Less Than a Treason

by Mary Birk

  “And?”

  “When he saw me, he put them back in the desk. He looked at me kind of nervous-like and told me not to say anything to his mother.”

  “Did you?”

  She shook her short brown hair. “I didn’t have a chance. I was going to the next day when I had duties on the floor again, but by then, she was dead.” Tears formed in the corners of the young woman’s dark eyes. “She was a nice lady.”

  “Yes, Alice, she was. Thank you for telling me.”

  Reid waited for the maid to leave, then pulled the key to Lady Flora’s room out of his pocket.

  He made a meticulous search of Lady Flora’s room, this time specifically looking for any documents. He went through her clothes, the drawers, the wardrobe, the dressing table, the night tables, her purse, her luggage. He looked under the bed, under the mattress, and behind everything he could move. No documents. Nor was there anything in the room to suggest she was having an affair. What could Rafe have found that alerted him to Flora’s infidelity? Where would he look first if it were him?

  Her mobile phone. Reid went back to the purse, carefully took the phone out, and scrolled down the call log. Multiple calls of long duration to a Glasgow exchange. That would probably be George. There were a couple of calls to a number designated as “Home,” and to another designated as “Rafe.” All short calls. If he’d found it so easily, certainly Rafe could have done the same.

  He replaced Flora’s mobile in her purse, then locked the room, making sure the adjoining door to Rafe’s room was still locked on Flora’s side. From the library, he called Jeremy Stone’s law partner, Colin Gibson, at home. They talked, and Gibson promised to look into getting the answers to Reid’s questions and call back.

  While he waited for Gibson’s call, he went to find Anne and Michael. In the kitchen, he discovered his mother sitting at the kitchen table, having a cup of tea while she went over some papers. Mrs. Paulson was busy supervising her crew to get the dinner prepared. No matter what else was going on, it seemed, people still ate. Anne was nowhere in sight.

  “Countess.”

  His mother looked more tired than he ever remembered seeing her. “Is Flora’s body gone?”

  He nodded. “Another van is coming for Jeremy. The scene of crime people should be here in a couple of hours. They hadn’t had it at the top of their list when they thought Flora’s death was just an accidental overdose. But now, of course, things have changed, and they need something more comprehensive for both scenes.”

  “Poor Flora and Jeremy. It’s unbearable to lose two such dear friends. Of course, we’re canceling the New Year’s festivities.” She motioned to the papers in front of her. “There are so many people to notify.” She spoke quietly so the staff wouldn’t overhear. “I wanted this time to be so perfect. I wanted so much to see you happy again.”

  “Thank you, Countess. This has been hard on everyone. Lady Flora and Jeremy are a terrible loss.”

  “Her poor children. And George.” Then as an afterthought, “And of course, Rafe too.”

  “I’m waiting for Jeremy’s law partner to call me back. There were no papers relating to Lady Flora in Jeremy’s things. You don’t know if he put things anywhere else?”

  “No, he was careful that way. He gave us copies of our papers, of course. I would assume Flora would have copies of anything he was preparing for her”

  He shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “Can I help in some way, chérie? Or would you like some tea?”

  “I was actually looking for Anne. Have you any idea where in this elephant of a house she and Michael could be?”

  “Michael is with Irene. Your wife put her jeans on and some old boots we found for her and is out mucking about in the greenhouse. She wanted to see some of the spring plants we’ve started out there. I would have gone with her, but there’s too much going on here. I sent one of the gardeners to be with her. I didn’t want her alone out there. She took her mobile in case her mother needed her to come back for the baby. You could call her.”

  “In all this snow, she’s thinking of planting?”

  “It takes time to get these plants up from seeds. She probably just needed the smell of earth. Intoxicating, you know, to a gardener. I told her to select things she might want for your home’s gardens. She took her plans with her. She seemed intent on her mission.”

  “I’ll leave her in peace to play in the mud. I think she needs to get her hands dirty. I appreciate you sending someone with her. I’d worry with her being out there if she were alone. I’ll go find her after I get this call if she’s still out there by then. Do you know if anyone has informed Gregory about Jeremy?”

  “Yes, your father.”

  “Good.”

  Bernard appeared at the door of the kitchen, holding a portable telephone.

  “A call for you, your Lordship. It’s Mr. Gibson.”

  Chapter 52

  “COLIN, THANK YOU for calling back.” Reid held the receiver close to his ear and kept his voice low.

  “Have the police found out anything more?”

  “Not yet. Their investigators won’t get here for a couple of hours. We’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, I need to talk to you about exactly what business Jeremy was doing here. I understand the confidentiality issues, but I would appreciate whatever you can share with me.”

  “No problem. As you asked, I’ve gone through his files on any clients staying at Dunbaryn, as well as his time-billing sheets to see what work he was billing for and have everything assembled.”

  “Can you summarize?”

  “Of course. First, the annulment. He’d put in a considerable amount of time getting that in order.”

  Reid considered how to ask the next question. “If the police were to get access to those files, what exactly would they find?”

