‘You said, “the bulk of the estate”. Where does the rest go?’
‘There’s an annuity of ten thousand a year for her sister, Miss Ransome. I’m sure that Mr Fairleigh will be happy for his aunt to continue to live in the flat she shared with his mother, but I suppose the old lady thought it would be nice for her sister to know that she wouldn’t have to face a poverty-stricken old age.’
That was uncharacteristically careless of Bassett, thought Thanet, more certain than ever that the solicitor’s attention was focused on some personal dilemma. ‘So Miss Ransome was aware of this bequest.’
Bassett looked disconcerted, suddenly aware that he had given away more than he intended to. ‘Certainly. Why not?’
‘I agree. Why not, indeed. And Mr Fairleigh?’
‘Of course,’ said Bassett stiffly.
‘Were there any other major bequests?’
‘No. There’s a small sum for Ernest Byre, her gardener, and one or two items of jewellery for her daughter-in-law, nothing of exceptional value. That’s all.’ He leaned forward. ‘Look here, Thanet, it’s out of the question, what you’re thinking.’ But his tone lacked conviction.
How could he get Bassett to open up? Thanet wondered. This man was no fool, to be manipulated into divulging something he wanted to keep secret. Try a direct approach, then?
‘Mr Bassett. There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’
‘I don’t know what you mean, Thanet.’ The solicitor reached for his cup, drank, replaced it carefully in the saucer and put them down on the desk again, each movement as automatic as that of a Victorian mechanical doll. His eyes met Thanet’s squarely, almost defiantly.
Thanet guessed that Bassett was being careful in case later on he found himself in the unsavoury position of having to defend one of his clients for murder. His behaviour indicated that he suspected that this could happen. So, what had given rise to those suspicions? It must be something to do with the will. Thanet remembered the anonymous note. Say there had been a row, and the old lady had threatened to change her will. And say she had made an appointment with Bassett, told him why she wanted to see him? If the solicitor refused to talk, as well he might, in the interests of his clients, Thanet could at least infer the truth by seeing which questions he refused to answer.
‘I understand that Mrs Fairleigh had her stroke as a result of a row with a member of her family.’
Bingo. Thanet caught the flash of dismay in Bassett’s eyes before the solicitor raised his eyebrows and said blandly, ‘Did she?’
‘Did you know about this row, Mr Bassett?’
‘No.’ But Bassett was prevaricating, Thanet could tell.
‘Did you guess that there had been one, then?’
‘Really, Thanet, what is the point of entering the realms of speculation on such a matter?’ Bassett was at his most pompous. And avoiding the issue, of course.
‘Mrs Fairleigh was going to change her will, wasn’t she?’
‘You’re guessing again, Thanet.’
But coming far too close for comfort. Bassett’s prim lips were clamped together as if he were afraid the truth would escape him unawares.
It was time to press a little harder. ‘Did Mrs Fairleigh contact you, to tell you she wanted to change her will?’
The telephone rang. Bassett almost snatched it up in his relief at the interruption.
Thanet cursed inwardly and out of the corner of his eye he saw Lineham’s biro stab viciously at his notebook as the sergeant gave unobtrusive vent to his feelings.
‘It’s for you, Thanet.’ Bassett handed over the phone.
‘Thanet here.’
‘Sir? Carson. Sorry to interrupt your interview, but I didn’t know where you were going next, and I wanted to catch you …’
‘Yes, yes …’ Thanet tried to prevent his irritation showing.
‘There’s a young girl here, sir. A Miss Raven. Says she wants to see you about the Fairleigh case. She’s come down from London especially, she says.’
Gwen Raven, here. Why? Thanet’s disappointment of a moment ago vanished. ‘Tell her I’ll be along shortly. Give her a cup of tea and make her comfortable.’
‘Right, sir.’ Carson’s relief was evident. Thanet’s change of tone had not escaped him.
Thanet put the phone down and said, ‘Did she, Mr Bassett?’
