by Anna Jacobs
She’d expected to have a wakeful night, but although she did rouse a couple of times, she slept fairly well. She had grown used to the day-night schedule here now, and had always been a sound sleeper.
As she snuggled down, she wished she’d asked Russ to stay with her.
What a pity his life was as closely tied to England as hers was to Australia. Fate was sometimes very unkind. And to make matters worse, he hadn’t even had a good experience in Australia, wasn’t eager to go back there.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When Simone picked up the phone early the following morning, it was Fern calling.
‘Kit told me about his father’s death and he’s asked me if I’d go and clear out Lance’s flat. He doesn’t think there will be much to get rid of, because it’s a furnished place. Could I ask you – would you mind coming to help me go through the contents? I don’t like the idea of doing it on my own and I know my daughter won’t come. She’s paranoid about picking up infections since she’s had the baby, and Lance has never been famous for his sparkling cleanliness.’
Simone didn’t hesitate. ‘Of course I’ll help you. Um, I’m just being nosey, but why can’t Kit do it?’
‘He says he isn’t going near the place whether I clear it out or not. As far as he’s concerned we can throw all his father’s possessions into a skip and he’ll pay to have it all taken away. Only, he knows I help out at a couple of charities, so he wondered whether some of the stuff might be sellable by them. I hate to waste anything.’
‘So poor old you got lumbered with doing this.’
‘I seem to be the one who does all the awkward jobs in this family. I took over that role from Henrietta gradually and it was a while before I fully realised what I was letting myself in for.’
‘There’s always some mother figure in a family, isn’t there, the one who organises gatherings and keeps people in touch – and clears up dead men’s flats?’
She chuckled. ‘Yes. Mama Idiot is moi. Kit knows I can be trusted to do a thorough job of it. The other thing I’m going for is to check whether there are any family documents among his father’s stuff. Henrietta has been the custodian of the family collection of such memorabilia, and she has some really wonderful old photos and mementoes, dating right back to the 1860s and the early days of photography. She’s already informed me she’ll be passing the originals on to me when she dies but Elizabeth has made digital copies for everyone else to make sure we don’t lose such treasures. You can get a set from her if you’re interested.’
‘I’d love that. It’s kind of you to do it.’
Fern chuckled. ‘Henrietta didn’t ask me to take over the collection after she died, she simply told me I was the one.’
Simone could tell from the tone of the other woman’s voice that she was secretly pleased about taking on this role but didn’t comment on that, saying merely, ‘I’m a bit the same way myself about not wasting things, Fern. Comes of being short of money when I was first married.’
‘Yes. We were broke too. It teaches you a lot, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes. What about the funeral? Will you have to organise that as well?’
‘No, thank goodness. Lance left no instructions and Kit isn’t going to hold a public ceremony because everyone in the family disliked Lance, who changed steadily for the worse as he grew older. Kit doubts anyone but me would attend. He has to wait until after the autopsy to get the body back anyway, because his father hadn’t been seeing a doctor regularly. When he does get permission to take away the body, a funeral company will deal with it.’
After a few seconds’ pause, she went on, ‘Actually, there’s another reason I asked you to come with me. I don’t want to go to his flat on my own because Lance was such a creep and I’m sure the place will give me the shivers.’
‘Have you never been there?’
‘I doubt anyone but Kit has.’
Simone grimaced at her reflection in the mirror as she listened. She too felt Lance had been creepy. But she couldn’t refuse this plea from Fern, who had been so kind and welcoming to her. ‘I’ll come with you, happy to help, but I’ll have to let Russ know that I won’t be around for a few hours, because I’m working for him now. I don’t think he’ll be planning to do any photographing today. He’s more upset by what happened than he admits and he’ll probably welcome some quiet time on his own.’
She could hear the amusement in her own voice as she added, ‘I should think he’ll calm himself down by keeping company with some animal or other down by the lake. Hold on a minute. I’ll just nip next door and tell him.’
She took the phone with her and Fern couldn’t help overhearing the brief conversation with Russ who was indeed intending to relax today.
‘Did you hear that?’ Simone asked.
‘Yes. Thanks a lot. I’m very relieved not to be going on my own. I’ll pick you up in about half an hour. You’re on my way so we don’t need to waste petrol on two cars.’
When Fern’s car drew up outside Simone was ready, dressed for practicality and protection in an old pair of well-worn jeans and a faded top. She looked down at herself and wondered what people did when they had dirty jobs to do and had only jeans with big holes in them. That was such a weird fashion.
At the flat, Fern hesitated for a moment then unlocked the door. Neither of them made a move to go inside until she pushed it open and said, ‘We’re being silly. Let’s just get it done.’
But as they walked into the flat, they both gasped in shock and stopped dead because someone had been there before them and the place had been ransacked.
‘Oh, hell! What next?’ Fern dragged back the curtains and they walked slowly round the living room with its tiny kitchen at one end and a separate single bedroom. ‘Don’t touch anything.’
Everywhere was in chaos, with clothes, books, scattered slices of bread and pages of newspapers tossed around any old how.
‘What do you suppose they were looking for? They even emptied out the bread, for heaven’s sake.’
