***
Molly Dempster sat in her chair; she was not looking up, not drinking from the cup of tea placed in front of her. Wendy could only imagine what was going through her mind, the reality of what she was about to tell the people in the room. Isaac and Wendy knew, had checked DNA with Forensics. What Molly had said was true, she was Ralph’s mother, and now her son was sitting on one side of the room, she on the other. The young boy that she had raised with Dorothy, spent more time with than the woman who had disappeared all those years ago – tonight the grown man would find out the truth.
‘Caroline is in contact with Jill Dundas, a woman she doesn’t trust, neither do we totally,’ Isaac said. ‘Now, we’re not accusing her of murder, but the bequeathment by Gilbert is not usual. Whatever Jill Dundas and her father came up with, they’ve certainly done best out of the man’s death. It may be what Gilbert wanted, it may not, but neither Caroline nor Ralph has the full picture. We’ve had people checking, and it’s not that easy to know exactly what Gilbert Lawrence’s wealth is, only that it is appreciable. We’ve also called on our overseas colleagues to do some checking. Caroline’s received five million, her two children a million each. Not bad for most people, but Caroline and Ralph were expecting hundreds of millions. Am I correct?’ Ralph and Caroline nodded in the affirmative.
‘I’d have stayed in Spain if I’d known that I was going to be cheated,’ Ralph said, the first words of any consequence he had uttered since entering his sister’s house.
‘Not likely,’ Isaac said. ‘You were deported, lucky that we were in contact with the authorities down there.’
‘I would have come to an arrangement. A few pesetas here and there, problems disappear quickly.’
‘It’s euros now,’ Isaac said. Wendy was keeping quiet, so was Larry. Their DCI was on a roll, he wouldn’t appreciate their chipping in with a few comments, not that they had any. Wendy felt sorry for Molly, knowing that Ralph, her son, was a man of little worth, but then the old woman had admitted that Ralph’s behaviour was only like her father and her grandfather, decent men but dreamers, always taking a chance when the odds were against them.
‘Euros, pesetas, I’d still be back there.’
‘You would still have had Frost to deal with.’
‘I could have paid him off.’
‘You’ve heard about Samuels and Dubai, the two Russian women?’
‘Who hasn’t? It’s folklore out on the street. And besides, it was Belgium, a couple of streetwalkers, and it wasn’t a Mercedes, it was an old Peugeot. Doesn’t sound so romantic, though, that’s why Frost embellished the truth, made him sound more important, more dangerous.’
‘Are you admitting to your involvement with Frost?’
‘Okay, I borrowed some money, but it was a roof that I fell off. With my father’s money, I was hoping to buy somewhere in England, settle down with Yolanda, even find a place for Michael.’
Isaac had an admission that Ralph had borrowed money from Frost, the first time the man had spoken the truth. ‘We’ll bring Frost in at some stage. We’ll not linger on your denials for now. Caroline, you met with Jill Dundas in the West End, correct?’
‘There’s no harm in that,’ Caroline, on the defensive, said.
‘Unusual, considering that you’ve been disparaging of her in the past.’
‘You’ve not heard me say anything, have you?’
‘We keep our ears to the ground. Jill Dundas controls all of your fortunes. She’s one woman, what if anything happens to her?’
‘We’re lost. We need her alive, even if we don’t trust her. Nobody in her office knows where everything is.’
‘You’ve tried bribing some of them?’
‘No. One of them came to us, offered to help for a cost.’
‘And what did you do?’
‘Nothing at this time, and besides, what would a junior know? Leonard Dundas was a smart man, the same as our father. He’d not leave loose pieces of paper around. Even if this junior could help, it would be limited. Jill Dundas is the key. That’s why I was at the Savoy, afternoon tea, very expensive, but she was paying.’
‘What was said?’
‘She’s frightened, interested in making a deal.’
‘Frightened?’
‘You’d better talk to her.’
‘We’re here talking to you. What’s she frightened of?’
‘What do you think? Ralph’s half-killed, and he only owes a million and a bit. Jill’s controlling hundreds of millions, and she can lay her hands on twenty, maybe thirty without any difficulty, and she’s not a brave woman. She admitted to me that she’s scared, and I don’t blame her. If Ralph weren’t such a fool, we’d all feel a lot safer, even Desmond and I.’
‘You’re right to be scared,’ Isaac said.
‘Can’t you arrest them?’ Desmond said.
‘No proof. No one’s talking, not even Ralph, not even the man they kneecapped. Caroline, you’ve fared well enough with your father’s death. Could you have killed your father?’
‘Not me. I still loved him, even though we hadn’t spoken for many years, and I didn’t need the money.’
‘But what if you had known about your mother?’
‘I don’t think I would have done anything, other to have taken down that door that was always bolted with a sledgehammer, and to make my father tell me the truth. Did he kill her? It could have been one of her episodes. She could have
