CHAPTER TWELVE We found a number of surprising things in that house but nothing that did us much good, at least, not then. In the basement there was a remarkably well-equipped workshop and chemical laboratory, way beyond amateur standard. There was also a small computer with a variety of input and output peripherals including an X-Y plotter. Still on the plotter was a sketch which had been drawn under computer control; it seemed to be a schematic of a complicated molecule and it made no sense to me, but then I'm no expert. For bigger problems with which the little computer couldn't cope there was a modem and an acoustic coupler so that the little chap could be used as a terminal to control a big computer by way of the post office land lines. In the workshop was a bench on which a thingamajig was under construction. Whatever it was intended to do it was going to do under computer control because there were no fewer than fifteen integrated-circuit microelectronic chips built into it, and that's a fair amount of computing power. Also coupled into it was a laser, a cathode ray tube, a lot of laboratory glassware and a couple of gadgets I didn't recognize. I didn't snap any switches or push any of the unlabelled buttons because I didn't know what would happen if I did. Instead I said to Larry, 'Any of Ashton's firms connected with electronics or computers?' 'No, just chemicals and plastics moulding.
Some of the chemical processes might be computer-controlled, though.'
I grunted and had the entire basement sealed. The boffins from the department would have to check it out, and I wasn't going to touch anything until they had done so. Penny had the combination for the safe in the study, and I knew by that we were unlikely to find anything of consequence in it. I was right. There was a bit of money, less than?50, which was not much considering Ashton's resources-I suppose it was emergency pocket money. There were some account books on which I wasted some time until I discovered they related to the running of the household, the stables and the cars. All very orderly.
There was a whole sheaf of balance sheets headed with the name of the firm of accountants, Howard and Page. A quick glance at the bottom lines told me that George Ashton was doing very nicely, thank you, in spite of the economic recession. And that was all. Ashton's own quarters were a bit more productive. He had a suite- bedroom, bathroom, dressing room and sitting room which were as clean as a whistle. He seemed to live somewhat spartanly, there was less than the usual amount of junk which a man tends to accumulate and it was all very clean and tidy. There was nothing at all in any of the pockets of the clothes hanging in the wardrobes; whoever did his valeting-Benson probably-did a good job. But a considerable amount of panel-tapping discovered a tambour which, when slid aside after a complicated procedure involving switching on certain lights in all four rooms thus releasing an electrically-controlled lock, revealed a massive metal door of armour-plated steel. The way I've described that might make you think we were lucky to find it, but it wasn't luck. The boys were good at their jobs. Not good enough to open that vault door, though.
After Simpson had done some architectural measuring with a tape I knew that beyond that door was not merely a safe but a sizeable room, big enough to swing a kitten in, if not a cat. Now, any man who would put a door like that as entrance to a room would be sure to take other precautions. The walls, floor and ceiling would be very thick concrete, well reinforced with toughened steel, and the whole package would weigh a lot even when empty. It was on the second floor which meant that a special underpinning structure must have been built to support it. I made a note to look up Ashton's architect. When the vault door was shown to Penny she was as surprised as anyone. She had never suspected its existence. All this doesn't mean that I was prowling about the house personally knocking on walls. I left that to the boys and only inspected the results when they came in. I supervised the search of Ashton's study in Penny's presence, then settled down to talk to her because I assumed she would know more about her father than anyone else. 'Benson,' I said. 'How long have you known Benson?' She looked surprised. 'He's always been around.'
'That's a long time. How long is always?' 'Always is always, Malcolm.
I can't remember a time when there wasn't Benson.' 'As long as that?
Twenty-five or twenty-six years?' Penny smiled. 'Longer than that. He was with Daddy before I was born.' 'Always is a long time,' I agreed.
'He does the faithful family retainer bit very well, I must say. But he's more than that, isn't he?' She crinkled her brow. 'I don't know.
