sidestepped,
‘So tell me, how does the money work?’
‘Well, all residents pay at least five thousand a year into the Trust, depending on need; though apart from the original group only residents who have been there for five years become Trustees and so can decide how that money is spent.’
‘And wasn’t there a one-off fee at the start?’
‘The original eight all put in a one-off fifteen thousand pounds to pay for building work, and also to buy the two downstairs flats they use communally.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well, the Trust has for years been paying this back to them a little each year in the form of a subsidy on their fees.’
Grey thought on this a moment,
‘So this makes the repayments a goodwill gesture to themselves, rather than repayments on a loan?’
‘That’s a way of looking at it.’
‘And meaning that if any of them did die before repayment, then there wasn’t going to be a balance of the loan left to pay to their estate?’
‘Yes. They forewent any financial advantage owing to their inheritors, to save the Trust that financial burden of a lump sum required to be paid out upon their death.’
Very clever that, Grey considered of that first Committee.
‘How much of Stella’s was left to pay back to her?’
‘Only a fraction, I’d estimate.’
So there was one potential motive annulled — her death would not benefit the Trust this way.
‘Let’s talk about Stella.’
‘Did you know her, Inspector?’
‘No. How well did you?’
‘I doubt there was a week we weren’t in touch.’
‘In touch with the Trust or with her?’
‘That tends… tended to be the same thing.’
‘You mean she ran things? But I thought there was the Committee?’
But she caught something in his eye as he said this,
‘To ask like that I think you already know how things were run.’
‘Stella had a tendency to supervise?’
‘These are retirees we’re talking about, they’ve had a life of owning businesses and paying bills and they want someone else to take care of all that for them now. What’s more, they want care home service for warden- controlled prices. Okay, they own their own flats, which aren’t cheap either, but someone has to run that place to budget.’
‘And that was Stella?’
‘With Rachel, yes.’
‘Was this why Rachel is a Trustee?’
‘She has to be, she’s more than just a employee.’
‘Stella wanted this?’
‘There was no disagreement.’
‘Was there often with Stella’s suggestions?’
The solicitor considered her answer, ‘Some people felt the wrong side of her, I’m sure of it; but as a professional and as a woman making my way in the world, I understood her, Inspector, understood how we must sometimes be tough, even cold to the world.’
‘I’ll need the paperwork of her two flat purchases.’
‘Andrea will have them for you first thing tomorrow; though,’ she checked herself, ‘there was only one purchase, the first flat was willed.’
He wasn’t sure he had been testing her, but it proved she knew her onions. It also got them where he wanted to be going,
‘That was… twenty-four years ago? Not that you’d have been here that long ago.’
‘I’m not sure I should respond to such flattery, Inspector,’ she answered even as her smile confirmed it had been welcomed. ‘That was indeed my father’s era, though I was his trainee by then. He took me everywhere with him, including to her school.’
‘Her school?’
‘Yes, that big place where she worked, I’ll never forget it. We met her in her lunchhour; I don’t think she lived in town at that time.’
‘Had he dealt with Stella before?’
‘I got the impression she was new to him; after all it was the aunt who was the client.’
‘And the family?’
‘There are other Dunbars beside the aunt in the files, though nothing current. We can check that for you. I must say though, you are going back a long way — what on earth do you think was the motive? I mean, that is why you’re asking, isn’t it — to learn why someone killed her?’
‘You can’t think of any more recent reason?’
‘What kind of question’s that?’
‘Well, you saw her manage her finances; quite substantial amounts I’ve learnt.’
‘I assure you, no institution in this town is better run.’
‘And by just two women, three if we include yourself, the Committee little more than a rubber stamp.’
‘I resent that implication.’
‘You were her friend, that is clear enough. Please don’t let sentiment hold you back now.’
‘I assure you, there is nothing to tell, even were I held! I only wish that my friend were allowed the dignified in death she had in life.’
He paused, ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Rossiter. Money is often the motive in a crime. You appreciate I wouldn’t be doing my job if I…’
‘That’s all right. I take it I’m not seriously on your suspects list?’
‘That would be no list I would want to put my name to.’
‘Then I rest assured.’ Her slight smile confirmed he was forgiven.
‘I think I have one more thing to ask you now though, and then will be very glad of the files tomorrow morning.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘In fact his name cropped up earlier. She had a friend, Charlie Prove..?’
Raine Rossiter offered an exasperated groan, tilting her head back as she fell into her executive’s chair,
‘I’m not going to get out of here without talking about him, am I? Everything I’ve just said, about no enterprise being run better? Well, forget it when it comes to him.’
Grey felt a door of long-held frustration being unlocked.
‘Not long over a year after they had created the Cedars Trust — it’s rules laid down, its rooms laid out, and after all the work my father had put in — then Stella, who’d been strictest of all the residents over needing to take their plan seriously, and how they weren’t just neighbours any more but had a responsibility to each other and needed to pay their money promptly; Stella, the architect of the whole scheme, called a special Committee meeting to say she had a friend who had no money, no means of paying his fees, but that once you’d heard his story you’d be as eager to have him be a resident as she was.’
‘You were there that day?’
‘No, but we learnt of it soon after — my father would be bending every rule to get him in.’
‘So, he got in, obviously.’
‘After a lot of negotiation he was given — given — a flat to rent at rates you wouldn’t even get a Social Services bed and breakfast room for, and all the rights of a resident for half the usual monthly fee; all of which — show no sentiment, you said — I can tell you now that Stella was paying for.’
‘Every penny?’
