A Place of Hope

by Anna Jacobs

  ‘We won’t try to ascribe blame at the moment,’ Oliver said firmly. ‘We’ll start by finding out the facts.’

  What she wanted to do was tell the two men to get the hell out of her house. She might have known George was still working to undermine her and get hold of her inheritance.

  Oliver turned back to the visitors. ‘If you’d come inside?’

  ‘Certainly. We need to see what the old place is like, anyway.’

  ‘Well, you won’t be going beyond this front room today!’ Emily snapped. She stopped just inside.

  Gressam looked round the front bar and grimaced. ‘No wonder it closed down.’

  Oliver pulled two tables together and made sure Emily and Rachel had chairs.

  When everyone was seated, he took charge. ‘Could you please tell me why you feel Ms Mattison has accepted your company’s offer to buy?’

  ‘I have a copy of the memorandum of agreement and—’

  ‘Go through the whole process that’s been followed, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Surely she remembers what she did?’

  Emily leaned forward, glaring at him, speaking slowly and clearly. ‘It’s rather difficult – to remember something – you have not done.’ She looked up. ‘Ah, Chad. Do come and join us. We’re having a very interesting discussion about things these men imagine I’ve done.’

  Chad, who had been surveying the barn with an aim to doing some emergency repairs on the roof, immediately sat down.

  Oliver waited until he was seated, then went on, ‘Tell me the exact process you went through to reach this so-called agreement.’

  ‘The memorandum of agreement, duly signed and witnessed. Several weeks ago we sent a letter out to Ms Mattison and—’

  ‘Which I never received,’ Emily snapped.

  Oliver patted her arm. ‘Let them go through it all, then we’ll say our piece.’

  He was suddenly rather impressive, no longer the genial friend, but a calm professional with a crisp and authoritative way of speaking.

  She couldn’t believe this was happening. Was George so far ahead of her at every step that she had no hope of winning against him? Would he gain control of her and her money as he had with his mother? Not if she could help it.

  ‘Your nephew replied to head office in response to our offer to buy, explaining that you’d been involved in an accident and were unable to respond yourself. He made a counter-offer on your behalf, and entered into negotiations to push up the price. By the time we were in agreement, you’d come out of your coma, so we sent you a memorandum of agreement, which you signed. We received it this morning and as we’re eager to proceed, we came here immediately to check a few things out.’

  Oliver held up one hand. ‘Just one small point. If you wish to come here in future, please make an appointment.’

  Gressam gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘Very well. Anyway, even though contracts haven’t been exchanged, the sale can now be considered binding.’

  He fumbled through some papers in his briefcase. ‘This is a copy of the memorandum. We sent you the contract itself about a week ago and your nephew has just finished discussing the final details.’

  ‘I didn’t receive the contract, either.’

  Another sigh. ‘It was sent to your home address and signed for by your nephew.’

  ‘I didn’t authorize George to do that. Nor did he show the contract to me.’ She frowned. ‘Don’t I remember that it’s illegal to open someone else’s mail?’

  ‘It is indeed,’ Oliver said.

  ‘Since you’d authorized your nephew to negotiate on your behalf, this is all unnecessary and you won’t make us increase the price any further.’

  Emily said loudly and slowly. ‘I did not authorize him to act for me. I have my own lawyer.’ She indicated Oliver. ‘And I do not wish to sell.’

  Oliver took the memorandum from Gressam and spread it on the table between himself and Emily. Chad got up and stood behind them to read it. His hand was a comforting pressure on Emily’s shoulder. At the end of the table, Rachel folded her arms, scowling at the two men.

  ‘Is this your signature, Emily?’ Oliver asked.

  ‘It looks like my signature, but I definitely didn’t sign this memorandum.’

  ‘You’ve been in hospital, I gather, a geriatric assessment unit.’ Gressam studied her, frowning.

  ‘Only because the rehab unit had no free beds. I am not – suffering – from dementia.’

  Her voice seemed to echo into the silence.

