Page 22 of Key West Homecoming

“All right, then.”

Connie left her and went back to the bar.

Emma sat alone at her table. She sipped her iced tea and waited for Maeve to arrive. Fifteen minutes later, the screen door at the front of the bar slapped open and a woman walked in.

Tall, with long auburn hair pulled back into a low ponytail, Maeve wore white capris, a pale blue linen shirt, and simple leather sandals. A thin coral necklace sat at the base of her throat, and a small leather notebook was tucked under one arm.

Her eyes found Emma, who set her glass down and waved.

Maeve raised one hand in a small greeting, then started across the bar toward Emma’s table.

Even though Connie had warned Emma not to get too excited about what Maeve could accomplish, she felt a small amount of hope, nonetheless.

All she had to do was listen and take notes. That she could do.

CHAPTER 6

The woman with the auburn ponytail crossed the bar in about eight strides, pulled out the chair across from Emma and set her leather notebook on the table.

“Emma Kendrick.”

“Yes.”

“Maeve Corwin. Nice to meet you.”

They shook hands. The handshake was firm and quick. Up close, her eyes were blue, a shade darker than Connie's. There was a small scattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that softened what would otherwise have been a very serious face.

“Thank you for coming,” Emma said.

“We'll see.” Maeve pulled her chair in. “Before we start, I want to say the same thing I told my aunt because it matters. I'm not licensed to practice law in Florida. I can't file anything on your behalf. I can't appear for you in a Florida court. Whatever the two of us talk about at this table is a conversation between two friends and nothing else.”

“I understand.”

“Good.” Maeve opened the leather notebook, uncapped a fountain pen and looked up. “Walk me through it.”

She took the legal pad out of her bag and set it on the table between them.

“My grandmother died a little over a year ago. My uncle Arthur, her son and the executor under an earlier will, has spent the last decade renting out her Key West cottage without her knowledge.”

“You have proof of that?”

“Well, I can prove the last three years at least. There's a tenant living there now. Beyond that, I suspect that whenever my grandmother wasn't around or was in the hospital, he collected money somehow.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Emma didn't want to say any of this out loud. But there was no way around it. “Let's just say my uncle took advantage of his mother and her money over the years she was alive. My grandmother had a beautiful and forgiving heart. Arthur was her son. And so she'd forgive him time and again. And now he plans to sell it. That house is where my father grew up and where I spent every summer as a child.”

“Emma, if your uncle inherited the cottage, he could rent it to whomever he chooses, and he can sell it if he wants.”

“I understand that. But I received a call two nights ago from the buyer’s title broker, Samantha Larson. She found a copy of a later will. In the Monroe County property records that names me as the beneficiary of the cottage. The closing is in ten days. Can he still do that if there's any suspicion that he's not the rightful owner? Here, look at my notes.”

Emma turned her legal pad around so Maeve could read her notes and walked her through all of it. The address. The recorded owner. The buyer’s LLC. The closing date. The name of Samantha Larson at Coastal Title. The dated will attached to a homestead notice. It was witnessed and notarized in Miami-Dade County. Then there was Jake Kelleher’s information about the letter he received.

Maeve stopped writing on the last one.

“Tell me about this letter.”

“The tenant, Jake Kelleher, has been living in the cottage for three years. He signed his lease with my Uncle Arthur. He paid him rent monthly ever since. Two weeks ago, he received a letter that told him the property was under contract. And that closing was scheduled. And that the new owners plan to keep him on as tenant. He was told he didn't need to worry about moving.”