a leather-bound journal with a brass lock—a diary Elena had kept during her final years.
"Look at this," Maya said, holding up the journal.
Julian knelt beside her wheelchair. "What is it, Maya?"
Maya flipped to the entries from two years ago. "Mother wrote about a man in a dark suit visiting her cottage while I was at school. He claimed to be a representative from a music publishing house offering to archive her early piano works."
"Did she give him anything?" Julian asked eagerly.
Maya pointed to a small entry dated October 14th:
May you like
'The man called himself Mr. Vance. He asked me to sign a receipt for a sample portfolio. I refused to sign his official form, but I wrote him a short note thanking him for his time.'
Maya looked up at Julian, her eyes shining with sudden realization. "She didn't sign a contract! She wrote a thank-you note! They used digital composition software to lift her handwriting and piece together a fake signature!"