  Oliver cleared his throat to get their attention. ‘I must remind you to deal directly with my client from now on. I shall send you another memorandum, stating that George Pilby has no authority whatsoever to negotiate on his aunt’s behalf.’

  ‘That’s rather shutting the stable door after the horse has escaped, don’t you think?’

  ‘No. Because we deny that anything has been signed. We shall need details of precisely which days the offer, memorandum and contract were sent out and returned. Actually, I’m not sure we shouldn’t put this in the hands of the police.’

  There was another silence heavy with hostility, which he allowed to continue for a few moments before speaking again. ‘In the meantime, I shall be applying for an injunction preventing any further steps being taken about this sale by your company – or by Ms Mattison’s nephew.’

  Chad leaned forward. ‘Has the contract been returned to you?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘As it hasn’t arrived here for signing, and as Ms Mattison has been with one or the other of us every hour since the night she left the rehab unit last Friday, you have three witnesses who can swear that she hasn’t seen the contract during that time, let alone signed it.’

  ‘It was sent well before she left the unit, should have arrived at her home on the previous Monday.’ Gressam stared at Chad. ‘May I ask who you are?’

  ‘A good friend of my client,’ Oliver said quickly, then looked at Emily. ‘All right if I ask them to deal with this through me from now on?’

  At her nod, he pulled out a business card and gave it to them. ‘Use my mobile phone number. I shall be staying here until this matter is sorted, as will everyone present. Ms Mattison is, rightly in my opinion, nervous of being left alone in such a large and isolated building.’

  ‘Let me phone head office,’ Gressam said.

  Oliver stood up. ‘You can do whatever you wish once you’re outside the house. We’ve listened to you, and I hope you’ve listened to us. Please leave now and don’t return without an appointment.’

  As they got to the door, the assistant pulled out a phone and aimed it at Emily to take a photo.

  Chad moved quickly forward and knocked the phone aside.

  Oliver’s voice rang out sharply. ‘Do not take any photos of my client, or I’ll take out an injunction within the hour to prevent you from using them or harassing Ms Mattison further.’

  The assistant scowled at him, but its flash had already gone off.

  Chad twitched it out of his hand.

  ‘Hey! What are you doing?’ He tried to grab the phone back but Rachel moved to block his way.

  Chad pressed some buttons, seeming to know exactly what he was doing. ‘There. Photo deleted. Nothing else touched.’ He handed the camera back.

  ‘You had no right to do that!’

  Oliver leaned forward. ‘And you had no right to take any photos after I’d asked you formally not to. Now, the discussion is finished and your presence is no longer welcome here. You should let me see the original documents you claim have been sent and signed, then let me have photocopies.’

  He followed the men out, standing in the car park to see them off.

  Gressam looked back over his shoulder, scowling at Emily, as he got into the passenger seat.

  Emily linked her arm in Chad’s, something she loved to do, and smiled at Rachel. ‘You two were quick off the mark there. Thank you. You’re obviously familiar with modern cameras, Chad.’

 
‘Yes. I need to photograph stuff for my work. Antiques are . . . are . . .’ He broke off. ‘Damn! It’s gone again.’

  ‘Another piece of the puzzle has slotted in, though. Antiques.’

  Oliver came back inside, picked up the memorandum of agreement and frowned at it. ‘It looks very much like your signature, Emily.’

  ‘I know. But I definitely didn’t sign it.’

  ‘We shall need to call in handwriting experts if this gets to court. But our first line of defence will be to gather evidence about George dealing with your mail without your authorization. We shall also need to know exactly where you were each time he claims to have seen you or had something signed. I wonder what he’s intending to do with the contract now.’

  ‘Sign it in my name, I suppose. But surely he can’t get away with that, or get hold of the money if he does manage to push a sale through?’

  ‘I’m hoping the date it’s signed is after you left the geriatric unit.’

  ‘So am I.’ After a pause, she added, ‘But I doubt he’d be that stupid.’ She paced up and down the room, stopping to spread her hands wide and exclaim, ‘I still can’t believe any of this is happening.’

