Inspector Boyd gave another quick glance at the paperwork on his desk. He cleared his throat. ‘We have reliable information that Ann Ashington made a will and named you as her beneficiary.’
This was another shock to Jane. ‘But I was told my mother didn’t want anything to do with me,’ she replied.
The inspector gave her a brief smile. ‘Perhaps that idea is open to question as well,’ he remarked.
It was Bob who asked the next question. ‘How was the will discovered?’
Inspector Boyd quickly turned to Neil Cotterill, who so far had sat quietly listening to the conversation. ‘Perhaps you would like to elaborate on this one, Neil.’
The lawyer nodded in agreement. Adjusting his spectacles, which seemed to be continually slipping down his nose, he addressed Jane and Bob. ‘You know Eric Alcott, I believe. I understand he has been assisting you with your research relating to the Ashington family.’
‘Yes, he has,’ replied Jane.
‘I have known Eric for many years,’ he continued. ‘We are very good friends.’
He stopped talking for an instant and scrutinised Jane and Bob through the half-frame spectacles that balanced precariously on the end of his nose, as if to ensure that he had their full attention. Seemingly satisfied, he continued. ‘It seems Eric has been working hard on your behalf. In the process he discovered that Ann Ashington had made a will prior to her marriage to Miles Ashington.’
After another pause, during which he looked closely at Jane again, the lawyer continued. ‘The will was prepared for Ann Ashington by Miles Carlton, who later changed his name to Ashington.’
‘How did Eric find that out?’ asked Bob.
Neil Cotterill gave a little smile. ‘Rather unofficial, I’m afraid. He knew the solicitors where Miles Carlton had been a partner before he married Ann. The will seems to have disappeared, but, being the detective he is, Eric traced a woman who had been a secretary at the solicitors’ at the time the will was written. She had long retired, but she still had her shorthand pad with the details. In fact, she could remember typing the will.’
‘Was this the new information Eric wanted to give me?’ asked Jane.
‘That is correct.’
‘But you say the will has disappeared.’
Neil Cotterill nodded. ‘Exactly,’ he replied.
‘Do you think it was destroyed deliberately?’ asked Bob.
The lawyer adjusted his spectacles again. ‘It certainly looks odd, given the circumstances,’ he replied. ‘Eric told me about his find and we discussed it at some length. I considered the matter serious enough, considering your disappearance at the time, to talk to my contacts in the police.’
Inspector Boyd suddenly broke his silence. ‘I have to tell you, Jane, that we are treating this matter as serious. An investigation is under way.’
Jane was desperately trying to readjust her thinking to this new information. It all seemed unbelievable. ‘You mean… Miles Ashington is also involved in all this?’ she asked.
Inspector Boyd nodded. ‘I’m afraid so. I also have to tell you in confidence that Ann Ashington’s death is now being treated as suspicious.’ He paused. ‘Further investigations are taking place to establish the cause of death.’
Jane was silent for a few seconds, finding it hard to believe what she was hearing. When she spoke it was in a quiet voice. ‘It all seems so unreal. Miles and Gail were so kind and helpful to me.’
The inspector smiled briefly. ‘It’s like that sometimes,’ he replied.
Jane was still trying to make sense of everything. It seemed incredible that anyone would go to so much trouble to eliminate her just because she was a member of a certain family. ‘You mean my mother may have been poisoned or something like that?’ she asked.
‘That is a possibility.’
Jane spoke her thoughts as she tried to analyse everything. ‘But who would do such a thing? The maid would have nothing to gain. That would only leave Miles Ashington, and he and Ann were in love…’
‘Were they?’ interjected Inspector Boyd. He leaned across the desk towards Jane. ‘Look at it this way. Ann Ashington makes a will leaving everything to you. That will is drawn up for her by Miles Carlton, who later marries her. Ann starts to become ill immediately after her marriage. You disappear into an orphanage and apparently acquire a different name, and then Ann dies, leaving everything to her husband, Miles Ashington.’
