Faith (54 page)

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ the man said indignantly, but he looked alarmed. ‘I have told you that I handled the sale of Brodie Farm, and about gifting it. I gave Mrs Davies proper legal advice, and clearly she acted upon it as she didn’t go through with it. I can also tell you I handled other property purchases for her too, namely cottages in Cellardyke.’

‘Did you draw up a will for her?’

Again the man hesitated. ‘Yes,’ he said somewhat reluctantly.

When was that?’

‘Well, I couldn’t have told you that an hour or two ago. But I looked through her file when Mr Goldsmith rang me, to refresh my memory. It was the same day she inquired what was needed to gift the farm. In December ’92. I drew it up, then a few days later she came in and signed it.’

‘Who witnessed it?’ Stuart asked.

‘Mr Conway’s secretary. Margaret Cameron.’

‘And where is this will?’

‘We have it here in our vault. As I said, I didn’t know about her death until today. If I had I would have passed it on to her executor.’

‘Who is?’

‘You, Mr Macgregor.’

15

‘I need a stiff drink,’ Stuart said as he came back into the flat.

David looked up from some paperwork he was doing.

‘You didn’t thump him, did you?’ he asked.

‘Of course not, but I reckon Calder could do with it. I’d say he’s as bent as a hairpin.’

David poured him a large Scotch, then sat down to hear what had happened. Stuart told him first what Calder had said about the deed of gift, then went on to tell him that Jackie had made a new will.

‘When he said I was the executor, I nearly keeled over with shock. That was the last thing I expected. But it was a stroke of luck too, for I doubt he’d have handed it over to me, or even told me the contents, unless I was,’ he said, taking the will out of his inside pocket and handing it to David. ‘There was a letter for me with it explaining why she asked me. She said I was the only person she felt she could trust with it.’

David unfolded the will and began to read it. ‘Bloody hell,’ he exclaimed. ‘She left Brodie Farm to Laura and two of the cottages in Cellardyke to Ted. Another one to Gloria.’ He looked up at Stuart with a jubilant expression. ‘This is brilliant, we’ve got the perfect reason now for calling Ted and Gloria as witnesses.’

‘Read on,’ Stuart said. ‘The plot, as they say, thickens!’

‘Roger gets some of the London property, a house in Kensington for Toby, and blimey, Stuart, you get one in Notting Hill!’

‘Yeah, you could have knocked me down with a feather at that bit. But there’s more astounding stuff,’ Stuart said.

‘Numerous other smaller bequests,’ David murmured, reading out some of them, including the sum of £15,000 to Jackie’s parents, which she urged them to blow on a trip around the world. ‘Kirkmay House! What’s that doing in here?’ he exclaimed in shocked surprise. ‘Kirkmay House was Jackie’s, not Belle and Charles’s!’

Stuart nodded. ‘And she’s left it to none other than Meggie and Ivy, Laura’s sisters.’

‘But what about Belle and Charles?’ David’s eyes were scanning down the page, assuming he had missed them. ‘She doesn’t appear to have left them anything!’

‘That’s right. She explains it to me in a letter.’

‘I thought she didn’t know about Laura’s sisters?’ David said. He looked so puzzled that Stuart laughed.

‘You’d better read her letter,’ he said, taking the envelope out of his inside pocket and handing it over. ‘Read it aloud. I’m so blown away by it all that I probably haven’t taken it in properly.’

David moved closer to the window to see better and cleared his throat.

‘
Dearest Stuart
’ he read.

As I write this I’m quite sure you’ll never read it, which makes me feel pretty silly even putting pen to paper. I always hated the idea of wills as I often told you. Roger coerced me into writing one years ago, and it made me feel like my business was the important thing about me, not me as a person. But I’m forty-eight now, and as Mum is so fond of telling me, I may just pop my clogs before I’ve managed to give away my little empire or spend my dosh
.

