‘Was he in the Forces?’ asked Richard. ‘They might have it in his records.’
She shook her head. ‘No, he was exempt during the war. He had such an important job in his father’s aircraft factory, you see.’
Trevor took a turn in the discussion. ‘Was he ever a blood donor? There might be a card amongst his possessions.’
Again his aunt had no knowledge of this, but promised to search amongst the belongings he had left at her house. It then transpired that he had lived with her in Newnham only for a short time, having previously lived in a flat in Cheltenham. He was supposed to be seeking another place of his own and some of his furniture and other possessions were in store until then.
Having delivered her orders that proof must be found, she departed, leaving the three men to gratefully have the tea that Lethbridge’s secretary brought in on a tray.
‘She’s a real old battleaxe, isn’t she?’ said Richard.
‘I reckon her nephew is well out of it, dead or alive.’
‘They didn’t get on that well, apparently,’ said Trevor. ‘When I was snooping around at the start of this job, I talked to neighbours and friends of the family and they said they had heard the old girl and Anthony going at each other hammer-and-tongs sometimes. He used to push off on holidays and trips a lot, just to get away from her.’
‘Didn’t he have a job of any sort?’ asked Richard.
‘No, he was rolling in it. I don’t know why he didn’t get himself his own place again in the first week.’
‘That’s why she’s so keen to have him declared dead, so that she can get probate, as there’s a lot of money involved,’ commented Lethbridge.
‘Well, he
‘Why is she so convinced that this chap at the reservoir is Anthony?’ asked Pryor.
‘This is the third time she’s been convinced that a body was his,’ said the solicitor. ‘But this time, there was no head and no means of saying it wasn’t him, which was what eventually happened with the others.’
‘What about this ring and the watch, then?’ persisted Richard. ‘Does she claim to have recognized those?’
Mitchell shrugged. ‘She’s deliberately vague about it. He had been married many years ago, his wife died and the old lady says he did wear a wedding ring. As for the watch, she never noticed whether it was an Omega, just says that being Anthony, it must have been an expensive one!’
Their tea finished, Richard and Trevor rose to leave.
‘So what more can we do now?’ asked Lethbridge.
‘If we could find Anthony’s blood group, it might get her off our backs, if it’s not Group A-positive,’ said Richard.
‘I’ll have a scout around and see what I can find in various records,’ offered Mitchell. ‘But let’s hope it’s not A- positive, or she’ll be absolutely convinced it’s him!’
Inspector Lewis was once again talking confidentially to Michael Prentice’s technical director at the industrial estate on Jersey Marine. They were in his small office upstairs, Lewis having checked that the black Jaguar was not in the compound outside.
‘I can’t tell you why I need to know this, and I can’t legally tell you to keep it from your partner,’ he said to Eric Laskey. ‘It’s about that additive you told me about when I was here last?’
The engineer looked puzzled, but went along with the inspector’s request.
‘As I told you, it’s only in the testing stage at present. We add this compound to the engine oil, which reduces friction. Several firms are working on it, success depends on who gets it perfected and commercially available first.’
‘Does it work?’ asked Lewis. This query was not part of the enquiry, he was just curious.
‘Sure, there’s no doubt of that! The problem is getting the right concentration in the oil and making it stay there.’
‘So what’s the “it”? You did tell me and I’ve forgotten.’
‘Molybdenum sulphide – physically, it’s a lot like graphite, the molecules are flat and slide over each other, reducing friction and wear.’ Laskey became enthusiastic and insisted on getting into detail. ‘The molybdenum atoms are sandwiched between two layers of sulphur, which bonds to the metal of bearings, so the stuff slips sideways.’
Lewis, who years ago did General Science for his School Certificate, had a vague idea what Laskey was talking about, but returned to the purpose of his visit.
‘Now then, have you started using it in engines yet?’
‘God, yes, for the last three years! We have special fixed engines on test beds, which we run for a long time, then take to bits to see how they are wearing. Lately, we’ve been testing it on vehicles actually on the road.’
‘That’s just what I want to know, sir. Which vehicles in particular?’
Laskey looked a little furtive. ‘Why on earth do you want to know that? Look, Inspector, there’s a lot of competition in this field, until we get patents arranged on our final products, we wouldn’t want any information to be bandied about outside this building.’
Lewis hastened to reassure him.
‘This is purely a police matter, Mr Laskey. All I want to know is how many vehicles in the Swansea area would have molybdenum in their sumps?’
Still mystified, the other man began ticking off on his fingers. ‘There are the two vans we use for running around – though one of them is God knows where, as it’s been stolen. Then we have a Bedford truck for heavier stuff. Two of our floor engineers are trying it out – and then of course myself and Michael Prentice have joined in the testing.’
This was what Lewis wanted to know. ‘That would be in his Jaguar, I presume?’ he asked.
‘That’s right, he’s been using it for almost a year, the same as I’ve had it in my Lanchester. These are very peculiar questions, Inspector. Can’t you tell me why you want to know?’
The detective shook his head. ‘Sorry, sir, not at the moment. What I would like is a small sample of this molybdenum that’s in Mr Prentice’s crankcase.’
Laskey was very reluctant to hand over any of their secret substance, but after Lewis had assured him that he was not involved in any industrial espionage and hinted that he could get a magistrate’s order if it wasn’t handed over, he caved in. Taking him down to the workshop floor, he took a small bottle of oil labelled with a serial number from a locked cupboard and handed it to the policeman. ‘That’s the one we’re testing now, the code on the label refers to the strength of molybdenum in that particular batch.’
Laskey was very uneasy as he watched the inspector drive away, then went back to his office and picked up the telephone.
There was a hiatus in both cases for the next few days.
Agnes Oldfield went back to her gloomy house in Newnham and started searching through her nephew’s belongings in the hope of finding something that would help in her crusade to prove that the reservoir remains were his. When he left his flat in Cheltenham, he had come to stay with her and had his own large room upstairs, for which he paid her rent, as well as a weekly contribution for food and household expenses. Their relationship was not always cordial and he spent a lot of time away, either staying with friends in various parts of England or going abroad on undisclosed trips. When he was there, he often went fishing or attending the races, both the Chepstow and Cheltenham courses being a favourite haunt for him to meet his friends.
The circumstances of his final departure had been gone over with her repeatedly by Edward Lethbridge and Tony Mitchell, but threw little light on where he might have gone.
‘I went for a long weekend to stay with an old schoolfriend in Hove,’ she had told them. ‘When I returned on the Monday, he was gone. I thought little of that, as Anthony was always taking it into his head to disappear on an impulse without telling me, but this time he never came back.’
Pressed to explain why she thought he might have turned up at the reservoir, she had no real answer, except that he had often gone for walking trips in that area and was very fond of the Golden Valley and the borders of Wales and Herefordshire.
‘He would sometimes spend a week there, staying in inns and small hotels,’ she declared. ‘So that place where the body was found was right where he might be expected to be.’
Now, with almost a hundred thousand pounds at stake, Agnes was more than keen to find evidence that would
