‘We need someone on the inside, not a crook,’ Caroline said.
‘Anyone in mind?’ Ralph said. He was about to suggest bringing in Gary Frost, but he knew the man could not be trusted.
‘Someone in Dundas’s office must be willing to help if we pay enough.’
‘That’s the easiest way to get yourself evicted from the meetings.’
‘Your contact?’ Caroline said. She wanted the money from the sale of the shopping centre, but that was months away, even more time for the Dundases to put additional blockers in place.
‘What do we know?’ Desmond said.
‘We know of three bank accounts in the UK, two overseas.’
‘Passwords?’
‘Not to any of them.’
‘And how much in total?’
‘Seven million pounds approximately.’
‘So where is the rest? There must be more cash,’ Ralph said. He couldn’t see how they could progress further by talking about it. There was a time to bring in help, and that time was now.
The three studied the figures that had been presented to Caroline by Leonard Dundas. According to what they had in front of them, there were twenty-five million pounds deposited in various bank accounts, the locations not specified, as well as a total of one hundred and eighty-three properties, the majority in the UK, others around the world. Nobody believed that what they were being shown was the true situation, purely what had been prepared for them to see, and an independent audit of Gilbert Lawrence’s assets would not reveal much more, cleverly concealed as they would be.
‘I don’t trust my person,’ Ralph said.
‘Then we need someone in Dundas’s office,’ Desmond said. For once he found his brother-in-law making sense. ‘Your son, Michael?’ he said.
‘I’ve not seen him yet. Caroline, what did you reckon?’
‘It may be time for you to reacquaint yourself with him. His return may be suspicious.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He was, according to what I’ve gleaned from the police, involved with anarchists.’
‘Do we have them in this country?’
‘Apparently we do. They call themselves the Anarchist Revolutionaries of England. It’s run by Giles Helmsley, a disgraced academic.’
‘Him?’ Ralph said.
‘Do you know him?’
‘We were at school together. Back then he wasn’t an anarchist, just odd.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He always saw himself as superior. Academically brilliant, always on about the ruling classes.’
‘But you went to an elitist school, even members of the aristocracy in your year.’
‘But Helmsley was different. He was working class, won himself a scholarship. Supposedly an attempt by the school to make itself out to be egalitarian.’
‘Was it?’
‘Not at all, but I suppose there were brownie points to be gained for those in charge. Anyway, Helmsley was there and he was keen, keener than any of us. He always sat up the front of the class, looking for an opportunity to show us how smart he was.’
‘Was he?’
‘He was. We were at the back of the class, only interested in playing up, getting a few drinks in, making plans to meet up with the local girls.’
‘Helmsley?’
‘Not him. We always thought he was gay, not that there was any proof, but it was unnatural. Teenage males are hot for anything in a skirt, but Helmsley, he’d be there, his face in a book.’
‘You’ve not changed,’ Desmond said.
‘Thankfully, I haven’t,’ Ralph said. ‘Anyway, Michael. What’s he up to?’
‘Are you suspicious?’
‘Of Michael? Like father, like son. If he’s willing to sort himself out, it can only be with someone at his back. I was always weak if temptation was there, but Michael, he was worse. If there was alcohol, he’d down the lot, and then he was into drugs, running with the crowd. Quite frankly, I assumed he’d OD at some stage.’
‘It didn’t concern you?’ Caroline said.
‘It did, but he’s an adult, and even if I was more responsible, I couldn’t take him on. I have enough trouble looking after myself.’
‘And his mother?’
‘The last I heard, she was swanning around the Caribbean. A beautiful woman in her day, probably still is, but she was never the maternal type.’
‘Not much of an upbringing for your son,’ Caroline said.
‘No worse than ours. The first thing that our parents did was to ship us off to boarding school, come home at long weekends, holidays, and even then, we were soon sent off on an activity somewhere.’
‘That was our mother and father, devoted to each other.’
‘Not normal, though.’
‘We survived.’
‘Who knows if what they did was right or wrong. And besides, it’s Michael that we’re talking about. The man is sorting himself out, a weak and feeble person susceptible to drugs. The condition of our father’s will was that he had to stay clean for a year, get himself a job. I can’t see him doing that.’
‘What if he’s cleaned up? What are the chances of getting him into Dundas’s office? Could we trust him? Would Dundas let him in, give him a job?’
‘If I agree to Dundas’s conditions, he might,’ Caroline said.
‘What conditions?’
‘If I agree to rubber stamp everything that charlatan and his daughter do, then maybe they’ll agree.’
‘Try it on,’ Desmond said, ‘and Ralph, go and see your son, make your peace.’
‘And Helmsley?’ Ralph said.
‘Let’s see what he does. If he becomes a nuisance, we’ll need to neutralise him.’
Chapter 14
‘No, we never met Mr Lawrence,’ Kingsley Wilde, the senior psychoanalyst, said. He was broad-shouldered, with grey hair and a beard trimmed short.
Isaac and Larry were in the offices of Wyvern Psychiatrists, one of the organisations that had declared Gilbert Lawrence sane and able to sign his will.
‘If you never met the man, how can you declare him to be of sound mind?’ Isaac asked.
‘It was an unusual request,’ Wilde said, as he sat upright, looking at the