I’ve taken the liberty of putting you down as my executor as you are the only person that is younger than me, who I know I can trust
implicitly. I’m sorry if it proves onerous, maybe even nasty, but your shoulders were always big enough for anything
.

I’ve got Laura down for Brodie Farm, but I intend to give her it soon as a gift, so by the time you read this, that will be a fait accompli. She is to inherit any dosh left over too, though I intend to spend as much of it as I can! You’ll also know by the time you get to read this that I’ve shot off to live happily ever after with Ted Baxter, who I love to pieces. But just on the off chance my life is cut short I’ve left him two cottages so he will be financially secure. You’ll understand about Roger and the London property, I’m still fond of the old bastard, and I wouldn’t have got started without him. Toby and the house in Kensington is equally understandable. What may surprise you is that I’m leaving nothing to Belle and Charles. Believe me, I didn’t make this decision lightly. They’ve taken from me for years, and I suppose I want to show them I wasn’t quite the sucker they took me for. I let them have Kirkmay House to run when they were broke, but all they did was take the piss. You wouldn’t believe the bills Belle dumped on me for the furniture and soft furnishings! I think she thought she’d be having royalty staying there. Right from the start they only played at running it as a guest house, neither of them had any aptitude for work, much less running a business that requires diplomacy and a modicum of grovelling to the public
.

Lately they haven’t even kept to the original agreement that I was to have twenty per cent of the takings. They turn guests away, and she’s out buying new clothes and drinking, while Charles lords it at the golf club. There’s a lot more too, but I can’t even begin to tell you about that. I have already warned them that if they don’t shape up I’ll throw them out, so the chances are you won’t have to do anything with them anyway
.

Yes, I’ve given you something too, because you were a loyal friend and the most trusted of my employees. It will probably come to you too late for you to find a croft up in the Highlands and get a couple of dogs. You’ll probably attend my funeral on a zimmer. But I kind
of hope you might have already made your dreams come true anyway
.

Finally Meggie and Ivy. You don’t know them, and neither do I. But they are Laura’s sisters. I snooped until I found them. She hid them away for reasons only she could explain. I think I know the reason and understand it. Tell Laura that for me, and say I never thought any less of her because of it. I know that with all she went through when Barney died, she finally came to understand that riches and family background don’t mean a bag of beans. What counts is the kind of person you are, and to me who knows her better than anyone, she is the tops
.

By giving Meggie and Ivy Kirkmay House I hope they and Laura will draw close to one another and have the kind of loving relationship I never had with Belle
.

My love and best wishes for your future
,

Jackie x x

David looked up from the letter and saw tears rolling down Stuart’s cheeks. He had never seen his friend cry before and wasn’t sure what to say or do.

‘That letter sums her up entirely.’ Stuart’s voice was husky with emotion. ‘She was always so generous and understanding of people and she had such a great sense of humour. What I can’t understand though is why such a switched-on person would entrust her will to that particular solicitor. She could normally spot a wrong’un at fifty paces!’

He told David how he’d seen Robbie Fielding leaving the solicitor’s office, and that Calder tried to pretend he didn’t know him. ‘Where do you think Fielding fits into this?’ he asked.

‘I can’t see that he fits in anywhere.’

‘Nor me,’ Stuart agreed. ‘But all the same, I’ve got this gut reaction that he does. It’s too much of a coincidence that he was there just before me. I’d bet anything Calder called him as soon as he’d put the phone down on Goldsmith. But why? What kind of jiggery-pokery could those two have been up to?’

‘It must have been something to do with Laura getting Brodie Farm,’ David said.

‘What if Fielding was one of Jackie’s lovers and he was livid when he found out she was going off with Ted and giving the farm to Laura?’

David shook his head to signify he couldn’t stand anymore what-if’s. ‘Look, we’ll be seeing Laura tomorrow. She might be able to put a different spin on this. So let’s go out and get a Chinese or something. I’m starving.’