‘Did who what?’ Bassett had recovered his composure. He’d had time to work out his answer now.
‘Did Mrs Fairleigh contact you to tell you that she wanted to change her will?’
Bassett stood up. ‘I can’t imagine what gave you that idea, Thanet.’ His tone was mocking. ‘And now, I’m afraid I have another appointment.’
And so have I, thought Thanet as they took their leave. It was a pity that he hadn’t been able to prise any more out of Bassett but he was eager now to hear what had brought Gwen Raven down to Sturrenden to see him.
THIRTEEN
‘She was going to, wasn’t she?’ said Lineham, as soon as they were outside. ‘Change her will.’
‘Looks like it.’
‘Slippery customer, Mr Bassett.’
‘He certainly wasn’t giving much away.’
‘We’re beginning to get the picture now, aren’t we? That anonymous letter was right on target.’
‘Ah, but there’s a snag, Mike. The letter implies that she had the stroke during or after the row. And if so, and if it was because of the row that she was going to change her will, how did Bassett know she was going to? She hasn’t been able to speak since.’
‘Unless she rang him just before she was taken ill. That’s it, sir! She’s having this row. She’s absolutely fuming, so she goes to the phone, rings Bassett up and tells him she wants to change her will. And she has the stroke while she’s speaking to him. Later, Bassett discovers what had happened and draws his own conclusions. Only he daren’t tell us in case it compromises his client.’
‘Sounds feasible. But which client, I wonder?’
‘Mr Fairleigh, for my money. I can’t see Miss Ransome having a blazing row with her sister, can you? I bet,’ said Lineham eagerly, warming to his theme, ‘Mr Fairleigh told his mother he was going to get a divorce and marry the woman she was so against him marrying in the first place.’
‘According to Miss Ransome, remember. We’ve only got her word for it that old Mrs Fairleigh was against the match. And, as I said before, even if she had been it looks as though she was prepared to go along with it. She took a lot of trouble to introduce the girl into her own circle, and it was Pamela who called it off, not Hugo.’
‘Yes, but as I keep saying, there’s another reason why she’d be dead against it now, isn’t there? Remember Miss Plowright telling us she thought old Mrs Fairleigh would be all in favour of her son marrying again provided it was someone likely to produce an heir? Pamela Raven is in her forties. Not much chance of an heir there, as I’ve said before.’
‘Women do have babies in their forties, Mike.’
‘Yes. And as we’ve been told often enough, the chances of producing a handicapped child are vastly increased. The old woman wouldn’t want to risk that happening again, would she?’
They had arrived at the bank and they stopped. ‘I’ll see you back at the office, Mike.’
Lineham’s eyebrows rose. ‘You’re not coming in?’
Thanet grinned. ‘Other fish to fry. That phone call was Carson, telling me that Gwen Raven is in Headquarters, asking for me. Came down especially, from London.’
‘Really?’ Lineham’s face was alive with speculation. ‘I wonder why? Perhaps …’
‘Enough perhapses, Mike. We’ll soon find out.’
Gwen Raven was waiting for him in one of the interview rooms, having been given what amounted to five-star treatment: a couple of women’s magazines, some chocolate fingers and tea – in a bone-china cup decorated with tiny roses, Thanet was amused to see. Where on earth had Carson managed to find that? he wondered.
‘Miss Raven. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.’
She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
Once again she was wearing jeans and T-shirt, the ubiquitous uniform of the young. But today she looked apprehensive, and tired, too, with dark shadows beneath her eyes and a dispirited droop to her shoulders.
‘How can I help you?’
She ran a hand through her hair. ‘I’m not sure I ought to be here, really.’
‘But you are here,’ said Thanet gently. ‘So on balance you must have decided it was the right thing to do.’
‘I suppose so.’ But she still sounded doubtful.
He had to get her to trust him before she would open up.
He sat back in his chair. ‘I have a daughter of my own, of about your age.’
She welcomed the change of subject eagerly. ‘Is she at University too?’