There was a long silence after the inspector finished speaking. When Jane’s reply came it was almost a whisper. ‘I just can’t believe it. It’s too horrible to even think that anyone would go to so much trouble for money.’
Bob had been silent, taking in and thinking about what he had just heard. He was prompted to add his thoughts to the discussion. ‘I was under the impression that a will made before marriage was invalidated if the person making the will married afterwards.’
‘Wills can be contested in court if there is sufficient justification,’ replied Neil Cotterill.
The conversation was halted briefly by the reappearance of DC Penlow with a tray of tea. Once everybody had been served, Inspector Boyd continued.
‘There’s even more to it than you’ve just heard,’ he said to Jane. He turned to the lawyer. ‘Neil?’
Neil Cotterill took up the prompting. With a quick glance at his paperwork, he addressed Jane. ‘Have you ever heard of the Ashington legacy?’ he asked.
Jane shook her head. ‘No,’ she replied.
Neil Cotterill smiled at her. ‘I would have been surprised if you had,’ he remarked. ‘Your grandfather, Edward Ashington, was a shrewd man, particularly with money, but he had a thing about women handling money. He left your mother sufficient to live on, but he had huge investments abroad and he set up a kind of trust to handle them. The income could be drawn but not the capital – that is, not until a certain period of time had elapsed.’
He paused to let Jane and Bob absorb the information. Then, with a slight smile, he announced, ‘That period of time has now ended and Miles Ashington has spent the last two years trying to claim the inheritance. It is a large amount of money. At the last count it was around nineteen million pounds.’
‘Phew,’ broke in Bob. ‘It’s all beginning to make sense. Everything was going fine for Miles Ashington until Jane turned up – Ann Ashington’s daughter – and could make a claim to her inheritance.’
‘That’s exactly it,’ remarked Neil quietly.
There was several seconds’ silence.
Inspector Boyd looked at Jane. ‘I’m sorry if you find this rather upsetting,’ he said sympathetically.
Jane took her time to answer. The realisation that Miles Ashington, who had always treated her in such a caring and friendly way, could be the very person responsible for her recent ordeal was hard to accept, yet she knew the police must be confident of their facts.
When she replied, she spoke slowly, her eyes cast down, almost as if she were speaking aloud her thoughts. ‘It seems so odd. Somebody who has treated you with such courtesy and friendliness is actually at the same time plotting to have you abducted. To eliminate you, in fact. It’s quite scary.’ She looked up at Inspector Boyd as she finished speaking, as if seeking confirmation.
The inspector nodded. ‘It must be quite a shock,’ he agreed.
‘What were they going to do with me?’ asked Jane quietly.
‘You really want to know?’
She nodded.
‘You would probably have been taken somewhere and filled so full of drugs that you wouldn’t care where you were or what you did as long as your desire for them was satisfied. Putting it bluntly, you would most likely have ended up in some low-grade brothel somewhere abroad. Ray Ashington has some rather unpleasant friends.’
Jane shuddered. ‘It’s too horrible to think about,’ she replied softly.
Inspector Boyd spoke again. ‘We believe the boat you were found on has been involved in suspicious trips to the continent before. We have also had our
eyes on Ray Ashington’s activities for some time. Not all of these people are what they appear to be. Your case has brought other investigations nearer to completion.’
‘How was I actually found?’ This was a question Jane had wanted to know the answer to for a long time.
‘You lost your anklet in a barn. The farmer who owned the barn found it and took it to the local police. He had also noticed some unusual activity in the area. After the anklet was identified as being yours, our colleagues in Cornwall moved very fast, raided the farm where you had been held and arrested the occupants. You were far away by that time, but fortunately one of the suspects spilled the beans about where you were.’
‘Was it Mel?’ asked Jane.
‘Yes, it was. She had been badly knocked about by that partner of hers. She had to be taken to hospital. But her action certainly helped you to be found before you disappeared out of our reach.’
Jane thought about what she had just heard. She was glad Mel had decided to risk telling the police what she knew. Somehow, despite Mel’s rough exterior, she had always felt that underneath she was basically a good person. ‘I’m glad it was her,’ she replied.