  ‘I can. I’ve seen some terrible cases while I’ve been a lawyer, cases where I believed the defendant, but was unable to prove the person’s innocence. Cases where old people were robbed blind by their relatives and I couldn’t prevent it. The law isn’t always able to deal out justice, unfortunately.’

  ‘Well, whatever George is trying to do now,’ Rachel said, ‘it only reinforces our decision that you must be with someone every minute of the day, Emily. And it wouldn’t hurt to be with someone during the night as well.’ She looked meaningfully at Chad, but both he and Emily shook their heads.

  ‘You can’t tell me you don’t want to sleep together!’ Rachel said indignantly. ‘Anyone can see that you’ve got something going. And you’re both consenting adults, so I don’t know what’s holding you back.’

  Emily could feel herself flushing.

  ‘I may be married to someone else,’ Chad said. ‘I don’t believe in being unfaithful.’

  ‘And I don’t believe in sleeping with another woman’s husband,’ Emily added.

  Rachel rolled her eyes. ‘Then I’ll have to sleep on your sofa, Emily.’

  ‘I’m doing that already,’ Chad said at once. ‘No one will get past me. I’m a light sleeper. And you should stay with someone all day, Emily.’

  ‘Surely there’s no need for such extreme measures?’ Emily asked.

  ‘I’m afraid there is.’ Oliver’s voice was still firm, but it had regained its quiet, friendly tone. When he was with them, he seemed like a different person from the man who’d spoken so confidently to the men from Barton & Halling.

  ‘Oh, very well.’

  Oliver received a phone call from a Janice Ryling in the legal department at Barton & Halling.

  He listened intently, then said, ‘We’ll come in to see you immediately, then. I wish to see the original documents before I accept the photocopies.’

  More discussion, then, ‘Very well. We’re on our way.’

  But before they left, he rang his doctor friend and arranged for Emily and Chad to see a geriatric specialist. ‘Just in case,’ he said as he put his phone away.

  The thought of what that implied made Emily shiver. She couldn’t help it. She was terrified of being shut away again, and this time she was sure she’d be doped into submission.

  Barton & Halling occupied one floor of a new, three-storey office building. As the three of them stood in the lift, Oliver warned them not to volunteer any information whatsoever, but to look to him for guidance on every point.

  Emily nodded, but she still felt a bit shaky.

  ‘It’ll take a while to get past the memories of that place,’ Chad said softly. ‘But we’ll get through it.’

  Would they get through it together, though? That was becoming increasingly important to her. She’d never met anyone she felt so comfortable with.

  Unsmiling, Oliver accepted seats at one side of a shining wooden board table, opposite a man and a woman. The woman was clearly in charge of this encounter.

  ‘We do not appreciate all these delays,’ she said as a preliminary.

  Oliver held up one hand. ‘To whom are we speaking?’

  ‘Is that relevant?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘I’m Janice Ryling and this is Mr Korton, my PA.’ Her voice took on a sarcastic edge. ‘I’d like to state as a preliminary that your client’s claim not to have signed the memorandum won’t make us raise our price at all.’

  ‘As my client doesn’t wish to sell, that’s irrelevant.’

  ‘She has agreed to sell.’

  ‘No. She definitely hasn’t.’

  Once again there was a sense of hostility, as each side waited to see who would continue.

  In response to a glance from Ms Ryling, Mr Korton broke the silence. ‘These are the papers you wished to see.’ He pushed them across the table. ‘And these are photocopies of them all.’

  ‘I prefer to make my own photocopies once I’ve read the originals.’ Oliver gave a wolfish smile. ‘Otherwise I’d have to read all the photocopies as well in order to compare the two. That might take up even more of your precious time.’

  From the look on the man’s face and the way he pulled back the photocopies, Oliver felt instantly suspicious. Or was he reading too much into the action? Well, you couldn’t be too careful.

  He read through the two-page memorandum, passing each page to Emily, then started on the rest of the correspondence.

  Emily read on steadily, passing the papers to Chad. When she’d finished, she turned to Oliver and waited.

  ‘Have you ever seen any of these papers before, Ms Mattison?’ he asked formally.

