Thanking God that I'd never been tempted by a legal career, I looked up at Cadogan. "I assume this was drafted after a request by Brightman?"
"Yes. It's not in the file. Probably he came into the office and spoke with my father personally."
I looked back to the top of the page. " 'G.C is your father?"
"Yes."
I turned back to the file. The next items were letters to Brightman, at a hotel in Halifax, more or less restating the memo, and a letter to a law firm in Halifax saying that he would approach them. Brightman had acknowledged this with a note, so for the first time I saw his signature broad, open, easy, in keeping with the face in the photograph.
Cadogan said, "You'll have noted that the important point is the requirement to advertise Section 4, Chapter 139. The paper used for such notices is normally the provincial government's journal of record, The Royal Gazette, and the next items in that file are tear sheets from it."
They were old and yellowed; as I took them up, the brittle paper flaked under my fingers. On this page were estate notices, appointments of Crown Attorneys, regulations concerning the blackout for this was 1940 and the Second World War was underway. In the middle of all this was the heading: Adoption Act; re Florence Esther Raines. Beneath it was printed:
TO: Florence Esther Raines, whose present address is unknown and who is the mother of Elizabeth Ann Raines:
TAKE NOTICE THAT PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE ORDER, A COPY OF WHICH IS GIVEN HEREUNDER, YOU ARE ADVISED THAT A PETITION HAS BEEN PRESENTED FOR THE ADOPTION OF THE CHILD ELIZABETH ANN RAINES, A COPY OF WHICH PETITION IS HEREUNDER GIVEN; AND THAT SAID PETITION WILL BE HEARD AND CONSIDERED AT COUNTY COURT CHAMBERS AT THE LAW COURTS, SPRING GARDEN ROAD, HALIFAX, N.S., ON FRIDAY, THE 28TH DAY OF JUNE, A.D. 1940, AT THE HOUR OF TEN O'CLOCK IN THE FORENOON.
R. A. Powell,
Duke Street,
Solicitor for Petitioners.
Skipping down the page, I came to the petition itself:
The complete, comprehensive, and legally certified story of May Brightman's adoption:
C.C. No.
In the County Court for District
Number One
In the Matter of
Chapter 139, R.S.N.S.,
"Of the Adoption of Children"; and
In the Matter of
ELIZABETH ANN RAINES
PETITION
To his honor A. F. Best, Judge of the County Court for District Number One:
The petition of Harold Charles Brightman of the City of Toronto, in the County of York, in the Province of Ontario, merchant, and Ellen Sarah Brightman, his wife, humbly sheweth:
• Your petitioner, Harold Charles Brightman, has resided at Toronto, in the County of York, for some years, and is a merchant dealing in furs; your petitioner, Ellen Sarah Brightman, is the wife of the said Harold Charles Brightman.
• Your petitioners are desirous of adopting a female child, Elizabeth Ann Raines, who is the illegitimate child of Florence Esther Raines of Halifax, in the County of Halifax.
• Said child is of the age of 10 months, having been born on the 12th day of June, a.d. 1939. Said child was abandoned into the care of Charles Grainger, M.D., within a few weeks of her birth, and has been charitably maintained by him since that time.
• Your petitioners believe that the mother of the said child was of the Protestant faith. Your petitioners are members of the Church of England, and would give the said child instructions in the doctrines of that Church.
• Your petitioners are both over the age of 21 years, and are of sufficient means and ability to bring up the said child and are able to furnish nurture and education.
• Your petitioners request that the name of the said child Elizabeth Ann Raines be changed to Sarah May Brightman.
• Your petitioners therefore pray that an order be made by this Honorable Court pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 139, R.S.N.S., 1923, whereby the said child may be adopted as their child by your petitioners.
And your petitioners will ever pray, etc.,
HAROLD CHARLES BRIGHTMAN
ELLEN SARAH BRIGHTMAN
Anthony Hyde
I turned the page over; the last item in the file was the adoption order itself. I wasn't stunned by all this, but I was more than a little surprised, especially in light of what I'd been told about "secrecy" by my lady reporter that morning. I looked up at Cadogan. "So this means that May Brightman's adoption has always been public knowledge?"
"It was an exceptional case, of course. But the various suggestions she made on the phone blackmail and so forth? are out of the question. There have never been any secrets about her adoption and, as you see, it was all entirely legal."
"But not," I thought aloud, "entirely regular."
"How is that, Mr. Thorne?"
"I'm thinking of Brightman's marriage?" I flipped back through the file. "In this first memo, there's the clear implication that he wasn't married when the proceedings began. Your clerk stressed that he'd have to be. So it must have been a marriage of convenience, especially remembering that he divorced so soon afterwards."
Cadogan gave me a frosty smile. "Surely, Mr. Thorne, all marriages should be convenient. There's nothing illegal or even irregular about that."
But I wasn't going to be put off. "Still, it must normally work the other way round. That is, the desire to adopt a baby arises out of the marriage rather than preceding it."
"Perhaps that's so," he conceded. "But I suspect that Harry Brightman wasn't the first man to desire a child without having to put up with a wife. He was a wealthy man, even then. Like many wealthy men, he simply arranged matters to suit him."
Somehow, this rang a bell, and I had it? but not quite. Brightman, a wealthy man, wants a child. But not any child?this child. Instead of adopting in his own town, he travels all the way to Nova Scotia because? but then the thought slipped away. And I tried a different tack altogether. "I gather that you weren't a member of the firm when all this was happening?"
"Technically speaking, I was, but I had been seconded if you like to the Royal Canadian Air Force. This was 1940, remember. There was a war on. You people weren't in it, but we were."
There was a slight hint of disapproval in this, and I wondered what he would have said if he'd known that my father, at precisely that point, had been carrying on business as usual with the Germans in Paris.
I said, "So your personal knowledge of the matter is limited? It's all secondhand?"
"If you like. If that's material."
"I was just wondering if you ever talked to Brightman about it."
"Very little, and only much later. I handled the divorce? he had to tell me a little about it then."
"And when was that?"
"I think 1951 or '52. By that time, he had been living apart from his wife for many years."
"Could his wife have anything to do with this?"
"No."
"But you don't entirely rule out a connection between Brightman's disappearance and the adoption?"
Now, for the first time, Cadogan seemed uneasy. His eyes dropped. Then, with a fussy movement, he removed his spectacles and slipped them into his pocket. He said, "Mr. Thorne, when men say they wish to speak frankly, they usually intend to tell you a lie, but in fact I want you to know what's in my mind. That is difficult, however. I have been Harry Bright-man's lawyer for a very long time. He has less legal business today than formerly, but what there is I handle myself. And when he sold his business? a complex matter? I handled that.