Chapter 20: The Estate's End

The estate sold in year two for a price that Rennie described, with professional satisfaction, as fair. The buyer was a heritage trust that intended to restore the grounds and open them to public access. The crumbling east wing would be preserved rather than demolished. The archive — Lord Hirst's careful hoard of documents, organized over decades with the specific intention that someone would someday use them — would be digitized and made available to researchers. Yuna heard about the archive plan from Rennie and called Bea immediately. 'The archive,' she said. 'Yes,' Bea said, before she'd finished. 'I know. I've already spoken to the trust.' 'What did they say?' 'That we can have a copy of the digitized records when they're complete, with the understanding that we flag anything relevant to ongoing cold case research.' A pause. 'Lord Hirst organized the archive. I've been through enough of it to know he organized it specifically for someone who knew what to look for.' 'He organized it for the foundation,' Yuna said. 'He organized it for anyone who would use it correctly. The foundation happens to be that.' Bea's tone had the particular satisfaction of someone who had been right about something for a long time. 'He spent thirty years making sure the evidence would be findable when someone finally looked. The least we can do is look.' The archive's digitization took fourteen months. When it was complete, the foundation's researchers found seventeen additional cases with documentary roots in Lord Hirst's records — records he had accumulated because he'd been watching for exactly the patterns that his own guilt had taught him to recognize. He had been collecting evidence of wrongdoing for thirty years. Not to expose it himself. To make it findable when someone better positioned came along. 'He was the best kind of archivist,' Rowan said, reviewing the records. 'He kept things he knew he might not be able to act on. Just in case someone else could.'