Page 109 of Murder in the Family

But a Bentley would have been worse – or, I don’t know, a Lamborghini—

MITCHELL CLARKE

Not round there! You can’t move for them—

ALAN CANNING

(ignoring them)

And there are still a lot more male owners I haven’t yet spoken to.

BILL SERAFINI

But no one’s stood out so far?

ALAN CANNING

Not so far.

BILL SERAFINI

OK. What about you, Hugo, what did you find out about old Mrs Ryder’s will?

Hugo gets to his feet and goes over to a table at the side where there are stacks of paper and files. As he passes the pinboard he stops briefly and takes a look, then turns to the team.

HUGO FRASER

Well, I’ve been able to establish that Florence Ryder was living in a care home in Ambleside when she died, which was in May 2005. The will went through probate early the following year.

(passing round sheets of paper)

As you can see, it’s pretty straightforward as these documents go. There are several relatively small bequests to charities – the usual stuff, Marie Curie, the RSPCA, that sort of thing – and a specific gift of jewellery to a woman called Sylvia Carroll. She took a bit of finding, but it turns out she was one of the staff at the care home. I’ll come back to her in a moment.

The remainder of the estate – which amounted to over four million pounds, by the way – went to a cousin of her late husband. A woman by the name of Margaret Wilson.

LAILA FURNESS

And what do we know about her?

HUGO FRASER

When Florence died Margaret was living in Cornwall, at a little place called Poltreath, about ten miles from St Ives. She died eighteen monthslater, but by that time she was livinginSt Ives, in a house overlooking the harbour—

JJ NORTON

Amazing what four million quid can do—

MITCHELL CLARKE

Quite.

HUGO FRASER

She’d been a widow since 1998 and had one child, Ian, born in 1977. We’re trying to track him down but Wilson is a tiresomely common name.

LAILA FURNESS

And at the risk of stating the obvious, back in October 2003 both mother and son had four million fabulous reasons for wanting Luke Ryder out of the way.

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