The Librarian Who Catalogued Lies

Odalys had worked the county archive for six years, cataloguing donated estate collections nobody else wanted to sort through. The Ashgrove collection seemed ordinary enough boxes of old letters, financial ledgers, the accumulated paperwork of a wealthy family whose last surviving member had died childless three months earlier.

Then she found the second will.

It was tucked inside a false bottom of an antique writing desk, dated eight years after the will already filed with the estate's executor completely different terms, completely different beneficiary. Not the distant cousin who'd already inherited the Ashgrove fortune, but someone named Rosalind Fenn, a name that appeared nowhere in any official record Odalys could find.

She brought it immediately to Detective Mercer, who ran the county's small fraud division.

"This changes everything," Mercer said, studying the document carefully. "If this will is legitimate and properly executed, the current heir inherited an estate that was never legally his to claim."

"Who's Rosalind Fenn?" Odalys asked. "I've searched every record I have access to. She doesn't exist anywhere no birth certificate, no marriage record, nothing."

Mercer's expression grew troubled. "That's precisely what concerns me. Either she's using an alias for some reason, or"

"Or she never actually existed at all," Odalys finished. "Which means someone forged this will specifically to create confusion, or worse."

They spent the following days investigating the current heir, Bertram Ashgrove, whose lifestyle seemed considerably more extravagant than his modest, publicly known finances should have properly allowed.

"He inherited eight months ago," Mercer noted, reviewing financial records. "But he's been spending at this level for considerably longer than that. Nearly two years, in fact."

"That's before his aunt even died," Odalys said, connecting the timeline with growing unease. "How was he affording that lifestyle beforehand?"

Mercer's expression sharpened with sudden, focused suspicion. "I think, Ms. Voss, we need to properly investigate whether Bertram Ashgrove's aunt's ***** was entirely as natural as everyone initially assumed."

to be continued... 📜🔍