‘I wasn’t sure if I should, but Caroline said it was important. How is the treatment?’
‘The need remains.’
‘Unpleasant?’
‘It has been, but there is a greater cause.’
‘My father’s fortune,’ Ralph said.
‘I cannot wait a year.’
‘The drugs will return?’
‘I don’t know. I’m not used to feeling normal. Is this what it’s like?’
‘If you mean boring and uneventful, then yes,’ Ralph said. ‘Normality is that. I miss my previous life, but then I’m older.’
‘My mother?’
‘We’ll find her. The last I heard she was in the Caribbean, but that’s a few years ago.’
‘Why are you here, father? To gloat?’
Ralph shifted uncomfortably on his seat. The man he was talking to was a stranger, although the resemblance between the two men was noticeable. ‘You went to Caroline and then to Dundas, why?’
‘There were two police officers.’
‘DCI Cook?’
‘He was one of them. They told me about the one million pounds if I straightened myself out.’
‘The money would not have convinced you to change.’
‘It didn’t, but Giles Helmsley encouraged me.’
‘I know him, did you know?’
‘He never mentioned it.’
‘No doubt he wouldn’t. I was told that he was an anarchist.’
‘He is. He understands what needs to happen, and the cause needs money.’
‘Giles Helmsley needs money. Is he still the same malignant worm?’
‘He is a great man.’
Ralph realised that even without drugs, his son had fallen under the influence of Helmsley, a man who had few redeeming features.
‘Then we must disagree as to what you want, but it is still possible for us to work together for our mutual benefit, would you agree?’ Ralph said. As much as his son was alien to him, he had to admit that he liked the man, even if his attachment to Helmsley was of great concern.
‘For our benefit, then yes. But you, father, must do your part. If I am to work with you and my aunt, then you must agree to mend your ways.’
‘I’ll not get a job in an office, but let’s see. I can still sell, maybe there are opportunities for me in this country.’
‘And no hustling, breaking the law. We must be beyond reproach.’
‘We will be. It is strange, Michael. I almost feel excited at the prospect.’
‘I do not. It will be hard for me, but with you and Giles, I will persevere. I also want to see my mother one more time.’
‘Why only one?’ Ralph said.
‘Neither of us was put on this earth to live to a ripe old age, and neither of us has a woman who is devoted to us, we to them.’
Ralph said nothing, only thought to himself that Yolanda, wherever she was and whoever she was with, would look good dead and in bed. His son had reopened wounds that had been closed for too long.
Chapter 15
The atmosphere in Homicide was tense. It had been six weeks, and not one person had been put forward as the possible murderer of Gilbert Lawrence. The question of Dorothy Lawrence was still unresolved, and her remains had not been released for burial.
‘Update,’ Isaac Cook said. His mood had worsened in the last week, understandable given the current situation. In the past, the DCI’s temperament had remained constant even when the pressure was on, but now he could see unresolved questions begging for an answer.
Larry Hill was standing, his usual pose, Bridget grasped a file of papers in her hand, and Wendy Gladstone nursed her left leg, not wanting to show that her arthritis was giving her trouble, not fully conscious that rubbing the sore area only made her pain more noticeable to the others.
‘Ralph Lawrence is visible,’ Wendy said.
‘Doing what?’ Larry asked.
‘He’s moved out of the hotel and into a small flat in Bayswater.’
‘Not his style, is it?’
‘Not at all, but the man’s inheritance is conditional on him and his son sorting themselves out.’
‘That was for one year,’ Isaac said. ‘Neither of them is going to last that long. The son’s a hopeless junkie.’
‘He’s still in rehabilitation and doing well by all accounts,’ Bridget said.
‘How do you know?’
‘I phoned them up.’
‘They may have just given you the standard response,’ Larry said.
‘They may have, but you can check, can’t you?’
‘We can.’
Wendy was unsure what to do. In the past, she would have been involved looking for someone who was missing, but now all the main players were visible. Leonard Dundas and his daughter were most days at their office, Caroline Dickson and her husband, Desmond, were to be found at Desmond’s place of business or at home, and Ralph Lawrence was either at his flat or out at the son’s rehabilitation centre. And Molly Dempster could be found at her small house most days of the week.
‘Bridget, the papers you’re holding?’ Isaac said.
‘I’ve checked with the psychoanalysts in Australia and America. They’ve applied similar tests to Kingsley Wilde, and I’ve checked on the internet to see if there have been similar cases to this that would set a precedent.’
‘Have there been any?’
‘Not with a dead wife upstairs. Disputed wills can take years to resolve and a great deal of money. There was one case in the United States where so much money was spent to secure the inheritance that the legal costs were more than the money the complainant ultimately received.’
‘Has a case been registered yet by any of Lawrence’s family?’ Isaac said.
‘Not yet. They have twelve years to dispute the will, indefinite if fraud is proven.’
‘Ralph Lawrence has to stay out of trouble for a year, the same as the