‘No.’ Thanet grinned. ‘She’s always been mad on cookery. So she took a Cordon Bleu course and now she cooks for a directors’ dining room, in the City.’
‘So she doesn’t live at home?’
‘No. She shares a flat with three other girls.’
‘That’s what I want to do, when I come down.’
Gwen, he learned, was reading French and German at Durham University. She had hoped to get into either Oxford or Cambridge, but hadn’t made it.
As they talked she began to relax, as he had hoped she would. They chatted for a while about her future plans and then he said, ‘You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to tell me, you know. And if, at any time, you change your mind and want to call it a day, I promise I won’t put any pressure on you. I can’t be fairer than that, can I?’
‘I suppose not.’ But the strained look was back in her eyes again. Then suddenly she said angrily, ‘I expect you think I’m stupid, coming down here like this and then holding back.’
‘I certainly don’t think you’re stupid. And I imagine you have good reasons for hesitating.’ He waited a moment and then said gently, ‘Perhaps you feel you’re being disloyal to your mother?’
Her mouth twisted. ‘Yes. You’re right, of course. How did you guess? Oh, now I am being stupid. In your job, you must …’ She ran a hand through her hair again. ‘I’m not thinking straight this morning, I hardly slept all night, trying to make up my mind whether to come.’
‘And here you are.’
‘Yes. Here I am. So yes, you’re right again. I suppose, as you said just now, I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t made up my mind. So …’ She took a deep breath. ‘As I expect you’ve already guessed, it’s about my mother and Hugo Fairleigh.’
Thanet nodded and said nothing, hoping that he looked as receptive and sympathetic as he felt. The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel she was being cross-examined. That would simply make her clam up again. In any case he was confident that now she had taken the first step she would go on.
‘After you’d gone last night Mum told me what had happened – to Mr Fairleigh’s mother. I couldn’t believe it. An old lady like that, and she was pretty helpless, wasn’t she, she’d had a stroke?’
‘Yes, she had.’
Gwen’s face screwed up in disgust. ‘It’s horrible. Obscene. But what I don’t understand is why you came to see Mum. She told me you were interviewing everyone who was there yesterday and knows the Fairleighs. Is that right?’
‘More or less, yes.’
‘I knew there’d be trouble if she got mixed up with them again!’
Thanet raised his eyebrows. ‘What do you mean?’
‘After what they did to her the first time …’
‘Are you talking about when she was engaged to Mr Fairleigh?’
‘Yes.’
‘But that was getting on for twenty years ago! Before you were born.’
‘You have to understand! My mother and I are – were,’ she added bitterly, ‘very close. Oh, I know they say teenage girls and their mothers don’t get on, that they’re always fighting about something, but that’s not necessarily true. We’ve had our arguments, of course, but on the whole, well, I suppose we’re more like sisters than mother and daughter. Perhaps it’s because I’m an only child. Or because she’s always talked to me on equal terms, as long as I can remember. Or because my father really didn’t want to know, as far as I was concerned … Anyway, for whatever reason, that’s the way it was. And one of the things she told me about was the time when she was engaged to Hugo. It was when I had a boyfriend who was pretty serious about me. I was only sixteen at the time and I expect she thought I was too young to have just one boyfriend, but she didn’t say so. What she really felt strongly about was the fact that his mother was pretty nasty to me. He was an only child too, you see, and his mother was very possessive. To be honest, I think she would have behaved the same towards any girl he brought home, but that wasn’t the point. It made me pretty miserable at the time and I talked to Mum about it. And that was when she told me about Mrs Fairleigh.’
‘What about her?’
‘Well, Mum came from a working-class background, and of course the Fairleighs are upper middle class. I mean, plenty of money, public school, house in the family for generations, that sort of thing. Mum knew straight away that Mrs Fairleigh didn’t approve of her.’
‘Did Mrs Fairleigh say so?’