  “The billing records indicate simply that he was doing estate planning work for you. As for any other paperwork, I’d done as Jeremy directed and eliminated all those documents.”

  “What else was he working on?”

  “Some things for your parents. Adjustments to their estate planning to provide specifically for your son, and an acquisition for the distillery. As to his work for Lady Flora, I feel a bit uncomfortable sharing the information, but I would think in a murder investigation with both Jeremy and the client dead, I’m justified in doing so.”

  “I’d agree.”

  “Jeremy had drawn up the papers to begin divorce proceedings and had already changed Lady Flora’s will accordingly.”

  Reid absorbed the information. “So she was definitely planning to divorce Rafe?”

  “Definitely. Those were the papers Jeremy was bringing her to sign at Dunbaryn.”

  “How about the will? What kind of changes had she made?”

  “Well, obviously, excluding her husband from inheriting from her. She also reflected in her new will that her children were not to directly take a share from her estate. According to the file, she was planning to remarry George Greene. She named him as the executor of her estate. The new will was set out to leave everything to Greene in trust for her children to be provided to them as he decided was best. The trust would dissolve when Lance turned thirty-five or George Greene died, whichever came first, and the money from the trust would then be distributed among the three children.”

  “Can she do that? Essentially disinherit her husband before the divorce is final?”

  “Scottish law makes it difficult to disinherit a spouse and children completely, but Lady Flora has been astute in her estate planning through the years. It’s technical, but suffice it to say Lady Flora set up things to allow her the maximum amount of control—all of her property except for an investment of cash she gave to her son Rodney to manage, was in real estate. She started the process of changing her holdings prior to her marriage on her father’s advice and, of course, with Jeremy’s assistance. The only property of consequence Rafe Kensington could claim a share of was the two mi
llion pounds she’d put in Rodney’s control to invest. And it’s my understanding that money’s gone. So effectively, she has no assets Rafe Kensington can claim a share of—with the exception of some furniture and jewelry.”

  “So each of the children will eventually get more under this new will, but Rafe gets nothing.”

  “That’s essentially right. I believe there’s a provision he’ll receive the office building he’s in, which Lady Flora owned, and some debts to her will be forgiven, but that’s it.”

  “And George Greene?”

  “Nothing.”

  “What about Greenebrae Lodge?”

  “That already belongs to him. She had no ownership interest in the property anymore.”

  “Do you have copies of the documents?”

  “Yes, of course. I know Jeremy had considered whether to mention the divorce to you, but as he thought Lady Flora’s death was an accident, he didn’t think it was important. He didn’t want the news about the divorce to come out since her family didn’t know about it. He assumed everyone would find out about the terms of the will soon enough when it was read.”

  “She’d signed the new will?”

  “Oh, aye. The will had already been changed. Jeremy was just bringing her the divorce papers to sign. The original signed will is here. The original divorce papers should be there at Dunbaryn in Jeremy’s things.”

  “There’s nothing like that here. No divorce petition, nothing to do with Lady Flora at all. Can you fax copies of the documents to me here?”

  “Certainly.”

  “I’m going to ask you not tell anyone that Lady Flora signed the new will or that you have the original. The heirs can learn about it at the reading of the will.”

  “That’s an unusual request. Generally, I would contact the executor to make arrangements for the will to be read.”

  “These are unusual circumstances.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Thank you, Colin. I’m sure my father will be in contact with you about finalizing the other paperwork Jeremy prepared for him. He wanted me to assure you he means to continue working with your firm.”

  “That’s good of him, Lord Reid.”

  “When do you anticipate the reading of the will occurring?”

  “I was planning to set it up for Wednesday. As all the interested parties reside in Glasgow, it was my thought it would be best to have it there. I’ll travel down for it.”

  “Where will it be?”

  “That’s a bit of a problem, actually. My firm doesn’t have Glasgow facilities. I was thinking Kensington’s chambers, but as he’s being disinherited, I thought that would be in poor taste. I called a mate of mine and got the promise of the loan of his chambers. Unless you have another place to recommend?”

  “May I attend?”

  “I don’t have any objection.”

  “Then you’re welcome to have the reading in the conference room at my offices.”

  “That would be unusual.”

  “Again, as I said before, these are unusual circumstances—there have been two murders of persons involved with this will.”

  “You’re right, of course. I’ll accept your offer.”

  Reid gave him the address of his High Street offices. “Remember not to tell anyone you have the signed original of the will.”

  “I won’t. Do you think that’s why Jeremy was killed?”

  “It’s certainly a possibility.”

  *****

  Reid handed the copies of an unsigned draft of the new will and divorce petition across the library desk to Rafe Kensington.

  Rafe studied the papers as carefully as one would expect from a solicitor. “Where did you get these?”

  “Jeremy’s files. You had no knowledge of her plans?”

  “Absolutely not. She never mentioned anything like this to me. This has to be something Greene put her up to. Leaving everything to him and making himself her executor? Are you telling me she signed this rubbish?”

  “There was no signed copy of either document in her or Jeremy’s things. Had you and she talked about a divorce?”

