Exactly.
“They planning to pocket the money?” he asked.
I pictured Chloe’s watch and the way she had told me they made my room nice.
“Yes,” I said.
“All of it?”
I nodded.
“All right,” he said. “Then we don’t warn them.”
Morales agreed.
I leaned forward.
“What’s the fastest way to stop this?”
Dalton answered immediately.
“Lis pendens,” he said.
A formal notice of legal dispute tied to the property.
Once filed, the transaction stopped.
No sale.
No clean title.
No access to the property until the dispute was resolved.
“And the trust?” Morales asked.
“We record it,” Dalton said. “Public record. That kills their claim completely.”
“Do it.”
If we moved quickly, everything could be filed when the county clerk opened at eight the next morning.
“I’ll be there,” I said.
Morales closed the folder.
“I’m opening an official report on the financial side,” she said. “This will trigger an investigation into Vance’s conduct under UCMJ.”