  ‘No, never.’

  Oliver turned to the two lawyers. ‘Do you have a copy of the contract? Mr Gressam said you’d drawn one up and sent it to my client, though I’d like it on record that she didn’t receive that, either.’

  Ms Ryling sighed and pushed some stapled papers forward. ‘This is a copy of the contract, which was delivered to her home and signed for by her nephew.’

  ‘Who had no right even to open it. I’ll study it at my leisure.’ He turned to Emily and pushed the last paper towards her. ‘Did you sign this memorandum?’

  ‘No, I didn’t. How could I? I never saw it, let alone signed it.’

  ‘Miss Mattison herself said it looked like her signature,’ the PA said at once.

  ‘Ms,’ Emily corrected.

  He looked at her in exasperation. ‘Does that matter now?’

  ‘It does to me. I never allow people to call me Miss.’ She smiled, suddenly realizing her name was written on the memorandum as ‘Miss Emily Mattison’ each time it appeared. She tapped that word with her forefinger and looked at Oliver, who nodded his understanding of her silent message.

  He stood up. ‘Perhaps you’d show me to a photocopier, now.’

  After he’d finished making copies, he collected Emily and Chad, and led the way outside, shaking his head to indicate they should wait to discuss anything.

  When they were in the car, she said, ‘I thought you’d point out that the contract was for Miss Mattison, something I’d never accept.’

  ‘Not yet. We’ll keep it in reserve.’

  ‘It’s one of my quirks, refusing to be addressed as Miss, and I can get several people from my former employer to vouch for that. I might let it pass occasionally, but I’d never, ever allow anyone to call me Miss in a formal document.’

  ‘I doubt that would be enough to change matters in law,’ Oliver said. ‘But it might be useful as corroborative evidence. In the meantime I’ll take the necessary steps to get an injunction to prevent your nephew from approaching you or your dwelling, but that’ll take time, I’m afraid. It has to be served on him so that he can respond.’

  ‘The sooner it can be applied, the better.’ Emily w
as surprised at how afraid she was of what her nephew might do next.

  Oliver rubbed his hands together briskly. ‘Right then. We’ll go and see Dr Allerton now. She kindly agreed to stay on a little longer after her session ended at the practice, because her friend Ms Patel, who’s a geriatric specialist, has made time to join her.’

  At the doctor’s surgery, they were taken into a small meeting room. Emily wanted Chad to be present, as well as their mutual lawyer, to back up if necessary some of her statements about what had happened in the geriatric ward.

  Once they were all seated, the two women studied her so carefully before she even spoke that she felt as if they could see right through her. As they started to question her, she decided it wasn’t a hostile gaze, but an assessing one. She felt certain these two wouldn’t be fooled by anything she said or did. Luckily, she had only to tell the truth.

  When they stopped asking questions, they turned to Chad to ask him to corroborate certain claims she’d made about what had happened in the geriatric unit.

  ‘Everything Emily’s said is true. I was treated in a very similar manner, including being sedated unnecessarily. It was seeing one another spitting out the tablets they gave us that first drew us together.’

  Afterwards Emily expected them to confer, but Dr Allerton looked at her colleague and nodded as if to say go ahead.

  ‘In my opinion, as a first assessment only of course, you’re not suffering from dementia, Ms Mattison,’ Ms Patel stated quietly.

  ‘Thank you.’ Emily knew she wasn’t, and yet she felt enormously relieved to have this reassurance from an expert in the field.

  The two doctors turned to Chad, studying him in exactly the same careful way and asking Emily to verify a couple of things he said.

  He answered their questions about himself calmly when he knew the answer, admitting his ignorance when he didn’t. He had no trouble with general questions and displayed good knowledge of a range of subjects.

  ‘Since you’re still remembering the odd detail about yourself, Chad,’ Ms Patel said, ‘there is a likelihood that you’ll retrieve further information. One can never be quite sure how much, but there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to speed it up, unfortunately. And there’s no guarantee how much you’ll remember. You seem to me to be in full possession of your mental faculties, however.’