Page 114 of Murder in the Family

HUGO FRASER – off

That must have been very upsetting. I’m guessing, though, from what you just said, that you hadn’t come across them while Mrs Ryder was still alive? They never visited?

SYLVIA CARROLL

Never saw hide nor hair of either of ’em. And thankfully I wasn’t on duty when they came poking around or there’d have been ructions—

HUGO FRASER – off

Did she ever talk to you about her will? About who she’d planned to give her money to before Luke got in touch?

SYLVIA CARROLL

Not really. But she never mentioned the bloody Wilsons, that I do know. Not once.

CUT TO: Studio.

JJ NORTON

Round of applause for Hugo, I think. That was an impressive piece of interviewing.

MITCHELL CLARKE

(laughing)

Yeah – anyone would think he’d done this sort of thing before.

LAILA FURNESS

It certainly put paid to any doubts we might have had about whether ‘Luke’ could fool Florence. She was obviously deeply regretting the breach with her son, but all those years later she had no way of doing anything about it.

So when someone turns up saying he’s her grandson, she accepts him at once. Psychologically speaking, she was primed to believe. No wonder she refused a DNA test.

BILL SERAFINI

I agree, Laila. Though my principal take-out was Ian Wilson. He clearly had one hell of a motive and definitely doesn’t sound like someone who’d have taken the loss of that sort of cash lying down.

General agreement round the table.

HUGO FRASER

Speaking of which, I had that chat with Peter Lascelles about how far the Wilsons were in the frame at the time.

CUT TO: Hugo at a desk, with a phone on speaker in front of him.

HUGO FRASER

(into phone)

Peter? It’s Hugo Fraser. I’m working on the Showrunner series with Alan Canning and Bill Serafini.

PETER LASCELLES

Yes, they mentioned you were on the team. And I’m aware of you, of course.

HUGO FRASER

We’ve been looking at the issue of Florence Ryder’s will, and whether that gave rise to any viable lines of enquiry.

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