That's difficult to assess. When a man had been with a family as long as Benson he tends to become regarded as more of a friend than a servant.' 'To the extent that your father would share a bottle of whisky with him?' 'I don't think he ever did that.' 'He did on Sunday night,' I observed. 'Has Benson always been a personal servant to your father?' She thought for a moment. 'We moved into the house in 1961-I was twelve then. It was then Benson moved in here as Daddy's valet and dogsbody. Before that we had a house in Slough; just a little one, nothing as grand as this. Benson worked in one of Daddy's factories, but he visited the house quite often-at least once a week.' She smiled. 'He was one of our favourites. He used to bring us sweets-forbidden fruit because Daddy didn't like us to eat too many sweets. Benson used to smuggle them to us.' 'What was Benson doing in the factory?' 'I don't know. I was only a little girl.' 'When did your mother die, Penny?' 'When I was four.' I thought that was bad luck on Ashton, having to bring up two small daughters. S till, he hadn't made a bad job of it. It seemed he didn't make a bad job of anything. I said, 'Do you know how your father got started? I mean, how did he start in business? Did he have inherited money, for instance?' She shook her head vigorously. 'Daddy never talked much about his early life but I know he didn't inherit anything because he was an orphan brought up in a foundling home. He was in the army during the war and when he came out he met my grandfather and they set up in business together. They didn't have much money at the time, so my grandfather said before he died. He said Daddy's brains made it a success.' 'What was he in the army?' I asked idly. 'Just a private.' That surprised me. Ashton would have been twenty-six or twenty-seven when he was demobbed and it was strange that a man of his drive and character should still have been a private soldier. Perhaps his army record would bear looking into. 'Did your father ever carry a gun?' She misunderstood me. 'He did rough shooting at times, but not often.' 'I don't mean a shotgun. I mean a revolver or automatic pistol.' 'Lord, no! He hasn't got such a thing.' 'Would you know?' 'Of course I would.' 'You didn't know about that strong room upstairs.' She was silent and bit her lip, then said, 'You think he's armed?' I was saved from answering that because Larry popped his head around the door.
'Can I have a word, Malcolm?' I nodded and joined him in the hall. He said, 'Gillian Ashton's rooms are clean, nothing there of' consequence. I read her diaries; she seems to live a quiet, upper-middle-class life-theatre, ballet, opera and so on. She reads a lot, too.' 'Not any more. Any liaisons?' 'Nothing very strong; a string of men who appeared one at a time and then petered out after a while.' He grinned. 'No mysterious assignations with people referred to by only their initials, nothing like that.' 'What about Penny's rooms? Have you checked there?' Larry looked at me a bit queerly. 'But I thought…' 'I don't care what you thought,' I said evenly. 'Do it.' 'Okay.' He went downstairs again, and I thought that young Larry still had a lot to learn. I was about to return to the study when Michaelis came through the hall. I said, 'Found anything?' 'Nothing for us. But in an attic there's the damnedest thing-the biggest model railway set-up I've seen in my life.' 'Model railway!' I said incredulously. 'It's a real enthusiast's job,' he said. 'I'm a bit keen, myself, but I've never seen anything like this. There must be over a mile of HO-gauge track up there-it's like a bloody spider web.
You'd have to do some smart scheduling to keep that lot running smoothly.' It was a facet of Ashton I wouldn't have dreamed of, but it didn't have a thing to do with the matter at hand. I dismissed it.
'Where's Jack Brent?' 'Giving the out buildings a going over-the garages and stables.' 'Tell him I want to see him when he's finished.'
I went back into the study and thought it was time to try to find Ogilvie again. I'd been ringing every hour on the hour but each time he'd been out of the office so I'd passed my stuff on to Harrison. I put my hand out to dial again but the telephone shrilled before I got there. It was Ogilvie. 'What have you got?' he said abruptly. 'I've passed it all to Harrison. Have you spoken to him?' 'No. As you may have gathered the balloon went up on schedule and I've been busy the last few hours. Give me the gist of it.' 'We've got a bloody big vault here,' I said. 'Not a safe, but a professional bank vault. We'll need experts to open it, and it'll probably take them a week.' 'It had better not,' said Ogilvie. 'You'll have them within the hour. What else?' 'I'd like some boffins-electronic and chemical. There's a cellar full of scientific stuff to look at. And you'd better send someone competent in computers.' I grinned. 'And maybe a model railway expert.' 'What's that?' he barked. 'Ashton has a model railway layout in his attic. I haven't seen it but I'm told it's quite something.'
'This is no time to be funny,' said Ogilvie acidly. 'What else?' 'Damn all. Nothing of use to us.' 'Keep looking,' he said sharply. 'A man can't live fifteen years in a house and not leave something of his personality lying around. There'll be some indication of where he's gone.' He thought for a moment. 'But I want you back here. Put someone else in charge.' 'That'll be Gregory,' I said. 'I still have a few things to wrap up-I'll be back in two hours.' I rang off
