Chapter 17 - Forty-Eight Hours.
Emma read the foreclosure notice three times.
The amount due was four hundred seventeen thousand dollars.
It included delinquent property taxes, legal fees, interest, preservation charges, and a private lien Emma had never heard of.
Clara photographed the notice.
"This is impossible."
"Why?"
"Because the escrow was supposed to pay the taxes automatically."
Emma looked at her.
"The escrow Steven Kline drained."
Clara's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
Mason pulled the notice from the gate.
"Who owns the lien?"
Clara read the creditor name.
"Bellamy Ridge Capital."
Sloane laughed bitterly.
"Let me guess."
Clara searched state corporation records on her phone.
"Registered agent is a law firm that represents Hale Development."
Emma felt strangely calm.
"So Grant's people drained the tax account, bought the unpaid lien, and now want to auction the property before my thirty days are complete."
"That appears to be the plan."
"Can they do that?"
"Not legally if the underlying accounting is fraudulent."
Clara looked at the date.
"But stopping a scheduled sale requires a court order, and the sale is Friday morning."
"Then we get a court order."
"We need proof."
Emma looked at the chapel ledger.
"We have proof of everything else."
"Not the escrow withdrawals."
Clara rubbed her forehead.
"The statements were in the stolen file."
Mason spoke.
"Banks keep records."
"Bellamy National will require a subpoena or trustee authorization."
"Steven is the trustee."
"Exactly."
Emma looked toward the dark mansion.
Every time she thought she had reached the center of the problem, another locked door appeared.
Then she remembered her grandmother's habit of sending copies to independent custodians.
"Would Evelyn have trusted Steven with the only record?"
Clara looked at her.
"No."
"Where else would she keep financial statements?"
Clara thought.
"Possibly in the house."
For the next six hours, they searched Briarstone.
They opened drawers, checked behind framed maps, examined false panels, and sorted through moldy boxes in the attic.
Mason knew many of the old hiding places from childhood.
Emma knew Evelyn's habits from the few summers she had spent with her as a little girl.
Sloane searched the servants' wing.
Diane made coffee and quietly cataloged every document they found.
At midnight, Emma sat on the library floor surrounded by useless receipts.
Mason lowered himself beside her.
"You should sleep."
"You should stop telling me what I should do."
"Fair."
He handed her a bottle of water.
Emma accepted it.
For several minutes they sat without speaking.
"Did you really contact Grant first?"
Emma asked.
Mason looked at the floor.
"Yes."
The honesty hurt, but less than discovering it later.
"Why?"
"After Dad's old attorney notified me there might be a Cole interest in Briarstone, I wanted to know whether it had any value."
"So you contacted the largest developer in the county."
"I made a stupid choice."
"What did you ask?"
"Whether they purchased contingent property interests."
"Did you mention me?"
"No."
"Did you know I was the Reed beneficiary?"
"Not then."
Emma studied him.
"When did you know?"
"Three weeks later."
"And that is when you should have told me."
"Yes."
Mason's voice was quiet.
"I kept thinking I needed one more piece before I could explain everything without sounding like I married you for a house."
Emma looked at him.
"So you waited until it sounded worse."
"Much worse."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Sloane shouted from upstairs.
"I found something."
Everyone rushed to Evelyn's old bedroom.
Sloane stood beside a built-in wardrobe with one panel removed.
Inside was a narrow metal tube.
Emma opened it.
Instead of bank statements, she found a roll of architectural plans.
Mason spread them across the bed.
A small square beneath the library was marked RECORDS VAULT.
They all looked at one another.
"There is no vault under the library," Mason said.
"There is a basement wall," Emma replied.
They went downstairs.
The plans showed a cavity behind the north foundation wall.
Mason tapped the stone until one section sounded hollow.
Behind a removable block was a steel door no larger than a kitchen cabinet.
The brass key Emma had found in the wine cellar did not fit.
Diane stared at the lock.
"Thomas had a key like that."
"Where?"
Mason asked.
Diane looked toward the old cassette recorder.
"On his watch chain."
Sloane picked up the recorder from the kitchen table.
A tiny key was taped beneath the battery cover.
Mason stared at his mother.
"You never opened this?"
"I did not know it was there."
The key fit the vault.
Inside were tax statements, canceled checks, bank records, and a sealed envelope marked ESCROW RECONCILIATION.
Emma opened it.
The statements showed years of regular tax payments.
Then, beginning eighteen months earlier, large transfers moved from the escrow account to a company called Kline Fiduciary Services.
The final page showed Steven Kline's signature approving each withdrawal.
Clara exhaled in relief.
"This can stop the sale."
Emma looked at the clock.
1:37 a.m.
Then Mason found one more document at the back of the vault.
A current title insurance policy.
He read the beneficiary line twice.
"Emma."
Something in his voice made her turn.
"What?"
He handed her the policy.
The named insured was not Evelyn Reed's estate.
It was not the Briarstone trust.
It was not Emma.
The policy named BRIARSTONE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION as owner of record.
May you like
Emma stared at Clara.
"Why does this say I do not own the house at all?"