The prison visiting room was as full of people and as wreathed in cigarette smoke as on the previous occasion, but this time there were more older children, perhaps because their schools had broken up for the summer holiday. David noted how sulky or anxious many of them looked. He guessed that however much they wanted to see their mothers, the restrictions of a prison made it a distressing experience. He couldn’t imagine Abi and William coping with it.

Yet he was pleased to see how much better Laura was looking since the last time he saw her. He couldn’t work out what was different – she was wearing the same jeans and blue tee-shirt as before, and he didn’t think she’d had her hair cut either – but something had made her look pretty and far younger than fifty. Was it Stuart visiting her? Or just that she was feeling more hopeful now?

David remained silent while Laura and Stuart chatted. He often felt he could learn more about people by just watching and listening.

Over the years Stuart had told him a great deal about Laura. In the early days when he was still hurting from their break-up he would say bitterly that all she wanted was money and expensive clothes. Then when he’d had too much to drink he’d become a bit maudlin and say how beautiful she was, what a perfect figure she had, and how much fun they’d had their first summer together in Scotland.

David had gathered all this up and formed the opinion that she was a ball-breaking, self-seeking bitch, with a touch of the siren, because Stuart couldn’t seem to forget her.

But meeting her in here for the first time, a damaged, middle-aged woman in serious trouble, his constructed image of her had been erased. Now, a couple of weeks later, with a tremendous amount of information about her under his belt, some of which had come directly from her, more from other people, he had a rather confused picture.

For someone who once was a self-confessed serial liar, she had been remarkably truthful with him and Stuart. The child neglect, the pornography and drug-taking were all things which he could never take lightly, yet she had rebuilt her life honestly after Barney’s death, and that took courage and determination. She had never sought to blame others, or indulged in self-pity. Overall he felt she was more sinned against than sinner.

Looking at her now talking so animatedly to Stuart, he found himself understanding why Jackie had cared so deeply about her, and Stuart still loved her. She was so vibrant, her dark eyes glowed, her smile lit up the room, and her voice, low-pitched and slightly husky, with that curious mixture of a London accent and a faint Scottish burr, was so attractive. She was an intelligent woman who had graduated at the university of hard knocks, and there was a sensuality which wafted out of her like exotic perfume.

‘Are you with us?’

David almost jumped at Stuart’s question. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I was just thinking about something. Sorry. Where were you?’

‘I take it you were off sailing with Julia?’ Stuart grinned. ‘I’d just told Laura about the “Growler”, and I was just about to show her the star prize.’

Stuart had got the will photocopied that morning, and handed the original to Goldsmith for safe keeping. Oddly enough, suddenly this seemed to make Goldsmith far more animated and warmer. He even agreed that he felt there was something sinister about Fielding and Calder.

Stuart took the copy will out of his pocket and handed it to Laura. ‘Jackie’s will. Made just six months before her death. You read it while David and I get us some coffee. Would you like a cake too?’

‘Umm,’ she said distractedly, opening the copy will. ‘Yes, please. One of the flapjacks if that’s okay.’

The two men went over to the refreshments counter, dodging the many young children running about the room. But as they waited their turn to be served, they both looked back at Laura. She was engrossed, one hand up to her cheek, clearly stunned by what she was reading. ‘I’d say she had absolutely no knowledge that Jackie had made that, wouldn’t you?’ Stuart remarked.

By the time they got back she had put the paper down and was staring into space, her face suddenly pale.

‘I don’t understand,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Why would she give me Brodie Farm? How did she find out about my sisters, and why is she giving Kirkmay House to them? I thought it belonged to Belle and Charles. And why hasn’t she left them anything? Is that a mistake?’

Stuart got out Jackie’s letter to him and let her read that so she would understand.

David had watched this interchange silently and was surprised that Laura showed horror, not delight. Stuart had told her when they first got there that an appeal was now in the bag, though he hadn’t told her that most of the new evidence they had gathered pointed to Charles being Jackie’s killer. They thought that better kept to themselves for now. So why wasn’t she happy about this development which would set her up for life if she was acquitted?