‘Who knows? But I bet they didn’t find anything of value,’ Fern said.
‘What should we do?’
‘Call the police. I don’t want anyone getting away with breaking and entering.’
‘Why do you think they did it? I mean, this block of flats is clearly at the lower end of the market. What could they expect to find here that was worth their trouble?’
‘Anything of value would be welcome, I suppose. Lance owed a lot of money, all the family are well aware of that,’ Fern said. ‘And two men were apparently chasing him for a debt when he dropped dead, literally chasing him. I’ll phone Kit and let him know about this after I’ve called the police.’
The police didn’t seem at all interested but said grudgingly that an officer would be there within a couple of hours and not to touch anything in the meantime.
Kit didn’t think it worth joining them. ‘What’s the point? I don’t know what he owned.’
‘Well, I still want to see if I can find any family photos,’ Fern said after she’d ended the call to him. She reached up to put her shoulder bag out of the way on the high, old-fashioned mantelpiece and knocked off a garish Buddha statue, which smashed to pieces on the hearth.
‘Damn!’
Then she looked at it and exchanged glances with Simone. ‘Is that what I think it is?’
They both bent over the mess and Fern reached out to scrape the top fragments out of the way then held up a roll of banknotes tightly wrapped in a plastic bag.
‘This must be where he hid his cash,’ Fern said. ‘Well, well. At least the burglar didn’t find it.’
She glanced at Simone. ‘If you agree, I’m not going to say anything to the police about this. I can just give the money to Kit. Who knows how long it’d be before he got it if they took it away as evidence?’
Simone shrugged. ‘Seems reasonable. He must be the heir, after all. There’s no one else. I’m assuming there’s no will.’
Fern rol
led her eyes scornfully. ‘Oh, we can safely assume that.’
After hunting high and low, they found a folder taped underneath the lowest drawer in the kitchen.
‘How on earth did you know to look there?’ Simone marvelled.
Fern grinned. ‘A lifetime of addiction to whodunnit books and films. Miss Marple has shared everything she knows with me, for a start. We’ll look through these documents after the police have gone. For now I’ll put them in my car. We won’t sweep up the broken bits of Buddha, though, just stir them about a bit so the hiding place doesn’t show. I don’t think the police will look twice at them.’
Two constables turned up half an hour later and gave the place a cursory looking over.
‘There doesn’t seem to be anything of value,’ one said apologetically. ‘We can put this on record but do you really want us to freeze his, um, assets?’ Clearly the officer didn’t think it worth bothering.
‘No. You’re right. He hasn’t got any real assets, was always trying to cadge money off his relatives. Most of this stuff just needs throwing away. Or giving to charity. I can do that, if it’s OK with you?’
‘Very OK. The police are overloaded with serious cases, as you may have read in the papers. And there’s no harm been done to any person in this crime either, is there? So that gives it an even lower priority. I’ll have to check with my sergeant but if he approves, you can clear everything out.’
The officer went outside and made a call, then she came back to tell them it would be fine to clear the flat.
Since it had been rented furnished and Lance didn’t seem to have had many possessions, there wasn’t much to deal with and it only took the two women a couple of hours. They threw most of his stuff into the big rubbish skip behind the flats, including a linen basket full of dirty clothes. They were left with only two plastic bags of sellable bits and pieces for the charity shops. He hadn’t even had much crockery.
Fern called Kit to ask if he wanted to run a final check on the flat and he again denied any interest whatsoever in visiting it.
‘We’ve found a couple of things you might like to keep. Are you at home? Good. We’ll bring them round straight away.’
‘I can’t imagine there’s anything worth keeping.’
‘Trust me, you’ll be glad we came.’
‘Oh, very well. I’ll put the kettle on. Mags and I have both spent the day at home planning what we’ll take with us to Australia. My boss is delighted I’ve accepted the posting and wants me to leave as quickly as I can because someone’s fallen seriously ill in the middle of a project. It’s a subject I know quite a bit about, so I know I can deal with the interviews for gathering the necessary information. We’re both grateful to Simone for talking to us about Australia.’
On the way home, the two women stopped for a late lunch in a small café Fern knew, then they went on to see Kit.
He stared at the money in shock. ‘My father had over four thousand pounds stashed away? My father! He must only just have won it, then. He couldn’t have kept that much money in his pocket for more than a few days, if that.’
‘I suppose so. Anyway, it belongs to you now. Enjoy. Will you have to give your mother a share?’
‘No. Her second husband is loaded. She’d tell me to blow the money on a fancy meal. I shan’t waste it like that, though. It can go into our long-term mortgage fund, instead.’ He chuckled. ‘That’d have really upset him.’
‘I don’t think you should tell anyone about it, then, not even your family. Whoever ransacked your father’s flat was looking for something and that could be it.’
‘Gosh, yes. I never thought of that.’
‘What about the family papers and photos? Will you keep them?’
‘I’ll go through them in a day or two and see if there are any I want to keep, which won’t include any photos of him, that’s for sure.’