  “Never.” The man was adamant.

  “Apparently she was having an affair with George.”

  “That’s not possible. They couldn’t abide each other.”

  “It’s been confirmed from several sources.”

  Rafe pushed the documents around in front of him. “Why wouldn’t she have told me? This has to be some ploy by Greene to get Flora’s share of Greenebrae Lodge, and the rest of her estate too.”

  “According to Colin Gibson, Greenebrae Lodge already belongs to George.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Flora owned it with Greene.”

  “Gibson said the title is held exclusively in George’s name and has been since the divorce. So under either version of the will, Greenebrae Lodge is George Greene’s.”

  Rafe shook his head in disbelief. “Why would she have lied to me about that?”

  “She led you to believe she still had ownership interest in Greenbrae Lodge?”

  “Yes.” Rafe rubbed his temples. “If Greene owns the property outright, what were they fighting about all of this time?” He gave an abrupt laugh. “Stupid question. They weren’t fighting, were they? That deceitful bitch.”

  “I don’t have any other information.”

  “At least this will was never signed.”

  Reid decided not to enlighten him. “What were the terms of her will before this one?”

  “The only will I know of—and still, apparently, the only signed will—leaves me half of her entire estate—the other half was to be divided among Flora’s three children. I may have been cuckolded, but she didn’t manage to disinherit me.”

  Chapter 53

  “LOOK HERE.” The constable squeezed a piece of paper with a tweezers. “There’s a good bit of these pieces in the fireplace here. Looks like someone was burning some typed papers. There’s a piece here that’s still large enough to have part of the solicitor’s firm’s heading on it.”

  DI Francis turned from where he’d been going through Lance Kensington’s luggage to examine the paper fragment caught in the tweezers. “Bag it,” he said, then addressed himself to Reid. “The son was an heir under the old will, I assume?”

  “Yes, he would have inherited a substantial amount of money immediately.”

  “But under the new will, he’d have to wait?”

  “He would, but he’d get more in the long run, and he’d still have had access to distributions from a trust in the meantime.”

  “You don’t think he knew about the new will?”

  Reid shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think Lady Flora had told her family yet. She was filing for divorce and hadn’t announced that yet either. I’ve asked Stone’s partner to keep it quiet that the new will was signed until the actual reading of the will on Wednesday.” Reid watched as the young constable, continuing his search of Lance’s room, moved to the bed. “One of the housemaids said she saw Lance in his mother’s room on Christmas afternoon. He’d been going through her papers. So he may well have seen a copy of the new will as well as the divorce papers. There are no papers there now, as you know.”

  D.I. Francis frowned. “Did her husband know she wanted to divorce him?”

  The constable grunted as he shifted the mattress off the bed.

  Reid moved to help out, taking the other side of the mattress. “He says not. Lady Flora and her ex were having an affair and planning to remarry, but apparently they were putting on a fairly good fiction that they were fighting over some business matters.”

  “Cor, Guv. Lookee here.” The baby-faced constable held up several baggies containing white powder, as well as one with a darker brown substance.

  Reid lowered his end of the mattress. Shite.

  D.I. Francis’s expression fell just short of a smirk. “Superintendent Reid, it looks like at least one of your house guests is a serious user. My guess is coke and heroin. Needs testing th
ough.”

  “I’d say. Any sign of paraphernalia, constable?”

  The constable shook his head. “Needles, that kind of thing? No, not here at least. Can you check under your side, sir?”

  Reid lifted the mattress. “Nothing here.”

  “You’re thinking what I’m thinking, Superintendent?”

  “Yes. The kit in Lady Flora’s things might have been doing dual duty.”

  “We’ll have the lab look for traces.” DI Francis sighed. “Crawford, get everyone’s prints.”

  “Right-o, guv.” The bounce in the constable’s step betrayed the young man’s sober expression. The story of drugs, debauchery, and death at Dunbaryn would likely be all over the village by tomorrow.

  *****

  Reid handed Lance Kensington a cup of tea, then took his own and settled into his chair in front of the library fireplace.

  “Lance, let’s go through this again. Where were you yesterday morning?”

  “I was here in bed, then I went for a walk.”

  “To the Falcon House?”

  “No, I just walked around outside the castle a bit. Darryl was still sleeping, and I thought when I got back we’d go to breakfast. So he wouldn’t have to go alone.”

  “What about the bits of legal papers found in your fireplace?”

  “I told you. I didn’t see any papers. I don’t know where they came from.”

  “You were seen in your mother’s rooms on Christmas afternoon. Going through papers.”

  Lance gave Reid a disgusted look. “The twit of a maid told you, didn’t she?”

  “You were there?”

  “Maybe.”

  Reid waited.

  “All right, I was there.”

  “What were the papers you were looking at?”

  “No idea. The maid came in before I could make any sense of them. A bunch of legal mumbo jumbo.”

  “Did you take any of the papers with you?”

  “How could I with that maid there?”

  “You could have come back later.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Have you thought anymore about how your mother would have come to have your insulin kit?”

  “I don’t have the first clue.”