Chapter 12
Maylee
Annabelle leads Mr. Grosvenor into the office and I give him a small smile. “Please take a seat Mr. Grosvenor.”
“Thank you,” he responds politely.
Annabelle closes the door as she leaves, and I open the file on my desk. Then give the man my attention once more.
“I’ve looked through the files, and for some reason the foster parents gave me an odd feeling. I’m having them checked out because the way they are trying to adopt Katherine isn’t how it would be done under normal circumstances.”
Mr. Grosvenor sits straighter in his seat. “Please call me Kyle, and yes I think there is something suspect about them.”
“What has your radar pinging?” I ask because the more information I can get that will help me clear up this mess the better.
“They are being difficult when it’s time for me to see Katherine.
The woman who is in charge of Katherine’s case laid out times I could visit, and Mr. and Mrs. Philipson are giving excuses.
They are shopping and forgot my visitation time.
They were taking Katherine to get her hair cut.
Any excuse for me not to see her. I’m worried about Katherine.
We were always close before my wife died, and I know my daughter would want to see me. ”
It is easy to see how upset this father is, and I’m going to do what I can to sort out this mess.
“Okay, I want you to go home. Take time to write every appointment date, time, etc. Then I want you to send that to me because they are breaking the rules. I’m going to dig into what is going on.” I pick up my pen and jot down notes but stop writing and look at Kyle with a frown.
“I think they found out about Katherine’s inheritance…”
Oh, you can bet your life I interrupt. “What inheritance, and how would they find out?”
“My wife had made a will, alongside my own. You know we wanted things covered in case anything happened to both of us. My wife left a significant amount to Katherine. It was something she inherited herself from her father. We never used any of that inheritance as we both worked right up to Katherine being born, and we liked our lives as they were.” Taking a deep breath and getting himself calmed, Kyle continues.
“The inheritance is in a trust fund which Katherine gets when she is twenty-one years old. It is around three quarters of a million at this point I believe. It grows with interest and investments.”
“You think the foster parents want control of Katherine so they can get their hands on this money?” I mutter, more to myself, as I can feel the skullduggery of this.
“Yes, and I think the social worker is involved as she has this information from Katherine’s file. How else would the foster parents know about it? Katherine doesn’t know. She’s only eight years old.”
“I agree. Give me all the information that you have on these visitation appointments. I’ll dig into the social worker and the foster parents.
Make an appointment for next week. But, if anything new comes up get in touch, and I will do the same.
” I stand and hold my hand out to shake Kyle’s hand. “Know I’m going to be on this, Kyle.”
“Thank you.” Kyle leaves my office, and I retake my seat. This all smells fishy to me, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.
I make my way to Mr. Wallis’ office, and seeing his secretary walking out I ask if he’s free.
“Go in. He’ll see you I’m sure,” Amela smiles.
Tapping lightly, I push the door open. “Do you have a minute where I could speak to you about a case.”
“Yes, come on in, close the door.” Mr. Wallis sits with his elbows on the desk and links his fingers, calmly waiting for me to speak.
Oh, I speak all right. I lay it all out. My suspicions included. I watch the play of emotions cross his face, and I’m sure he’s thinking the same as I am.
“Okay, Maylee. I’m going to speak to the P.I. that I use for hard cases. We’ll find out what is going on with everyone involved in this case, and that includes Kyle Grosvenor. We’ll protect this child no matter who, what or why.”
I nod, giving Mr. Wallis a serious and thankful look. “I really have a bad feeling about this one. Not the father, but the foster parents. It may even be the social worker, too. What a mess.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get to the root of it. Get all the documentation sorted out. Make sure everything is spotless, no chance of anyone giving us grief on our evidence. I’ll get my P.I. working on them all, and I’ll let you know. I’ll tell him it’s urgent.”
“Thank you. I’ll do that and bring it to you if that is okay, for you to check I have everything perfectly ready for court if necessary.”
“Good. Now, get it done, and Maylee, never worry about bringing something to my attention.”
I give Mr. Wallis a nod and thank him again as I leave the office.
The next morning, I walk into work and I have a note on my desk to speak with Mr. Wallis. That’s unusual and rather worrying.
Dropping my jacket, purse and phone in my office, I quickly make my way to Mr. Wallis’ office and tap on the door.
“Come in, Maylee.”
“Morning, Mr. Wallis.” I see a man sitting in front of his desk, but I don’t recognize him.
“Take a seat, Maylee. This is my P.I., Sterling Masters. The foster parents and the social worker are known to Sterling. He’s investigating them already for another client.” Mr. Wallis gives me a serious look.
Turning to look at Sterling I can tell by his facial expression he is not happy about what he’d found. “What do you know?” I tentatively ask.
“Let’s start with the social worker. Miss Forsyth has been working in the same department for sixteen years.
She has overseen a lot of foster kids in that time.
What I have found is that she takes particular notice of the kids that have any type of inheritance.
Those kids are pushed to half a dozen foster parents, who then adopt those kids.
Once they have the kids integrated, they brainwash them into handing over the inheritance once they come of age.
Sometimes it’s when the kids hit eighteen and then feel obligated to hand it over for the food, clothing and roof over their heads.
” Sterling snorts at the last part. “What clothing they have that is. It’s a well set up scam, and I have enough to take this bitch down, and her six sets of foster parents with her.
Katherine’s foster parents are one of the six, of course. ”
“Oh my…oh, my.” It is all I can manage, because honestly who would have thought people could be so evil. I look at Sterling, and then Mr. Wallis. “But Katherine has a father who is doing his best to get her back.”
“Oh, he’ll get her back. I’m taking this case over Maylee, because it may get messy, and I have friends in higher places that can sort this out the way we want it to.
I’ll contact Mr. Grosvenor, and I’ll be speaking to a few high authorities who will be arresting some people soon.
I’ll keep you informed Maylee and thank you for bringing this to my attention.
” Mr. Wallis stands, and I stand as well.
I can see he wants me to leave, so I place the folder on his desk.
I give Sterling a small smile and leave the office.
Sitting behind my desk, I’m not sure if I’m upset about losing the case, or happy that it’s with someone else who has longer arms than I do. But I do know that whatever gets the result we need I’m okay with.
Leaning against Myles in bed much later that night I relay all that happened with the case for Katherine. He nods and gives small comments along the way.
“So, are you okay with handing over the case to Mr. Wallis?” Myles asks and I turn my head giving him my full attention.
“Actually, now I’ve had time to think about it, I am.
I didn’t originally want to take the case on because it looked complicated.
But it is far worse than my first glance showed.
Mr. Wallis has friends who are judges, and high up the scale police officers, so he’ll be able to get things moving far faster and probably easier than I would have. ”
Myles kisses the top of my head, keeping his arms around me. I’m leaning on his chest and turn to cuddle into him.
“Do you want a shower?” I ask.
“Already had one, muffin,” Myles smirks.
“Oh, okay.” I jump out of bed, and look at him over my shoulder as I walk toward the bathroom. “You’ll not want one with me then!”
Yeah, you are right. He was out of that bed and with me before I even got the shower turned on. I can’t help thinking who needs a stress ball when you have a Myles.