‘Oh no, she was much too clever for that. And of course, Mum didn’t know what was going on at the time. It wasn’t until years later, when she was older and knew much more about life, that she really began to understand what had happened.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She realised that what Hugo’s mother did was systematically set about demonstrating to Mum how unfit she was to be the wife of someone with Hugo’s background. She gave elaborate dinner parties for her, with so many knives and forks that Mum went cross-eyed trying to work out what to eat with what. Everyone had plummy voices and talked about things Mum knew nothing about – hunting and farming and charity balls and God knows what else. And of course, Mum’s clothes were absolutely unsuitable – she was scraping along on a grant and clothes were the last thing she could afford to buy. Mrs Fairleigh took her on an endless social round, introducing her to families who lived in elegant country houses with tennis courts and ponies in paddocks and gorgeous daughters who’d known Hugo for years, had been to finishing schools in Switzerland and looked as though they stepped straight out of Harpers & Queen. Oh, she was clever all right. She never actually said in so many words, You would never fit into this world, but everything she showed her shouted it aloud. As I say, Mum had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that she was very unhappy. She felt inadequate all the time, and in fact the experience undermined her self-confidence for years. It was diabolical.’
Diabolical indeed. Fleetingly Thanet thought of Bridget. If she and Alexander became serious about each other, was this what lay in store for her?
‘It was soon after she told me all this that she met Hugo again. So you can imagine how I felt, when they started seeing each other regularly. I didn’t want her to be hurt!’
‘You don’t like Hugo Fairleigh.’
‘No I do not! He’s not right for Mum. And don’t think it’s just because I feel he’s coming between me and her. I’d be only too glad if she found someone who’s kind. Someone who’d really care about her, make her happy.’
‘Perhaps he does care about her. I understand it was she who broke off the engagement, and that he was very upset about it.’
‘Maybe. But that doesn’t mean he could make her happy. He’s so … Oh, God, he’s so superficial. And so ambitious. All that really matters to Hugo is Hugo!’ she cried, unconsciously echoing Caroline Plowright.
‘Are you sure you’re not being a little unfair? Maybe his career does matter to him, but perhaps your mother matters more. If, as you seem to be implying, he’s serious about her, he’s obviously willing to go through a divorce and risk alienating his constituents, who by all accounts are fond of his
present wife.’
‘That’s how he feels at the moment, yes. But what happens afterwards? What if it did damage his career? It would be my mother he’d blame and what do you think that would do to her?’
‘I’m still not sure why you’ve come to see me.’
‘He’s a very determined man,’ said Gwen, her mouth setting in a stubborn line. ‘Takes after his mother, obviously. She was still against him and Mum getting married, you know.’
‘What makes you think that?’
She shook her head. ‘Just something Mum said, that made me think so.’
So he and Lineham could be right about the reason for the row, thought Thanet. Hugo Fairleigh had obviously broached the subject with his mother.
‘What did your mother say exactly?’
‘I can’t remember. But that was certainly the impression I got.’
‘Let me get this straight. Are you trying to say that you think Hugo Fairleigh killed his mother because she was against this marriage?’
‘I don’t know!’ The girl’s anxiety and passion drove her from her chair and she stood behind it, gripping the back so hard that her knuckles whitened. ‘But someone did. And even the possibility that it could be Hugo … that my mother might be thinking of marrying a murderer! Can’t you see.’
‘Yes,’ said Thanet gently. ‘Of course I do. Come on, sit down again and try to calm yourself.’
He waited until she had settled down again, then said, ‘Now, let’s try and be rational about this. Have you anything specific to tell me, to back up your suspicions?’
She was silent, thinking, leaning forward in her chair and frowning down at her hands. The nails, Thanet noticed, were bitten down to the quick. Finally she shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. She sounded exhausted, defeated. ‘Nothing specific.’ She looked at him squarely, her eyes full of determination. ‘But if there is, believe me, I’ll be on to you like a shot.’
Thanet escorted her to the main entrance. Lineham was just coming in and together they watched her walk away across the forecourt, shoulders drooping.
Wake the Dead Page 14
