Drawing Close: The Fourth Novel in the Rosemont Series Read Free Page A

patriarch and former owner of
Rosemont, was his grandfather. His grandmother had been employed as a maid at
Rosemont when she got pregnant. She never married Hector. Instead, his
grandmother wed a local tradesman—the man that raised his mother as his
own child—seven months before his mother’s birth.
    None of this mattered, except that this birth
certificate established his ownership of a half-interest in Rosemont. A sly
smile crept across his face. Hector had left his estate to his “living heirs.”
When Hector died, the only known living heir was Paul Martin, Hector’s great-nephew.
If Paul had attempted to conceal the existence of this birth certificate and
Haynes’ inheritance in Rosemont, Hector Martin’s estate could be reopened and
Frank Haynes would own half of Rosemont. His lifelong dream of owning the grand
home might come to fruition after all.
    Haynes pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.
He carefully withdrew a scrap of paper bearing the telephone number of the
retired Vital Records Clerk. He’d taken her to dinner following her retirement in
March and, after encouraging her in her third glass of wine, been rewarded with
information that would prove crucial.
    The retired clerk had confided her suspicions that
the fire at the Vital Records Office shortly after Hector Martin’s death in
2000 had been deliberately set. She remembered the attorney for Hector’s estate
and his hasty visit to the Vital Records Office the afternoon before the fire.
He’d been an odd one, for sure; nervous and looking, for all the world, like a
man with something to hide. She’d accused the attorney of setting the fire and
had plenty to say about the fire marshal’s lackluster investigation into the
blaze. According to the clerk, nothing before 1951 had been entered into the
computer database and all of the older records had been lost, including his own
mother’s birth certificate.
    If Haynes could prove that Paul Martin had bribed
the estate’s attorney to set the fire that destroyed the old records, his
inheritance of a half-interest in Rosemont could be established.
    Haynes chuckled. He could just imagine Maggie Martin’s
face when she got the news that she wasn’t the sole owner of Rosemont after
all. Haynes rested his chin on steepled fingers. The usual solution in such
situations was for one owner to buy out the other. Rosemont was worth a small
fortune. The acreage alone would be worth close to two million.
    He might be wrong, but he didn’t think Maggie and
her new husband had that kind of money. He, on the other hand, had enough cash
in the bank to buy out her interest. He could toss her out and look like the
good guy doing it.
    ***
    Frank Haynes grasped the dusty
files that the court clerk passed to him across the counter. “You can take
these to one of those cubbies on the far wall,” he said. “And that’s not all of
them. Hector Martin’s probate is seven files thick.”
    Haynes nodded. “I’ll want to see all of them.” He
traversed the room and placed the files on a shallow desk. “Is there anywhere I
can have more room to spread out?” he asked the clerk as he returned for the
final load.
    “Nope,” the clerk answered with a malicious gleam
in his eye.
    Damn these self-satisfied government employees, Haynes thought. “I’m Councilman Frank Haynes,” he said, drawing himself to his
full height. “Surely you can let me bring them into a conference room.”
    “Since you’re on the council, sir,” the man stared
down his nose at Haynes, “you’ll want me to follow the rules. And the rules are
that the public can review documents right over there.” He jerked his thumb to
where Haynes had stacked the files. “So it’s real handy for you to ask us to
make a copy of anything you might need from the files. They’re twelve cents a
copy. Some people might be tempted to take a document right out of the file if
we aren’t watching.”
    Haynes suppressed his irritation and retraced