Something bad must definitely have happened between him and Lance to have caused such hatred, Fern thought, but didn’t comment. ‘Henrietta might like to have the originals, or at least copies of them for the family archives, so don’t throw any of them away. Even those of your father.’
‘OK. I’ll see she gets the originals once I’ve copied the ones I want digitally.’
Fern stood up. ‘Right, then. We’ll leave you to it.’
He came to the door with them. ‘Thank you. I’m very grateful indeed for your help.’ He gave her a sudden hug.
‘That’s what family are for, to help one another.’
Kit’s voice was bitter. ‘He never felt like family.’
She could only pat him on the shoulder and say, ‘I know.’ The poor lad must have felt the lack of a father, as any child would. His mother’s second husband had already raised children of his own when they married. Give Brad his due, he’d not been unkind to Kit, but he hadn’t attempted to form a warm, loving bond with him, either.
Kit must have been very lonely before he met Mags and now he was utterly devoted to her. What a lovely young couple they were! They’d see one another through this, she was sure, and the change of country would probably do them a world of good.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Simone went home to find Russ’s car missing and a note from him shoved through her door in an envelope containing his door key. As she was opening it, her phone chimed and she saw that he was calling.
‘Sorry. Have to make this quick. I’m on my way to London.’
‘Goodness, that was sudden.’
‘Well, I mentioned to my agent that I’d put together a pilot episode, just a rough one, shot in the grounds of Pennerton House and she talked to the production people and they want to see it – and me. So I’m taking it to them personally, well, my agent and I are doing that together. They think it might make an extra mini-series, as well as the original series, you see. It’d give me a nice chunk of extra money. So I won’t be home tonight.’
‘Oh. Well, it’s good news about the meeting, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. But not good news about missing you.’
She couldn’t keep the words back. ‘I’ll miss you, too.’
‘If you want to get on with some paperwork I’ve left my spare key.’
‘OK.’
Silence, then he asked, ‘How did you and Fern get on today? I didn’t like to interrupt your unpleasant job by phoning you there.’
‘I’d better tell you about the details in person. We found a couple of things that were useful but mostly all Lance owned was a load of rubbish. And Fern was right. That flat did feel creepy.’
‘Oh, heck, we’re nearly at the production offices already. I’ll have to go. I’ll call you tonight.’
She felt disappointed at having to say goodbye, which was stupid. She was used to being on her own, wasn’t she? She’d had four years of practice at that. She looked at the clock and did a quick calculation. Still time to ring the girls in Australia and have a quick chat. Neither of them went to bed early.
Why didn’t that make her feel more cheerful?
Because she was being stupid about Russ, that was why.
She was starting to realise how much she would miss him when she had to go home to Australia and her family.
Clo picked up the phone. ‘Hi, Ma.’
‘How are you, darling?’
‘Oh, you know. Pregnancy isn’t much fun. I get tired pretty quickly these days, then there’s all the housework to do after I get home.’
‘I hope Bob is helping you more than he did last time.’
‘He didn’t need to then because you were here to help me.’
She sounded tearful but Simone wasn’t buying into any guilt about coming to England. Clo’s situation wasn’t her responsibility, even though she’d help them from time to time, naturally. She tried to speak cheerfully. ‘So Bob will have to step up to the mark more this time, won’t he?’
‘He’s busy at work and bringing stuff home as well. It’s an important project and he expects it to help him get a promotion
. Can’t you come back earlier, Ma?’
‘No dear, sorry. I have my own life to lead, you know, and I’ve met a rather nice guy over here.’
‘What? Who is he? I hope he’s not after your money.’
‘Why should you think that? Do you think I’m stupid? I learnt my lesson about that from rat man, believe me.’
‘No, no. Of course I don’t think you’re stupid. Who is this guy, then?’
‘It’s the man I’m working for, the film-maker, so actually he’s better off financially than I am.’
‘Oh. I see. How old is he?’
‘About my age.’
‘I bet he’s divorced.’ Clo’s voice sounded sharp.
This was a very weird conversation. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘You and Dad were so happy together. You’d be taking a big risk getting together with a divorced man who’s failed at marriage once. And anyway, I need you far more than he does at the moment.’
‘I thought I made it plain before I left that it’s not my job to look after you, even during a pregnancy, Clo. It’s Bob’s responsibility. He is the father, after all.’
‘Thanks for nothing.’ The phone cut off abruptly at the other end.
Simone was so shocked by this that she sat staring at the tiny screen for ages. Clearly her daughter really did expect her to give up her life to support them. She’d hoped they would be starting to grow used to managing without her. It seemed she was wrong.
She phoned Deb but got an engaged signal. What was the betting Clo had immediately called her sister?
Ten minutes later her phone chimed. She picked it up reluctantly after seeing her other daughter’s number. ‘Hi, Deb.’
‘I’ve just been speaking to Clo.’
‘Oh?’
‘I have to say I think you’re being absolutely selfish, Ma. She really needs you now and you’re only swanning around the UK. You could do that another time.’
‘I have a life of my own, something you two seem to forget, and if we’re being purely practical, it might have escaped your notice but I’ve swapped houses with the Dittons for about six months. So even if I wanted to return – which I don’t – I’ve nowhere to come back to.’