If, as he suspected, his father with only a corpse to keep him company, had been irrational and eccentric, then the man’s sanity could be disputed. But even if the will was invalidated, how much of his father’s wealth would come to him, and how much would remain hidden? After all, Leonard Dundas and his daughter had had a long time to distort the truth and to hide the whereabouts of swathes of property and legal documents.
The first call revealed that a case could be made to dispute Gilbert Lawrence’s sanity, although it would be costly and prolonged. If Dundas had been controlling his father for many years, then his father had been merely a shell, rubber-stamping Dundas’s instructions. He knew that he needed the truth, he needed allies.
‘Caroline, we need to talk,’ Ralph said as he stood at the door of his sister’s house. He had in his pockets the sum of one thousand five hundred and fifty-two pounds. Not much to show for a lifetime of playing the game, he knew, but he had hoped for a fortune.
‘Come in, if you must,’ Caroline said.
Once inside the elegantly decorated terrace house of Caroline and Desmond Dickson, Ralph quickly found a radiator and sat down close to it, removing his suit jacket. He had to admit that his sister had done well for herself, but then, she was the more sensible of the two. She had always looked for stability in her life, whereas he had searched for adventure.
‘Life’s taken a turn for the worse for you,’ Caroline said. They had been close when they were young, and seeing him down and out, a body blow straight in the chest after the reading of their father’s last will and testament, she could only feel compassion.
Before Desmond had come along, the most important man in her life had been her brother, even if he had not been the best influence or the most honest.
‘Our father was not sane, you know that,’ Ralph said as he slowly warmed in the heat.
‘I know it, but what can we do?’
‘Leonard Dundas controlled our father for years.’
‘I’ve spoken to Desmond about it. We will accept the money offered, and I’ll take up the offer that Dundas made at our father’s request.’
‘That’s a smoke screen. You’re to be given voting rights. Voting on what? The truth? Will you be given full visibility?’
‘It will give us five million pounds, our children one million pounds each, and more importantly, it will give us time.’
‘Time for what?’
‘Time to find out the truth.’
‘I’ve received nothing, not unless I agree to conditions that cannot be met.’
‘We can only sympathise with your predicament.’
‘Sympathy will not help,’ Ralph said. He moved away from the radiator and sat in an armchair near to his sister. ‘I need money, and I need it now. Holding down a steady job is not going to work, and as for Michael, he’s barking mad.’
‘What do you know about him? Where is he? What is he doing?’
‘The last I heard he was into heroin. He was looking for money from me.’
‘Did you give him some?’
‘I sent him ten thousand pounds. What else could I do?’
‘He is your son. His mother?’
‘No idea.’
‘Did you come here for money, or just to complain about how your life has turned out?’
‘I’m desperate. What we were working on in Spain hasn’t worked out. The police down there are tough. They’ve seized our assets.’
‘Assets?’
‘Okay, just a rented office, a couple of cars, and our laptops.’
‘The money you had managed to part from the gullible?’
‘That as well. It was a sound business proposal. They would have had secured tenure.’
‘Ralph, save the advertising for others. You’ve lost your money, probably borrowed plenty. And now you’re looking for a handout, and support to take on our father, is that it?’
‘That’s what I said before.’
‘We will take no further action at this time until we have more knowledge of the intricacies of what our father and Dundas have been doing for the last three decades. We have time on our side, you do not. What do you intend to do?’
‘I’ll fight.’
‘With what?’
‘Whatever I’ve got.’
‘You’re playing with fire, not for the first time, but fire nonetheless. You’re going to get burnt, not by Desmond and me, but by others. Did you kill our father? You’d be capable.’
‘Not me. I was incarcerated in Spain, you know that.’
‘What about Michael? He was in England.’
‘Not him. He’s barely capable of looking after himself.’
Ralph knew his sister would not help him, and he did not intend to plead. His situation was precarious, and he had been in tight jams before. He would get himself out of this one.
***
The young anarchist Michael Lawrence was found at the address given by Giles Helmsley. In keeping with the beliefs of the organisation, or because they were just bone-lazy, the house that three of the anarchists occupied was only fit for keeping animals.
‘Mr Lawrence, we’ve a few questions,’ Wendy said. She stood back more than ten paces on account of the mess. The man who wanted to right the wrongs of the capitalist state was lying on a mattress on the floor. It looked neither clean nor hygienic. To one side, there was a syringe and a bottle of beer.
‘If you’re the filth?’
‘Sergeant Wendy Gladstone and Detective Inspector Larry Hill,’ Wendy said as the two officers showed their warrant cards.
‘I’ve nothing to say.’
‘That’s fine. We can continue our discussion down at the police station.’
‘You can’t come in here and tell us what to do,’ one of the others said.
Larry moved over close to the
