Chapter 17 #2
"First," Michael said finally, "I file a formal demand for documentation of all three loan assignments.
Florida law requires the original lenders to give borrowers written notice of any loan transfer, and the new holder must provide a full chain of assignments within thirty days of request. If First Coast didn't notify Uncle George properly, and given his hospital stay, I doubt they did it through proper channels, the assignment is procedurally challengeable.
It will be the same with Southern Trust. That alone can delay any payment demand by sixty to ninety days while it works through the procedural review. "
"That buys us time," Linda said.
"Not a lot but it gives us a little time to breathe," Michael agreed.
"Second, I will file a request for the entire underlying loan history on all three loans.
Origination documents, every modification, every payment record.
They have to produce all of it. That is another thirty to forty-five days.
Third, I file a formal objection to any payment demand on grounds of bad faith assignment, because the Wayne Group has been simultaneously pursuing a purchase offer for the property the loans are secured against. That is a conflict of interest. That is grounds for an injunction. "
"So we stall them," Maggie said, her eyes narrowing. “Do everything you can Michael.”
"I intend to," Michael told her, his eyes burning with anger and determination. "We stall them long enough to find out what else they are doing, and long enough to find a counter. They came at us thinking they had a clean shot. They will now have a procedural fight, and those fights take months."
Before any of them could say another word, there was another sharp knock on the office door, and Rosa Mendez pushed it open without waiting.
"Miss Linda," Rosa said, breathlessly appearing at the door. "The men at the pool, they want you down there. Right now. The foreman. He says it is urgent. They’ve found something and can’t continue the work."
"Found what, Rosa?" Linda asked, standing.
"He did not say, Miss Linda. He just said you need to come down." Rosa’s brow furrowed. “They look very worried.”
Linda glanced at Michael. "With the luck we are having today," she muttered, "it is probably a dead body or something else that is going to plunge us into more trouble than we already have."
"Linda," Maggie said. “Your thoughts went very dark there.”
"Well with everything else happening, it wouldn’t be surprising,” Linda said, her jaw clenching.
The five of them filed out of the office and down the back corridor of the hotel with Linda leading the way.
They got to the pool that had been cordoned off by the construction crew with orange mesh fencing.
The excavator sat to one side. The shell of the old concrete pool had been broken into and partly cleared.
Along the side a sloped earth ramp ran down into the empty space where the deep end had been.
Ray was standing at the top of the ramp with his hard hat pushed back on his head and turned when he saw Linda.
"Linda," Ray greeted her. “Thanks for coming so quickly. The men have cleared the site and until we know what we’ve found we can’t continue.”
"Show me," Linda ordered.
“You need to come down the ramp,” Ray told her, reaching forward to offer her his hand.
Linda stepped over the edge of the orange mesh.
Michael, Maggie, and Martin followed her.
She took Ray’s hand and he helped her down the ramp and into the pool.
Michael, Maggie, Martin, and Rosa stayed on the top.
The sun was warm on Linda's shoulders. The smell of broken concrete and turned soil was thick in the air.
Her heart was beginning to pick up as she followed Ray to the far end of the pool.
They stopped at the edge of a wide, shallow excavation his crew had cut down through the broken concrete and into the earth below where he crouched and pointed.
"We were taking down the foundation slab," Ray told her. "We found that about three feet below the slab, we hit something that was not dirt. We stopped digging the second we saw it. I didn’t want any of my crew touching it before you saw it.”
Linda knelt at the edge of the excavation. Her heart was now hammering against her ribs almost painfully. She brushed at the loose soil with small, careful movements that came back to her hands the moment they touched the ground.
Her fingers found the first edge half an inch down.
She worked around it, slowly, with the patience that had taken her four months of training to learn at twenty-two and which she had never quite forgotten.
Finally Linda lifted a section of soil away with the side of her hand.
Her breath hitched in her throat as a piece of what the crew had found came clear of the earth.
It was about the size of her palm—fired ceramic.
A curved fragment of what had been the wall of a larger vessel.
The outer surface carried a series of fine incised lines in a pattern that ran in a precise arc along the curve, and at the bottom edge, there was a small worked notch where the piece had been broken off of a rim or handle.
She lifted the piece carefully into her palm and turned it slowly.
“Linda, what is it?” Michael called down to her, craning his neck to see.
She looked up at the four people staring down at her with wide-eyed curiosity. A smile crossed her face.
“What’s in your hand, Linda?” Maggie called, also trying hard to see it.
"It's exactly what we need," Linda answered, "to delay the Wayne Group maybe indefinitely."
What did they find?
And what does it mean for the hotel, as well as for the Heart family?
Find out in Book 3, Whispers of Love at Hearts Hotel!
See you soon,
xoxo Amy
Yes, I want to read Book 3 — Whispers of Love at Hearts Hotel!