This Was a Man (The Clifton Chronicles #7)(46)

Seb wrote down ‘local businessman’. He now had to agree with his father – Carter was in possession of several pieces of the jigsaw. However, he still needed one more question answered.

‘And the woman’s name?’

‘No, Mr Clifton,’ said Carter after a slight hesitation. ‘I think I’ve gone quite far enough. But I can tell you that she was a lady like your mother, but not like your mother, because I doubt if she would remember my name.’

Seb wrote down the word ‘lady’ on the back of his cheque book before rising from his place. ‘Thank you,’ he said as he shook hands with Mr Carter. ‘You’ve been most helpful, and I’ll pass on your kind comments to my mother.’

‘My pleasure. I’m only sorry I can’t give you the lady’s name.’

‘Not to worry,’ said Seb. ‘But if Lady Virginia should call you again, do give her my best wishes.’





18


SEBASTIAN PLACED HIS cheque book on the table in front of him. Hakim Bishara, Arnold Hardcastle and Giles Barrington were clearly intrigued, but said nothing.

‘I’ve just spent the weekend in Somerset with my parents,’ said Seb, ‘and I discovered that my father has been taking an inordinate amount of interest in the death of Desmond Mellor. Like Barry Hammond, he’s not convinced it was suicide, and once you accept that as a possibility, several options arise.’

The three men seated around the table were listening intently.

‘My father advised me to visit a local estate agent on Saturday morning and have a chat with the man who was responsible for selling Mellor’s Bristol flat.’ Seb looked at the long list of bullet points he’d written on the back of his cheque book during his meeting with Carter. Twenty minutes later he had explained to his attentive audience why he thought the lady in question was Lady Virginia Fenwick, and the local businessman none other than Jim Knowles.

‘But how could those two have met?’ asked Giles. ‘They hardly mix in the same circles.’

‘Mellor has to be the common factor,’ suggested Arnold.

‘And money the glue,’ added Hakim, ‘because that woman wouldn’t waste her time on either of them unless she could see a profit in it for herself.’

‘But that still doesn’t explain why Mellor needed ten thousand in cash so quickly,’ said Giles. ‘After all, he was a very rich man.’

‘In assets,’ said Hakim, ‘but not necessarily cash.’

‘I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to fathom that one out,’ said Seb, ‘but of course it was my father who came up with the most likely scenario. He thought that if Mellor needed that amount of cash urgently, you should look no further than the prison. He also wondered if the mysterious disappearance of Adrian Sloane had something to do with it.’

‘Maybe Mellor was being threatened,’ said Arnold. ‘That’s not uncommon when it’s thought a prisoner has money.’

‘Possibly,’ said Hakim, ‘but if he urgently needed a loan of ten thousand pounds, he would have had to come up with something as security.’

‘Like his flat in Bristol,’ suggested Arnold.

‘But it wasn’t sold in time to solve his cash-flow problem, so he must have found something else.’

‘His shares in Mellor Travel, perhaps?’ suggested Giles.

‘Seems unlikely,’ said Hakim. ‘They’re worth at least a million and a half, and he only needed ten thousand.’

‘It depends how desperate he was,’ said Giles.

‘Which is why I’m convinced he was being threatened by another inmate,’ said Arnold.

‘But why would he turn to Virginia for help,’ said Giles, ‘when it was her who relied on him for an income, not the other way round?’

‘She must have been the intermediary,’ said Seb, ‘and my father suggests that’s how Knowles became involved.’

‘And once he realized he could end up with fifty-one per cent of Mellor Travel if Mellor wasn’t around to pay the ten thousand back within thirty days . . .’

‘Which is why my father is convinced it wasn’t suicide, but murder,’ said Seb.

‘Jim Knowles may be a nasty piece of work,’ said Arnold, ‘but I can’t believe he’d involve himself in murder.’

‘I suspect that’s where Sorkin comes in,’ said Seb.

‘And there’s something else I can tell you from past experience,’ said Arnold. ‘Contract killers usually charge around ten thousand, and there are sure to be one or two of them in Belmarsh.’

A long silence followed, until Hakim said, ‘So once Sorkin got his hands on the shares, if Mellor was no longer around, the company would fall into his lap. And there’s certainly no chance of us getting anything out of Knowles or Sloane.’

‘That’s another mystery,’ said Seb. ‘There’s been no sign of Sloane for over a month. I can’t believe he’d have done a runner only days before he had the chance of hitting the jackpot.’

‘I agree,’ said Hakim. ‘However, I suspect there is one other person who could probably answer all our questions.’

‘The Lady Virginia Fenwick,’ said Sebastian. ‘All we have to decide is who will approach her?’