Page 9 of Dead Serious Case 5 Madame Vivienne

Danny frowns. “The bookshop?”

“We are very familiar with most of the properties in London with supernatural ties. The Whitechapel property is one of the most powerful. The Tower of London is another, but again, that’s a story for another time. But the bookshop and the land it sits upon come with a dark and bloody history of its own.”

I swallow again, a deep sense of unease churning in my stomach. “What’s going to happen to the bookshop now that Viv is gone?”

“That is why I brought you both here,” Mr Hadley says, his tone soft and slightly regretful. “That building has secrets that must never see the light of day, and it is simply too powerful to allow just anyone to gain possession of it. The building has been passed down the Crawshanks line for nearly two hundred years. Father to daughter, mother to son. They all knew its legacy.”

“But Viv didn’t have any children.” Danny tilts his head a fraction as he studies Mr Hadley. “So what’s going to happen to it now?”

The enormity of the situation is not lost upon either of us; both Danny and I know first-hand how important it is to protect the gateway.

Mr Hadley scratches his jaw thoughtfully. “Actually, that’s not exactly true.”

“What?” I blink in surprise.

“Vivienne gave birth when she was only seventeen.”

“Oh my god,” I whisper in shock. “That’s so young.”

Mr Hadley nods. “Unsurprisingly, she gave the child up for adoption, but what is surprising is the lengths she went to hide him.”

“What do you mean,hide?” Danny asks before I can.

“All we’ve managed to find is a birth certificate showing she gave birth to a boy. She named him Sage. But after he was collected from the hospital, he disappeared. There are no official records of him being adopted, no school records, immunisations, nothing. It’s as if the moment he left the hospital, Sage Wilson ceased to exist, at least on paper.”

“And she never said anything when she came to see you?” Danny questions.

Mr Hadley shakes his head. “She would only confirm that she had given birth, but that’s all. She refused to provide any other information.”

“That is strange.” Danny scratches his jaw, the way he does when he’s mulling something over. “And she didn’t seem surprised that there was no information on her son?” Mr Hadley shook his head. “Then the most logical assumption would be that she not only knew about but had orchestrated her child’s disappearance.”

“That was the impression I got from speaking with her.”

“The question is why?” Danny muses. “I understand giving up a child, being only seventeen herself. Was there pressure from her parents?”

Mr Hadley steeples his fingers in front of him and purses his lips. “I have no idea. They passed away not long afterwards.”

“What?” He blinks. “How long?”

“Robert and Maggie Wilson died in a car accident a month after Vivienne’s son was born,” Mr Hadley replies.

“What are you thinking?” I ask Danny, recognising the look in his eyes.

“There are too many things not adding up for me.” He chews his lip thoughtfully. “The disappearance of Viv’s son, the timing of the death of her parents, her denying the boy his rightful inheritance. Add in everything we already know about the bookshop…” Danny shakes his head rather than finishing the sentence.

“I tried to explain that the property needed to pass down her line,” Mr Hadley adds, “but she was adamant that the shop go to you, Mr Everett.”

“Me?” I blurt in shock.

“Yes, Mr Everett, you. She said you’d know what to do with it and that Mr Hayes would be there to make sure you were safe. She said she didn’t want her child involved.”

“I-I don’t even know what to say.”

“It’s extremely complicated.” Mr Hadley drums his fingers against the desk. “Vivienne may have stated in her will that she wanted the property to be passed to you, but the truth is that she didn’t actually own the Whitechapel property. It was held in trust.”

“I don’t understand.”

“When Constance Crawshanks inherited the house from her father, she came to us and placed the holdings in their entirety, including the bookshop and the adjoining building since they were one property at the time, into a trust, which is legally and magically binding to this day. The property cannot be sold or given away, it can only pass down the Crawshanks line for as long as there is a living descendant. At present, we are trying to determine if Vivienne’s son is indeed still alive, in which case the property and money will pass to him.”