Chapter 4

Monday morning Patrick watched Justine walk to school. When she turned the corner, he poured the last of the coffee into his travel mug and drove off to work. He went the long way around the block to avoid the church where Ingrid's funeral had been and where Justine went to Sunday School. After two years, the thought of God still made his stomach clench and burn. It just wasn't right that Ingrid had to die so young.

As he pulled into the parking lot, Patrick though how fortunate he was to have a job that didn't involve a long commute. He left his now empty travel mug in the car and pushed through the front doors of the five-story office building that held the law firm for which he did research.

Patrick waved at the young woman behind the deck and made sure his badge was on properly. The elevators wouldn't work unless he was wearing his pass. The first desk as he left the elevator was Wanda's. She smiled at him and turned back to her computer. Patrick walked to the back of the open work area and admired his fine view of a sliver of sky and the top branches of a maple tree before he sat down to work.

He didn't have a very big space. A picture of Ingrid from before she was diagnosed and Justine's most recent school picture sat on a shelf over his monitor. Hard to believe Justine was in Grade Four already. The rest of his space was covered with post-it notes and index cards. Patrick picked up a note that had fallen down over the weekend and pinned it into place. He had all that information on his computer, but he liked seeing it arranged visually too. Patrick hung his jacket on the back of the chair and loosened his tie. Time to work.

Patrick enjoyed his job as a researcher for the law firm. He looked for hidden surprises in contracts or properties. Recently he had been researching titles to old properties. There were clients who wanted to develop land next door to churches. Some of those churches had been around for more than a hundred years without doing any work or updating their deed. One company had started building on land they thought they owned, only to learn a nearby church held a deed to the land and wanted a say, and compensation, for the project. Resolving the dispute had taken time and money that should have been spent on the development. Patrick's job was to ensure that didn't happen to any of their clients.

"Excuse me, sir," he said when Mr. Ball lifted his head. "I'm off to the land registry to look at old records, are there any other things on our list that I should look at?"

"Not that I know of." Mr. Ball stretched and pushed his tie further askew. "Bring back a coffee if you feel like it. The stuff in the office just doesn't taste quite right." Neither the wrinkled suits or buzz cut hair hinted at Mr. Ball's management skills. Patrick didn't mind picking up coffee for a boss who knew what he was doing.

"OK."

The land registry was downtown and parking was tricky, but Patrick had a favourite lot where he knew the attendants. There were almost always able to find him a spot. Today it was easy. He waved at the woman and walked across the street to the office.

The receptionist buzzed for an archivist who led Patrick back into a cool dry room where it felt like time stood still. The smell and temperature stayed exactly the same. Sometimes after a long day Patrick half expected to leave the archives to discover the city had vanished while he had worked.

He put on the gloves they used for the old books and began digging back into history. There were bits and clues as he read. Two of the three properties had been owned by a variety of people, but there were no surprises. The trail of purchase and sale was clear back to the original deed to a farmer for clearing the land. Patrick made a few quick notes, and turned to the third parcel.

Patrick wound his way back into history. The school that had occupied the land burned down and was never replaced since there was a more modern school close by. He went further back and found that the land for the school was deeded by a local church. There was a proviso that if the school closed that the land would revert to the church.

The original church had apparently moved several times and changed its name a couple of times. Patrick took as much information as he could and decided that he needed to visit the most recent incarnation of the church to see if they still held a deed for the property. It was the church where Ingrid's had been. He hadn't driven past it since, though it was only a block away from the house.

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