Inspector Boyd smiled. ‘It will go in her favour when she gets to court.’
‘What will happen now?’ asked Bob.
‘As you can guess,’ replied the inspector, ‘both Miles Ashington and his son are in a pretty sticky situation on a number of issues. Investigations are continuing and I am fairly confident that when it comes to court they will both receive pretty stiff prison sentences. It will also mean discredit for both of them in the business world.’ He turned to Jane with a smile. ‘And you, Jane, will have to become accustomed to a new title and role in life as Ruth Ashington.’
Chapter 51
Jane gave a little forced smile in response to Inspector Boyd’s suggestion. ‘That’s going to be the difficult bit,’ she replied simply.
It was clear that the interview was drawing to an end. Jane and Bob thanked Inspector Boyd and Neil Cotterill for all their help. The inspector told Jane that he would be in touch again as soon as there were any developments, and DC Penlow then escorted them out of the building.
Once they were outside, the full impact of what she had just heard struck Jane. She turned to Bob, her face full of anxiety and concern. ‘Oh, Bob, I feel so overwhelmed by everything. It almost feels as if I’ve been hit by a battering ram. I can’t go back to work right away. I’ve got to think and get everything straight in my mind.’
Bob put his arm around her. ‘Let’s go somewhere for a drink,’ he suggested.
They found a coffee shop close by. Jane sought out a quiet table in a corner while Bob went to the counter to get two coffees. He could see Jane from where he stood. She looked quite sad. Compassion for her welled up inside him. She had come through a pretty tough ordeal and just as she was getting over that she had to take in this new aspect of everything. Who would have thought the Ashingtons were behind her abduction? He paid for the coffee and carried it over to the table. Jane simply uttered a brief ‘Thanks’ as he pushed a cup towards her.
For a few minutes they drank their coffee in silence.
It was Bob who spoke first. ‘Would you rather not go back to work?’ he asked.
His question jerked Jane out of her silence.
She gave a bit of a smile as she replied. ‘No, I’ll be fine.’ She hesitated for a moment and then continued speaking slowly. ‘It’s just that everything still seems a bit unreal. I mean, the Ashingtons were so friendly – and all the time Miles and his son must have been planning to eliminate me.’
Bob nodded in agreement. ‘I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing myself,’ he replied.
Jane spoke again. ‘That evening when we all went out to dinner they had it all planned. They were completely relaxed and friendly, yet they knew what was going to happen to me.’
‘I’ve thought a lot about that as well,’ replied Bob. ‘They must have put something in my drink to make me fall asleep like that, so you were left completely vulnerable.’
Jane took another sip of coffee. ‘They thought of everything,’ she replied, her voice subdued.
There was a brief silence between them. Jane was deep in thought. The revelation of the fate the Ashingtons had intended for her had been hard to comprehend. She knew now what Carl had meant when he said, ‘She’ll have worse where she’s going.’ Even Mel must have known what was going to happen to her.
When Jane spoke again her voice was quiet and a bit emotional. ‘I keep thinking about what might have happened to me if I hadn’t been rescued. It’s almost too awful to contemplate.’
Bob smiled at her briefly. ‘Thank goodness you lost your anklet in the barn. It was the key to finding you.’
Jane was deep in thought as she responded to his comment. ‘That’s the odd thing about it all. I never intended to wear it that night. It was an afterthought, because what I’d planned to wear didn’t work out.’
Bob was about to reply, but Jane suddenly thought of something else. ‘And I keep thinking of Mel. It must have been her telling the police where I’d been taken that enabled them to find me so quickly.’
‘I’m glad she did,’ Bob remarked, smiling. ‘Otherwise I’d have had to search for you.’
‘Even in a brothel?’ Jane gave a brief smile as she asked the question. To Bob it was the first sign of the old Jane.
‘Of course,’ he replied, with a grin.
Jane was serious again. ‘I hope Mel sorts her life out after all this. I am convinced that underneath she’s OK; it’s just that she didn’t have the same chances in life as most of us.’
