A Two Thousand Dollar Nebraska Land Purchase Leads to a Federal Fraud Case
We drove to the county courthouse in Sarah’s small gray sedan.
The wind was coming hard from the north, rattling the heavy glass doors of the county building.
Inside, the hallway smelled of floor wax and wet winter coats.
Dolores Vance sat behind the wooden counter, her spectacles hanging from a beaded chain around her neck.
On her desk sat a small brass paperweight shaped like a sleeping cat and a half-empty mug of black tea.
She looked at us over the top of her computer monitor, her ink-stained index finger resting on a stack of tax ledgers.
“You again,” Dolores said.
Her drawl was slow, like cold honey dripping from a spoon.
Sarah laid the printed microfiche receipt on the dark wood of the counter.
“Dolores, we need to know why this electronic submission on November twelfth was marked as pending but never finalized.”
Dolores slowly reached for her spectacles and slid them onto her nose.
She tapped her ink-stained index finger on the paper, right over Brinley’s registered IP address.
“That was the Friday before the Monday auction,” Dolores said. “The system is automated, but it still requires a human hand to click the authorization box.”