‘As the inspector said, her co-operation with the police will no doubt be taken into consideration when she gets to court,’ Bob commented.
‘I hope so.’
Jane returned to her thoughts for a few seconds. Bob waited, guessing that she wanted to talk and get everything out of her system.
When she spoke again, her face was full of concern. ‘Then there is all this business of the Ashington legacy – and being Ruth Ashington.’
She was talking slowly. She stopped. Suddenly she came out with her deeper thoughts. Looking at Bob intently, she continued. ‘You know, Bob, the Ashingtons went to great lengths to get rid of me, I imagine with the thought that I was going to make a claim on the money. But in reality they went to a lot of trouble for nothing. The fact is that I don’t want it. I don’t want to be Ruth Ashington. I just want to be me – plain Jane Carroll.’
Bob could see that there were almost tears in her eyes. He placed his hand on hers as he spoke quietly. ‘Poppet, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. You don’t have to be Ruth Ashington. You can change your name officially. You can give the money to charity. You can just be you.’
Jane forced a smile. Hearing Bob using his pet name for her was a turning point in her misery. The mist began to clear. After all that, she thought, I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to. She leaned over the table and gave Bob a quick peck on the cheek.
As she sat back again, she tried her best to be more cheerful. ‘Thank you for that. You’re quite right. Everything can be sorted out. Thank you for hearing me out.’ She drained the last of her coffee and grinned at Bob.
They stayed chatting for a little longer and then Jane saw Bob glance at the clock on the wall. It was a reminder that she should be making her way back to work. Bob walked her to her office and left her at the entrance before hurrying away to an appointment.
Back in the office Jane was bombarded with questions by the rest of the staff. She did her best to answer as briefly as possible. She had already planned a suitable explanation of events to satisfy their curiosity.
No sooner had she managed to get back to her desk than Annette called her in to see her. For the second time that day Jane made her way up the stairs. Annette already had two cups of coffee on the desk. She ushered Jane to a seat and pushed one of the cups towards her.
‘Now. Tell me what’s happened. What did the police have to say?’
Jane picked up the cup of coffee, which she did not really want, and gave her a résumé of events. Unlike the rest of the staff, Annette was not content with the explanation she had prepared. She wanted to know every detail and kept interrupting to ask questions.
When Annette heard about Miles Ashington’s involvement, she almost went into a state of shock. ‘I can’t believe it,’ she kept repeating.
*
In the end Jane was with Annette for well over an hour. When she managed to end the interview, she left Annette staring at her desk and murmuring, ‘Miles Ashington. I just can’t believe it.’
The day was now well advanced. Jane glanced through one or two items on her desk, sorted Amy out on a project she was doing, and then decided to call it a day. After all the trauma of the morning’s revelations, she felt rather tired. Tomorrow she would return with more vigour and deal with everything.
As she left the office she was in for another shock. Several reporters were hanging about outside. It was clear that the news had got out. Inspector Boyd had warned her that the evening papers would carry the story of Miles and Ray Ashington’s arrest, as well as reports of her own ordeal. Jane managed to shake off the reporters and their eager questioning. That was the last thing she wanted to encounter. Fortunately, they appeared to accept her ‘Nothing to say’ response as final and did not attempt to follow her.
She was relieved when she reached the calm of her own apartment and was able to relax at last. It had been a long and tiring day, and so much had happened. She had left the security of her home only a few hours previously, completely unaware of what she would learn that day. It was all new, and she needed time to adjust to it.
She had just changed out of her business suit into jeans and a blouse and was padding about barefoot in the kitchen wondering what sort of meal to make for herself when the telephone rang. It was Anna asking her how she had got on at work. She and Gerald had already seen the evening paper and she wanted to talk about that as well. Jane was as polite and patient as she could be, but an afternoon of talking about the morning’s events to so many other people had exhausted her, and she felt in need of peace and quiet. Anna ended up by asking her to come to supper with her and Gerald. She declined, explaining that she felt too tired. Anna promptly offered to come up and prepare a meal for her. It took all Jane’s strategy to wriggle out of that prospect.
The Golden Anklet Page 45
