Page 38 of Murder in the Winter Woods
‘Thank goodness. I want to talk to you about something. Can I come over?’ asked Hester.
‘Yes, of course, please do.’ Julia sighed quietly to herself. She didn’t feel like having a visitor, not at all. But Hester was a neighbour, and a new widow, and of course she could come over if she felt like some company. Hester’s head disappeared from the wall, and reappeared – along with the rest of her – coming down the garden path towards Julia’s house.
Julia shifted up, and patted the bench beside her. Hester sat down with a groan. ‘How are you, Hester?’ Julia asked, with genuine concern. Hester looked tired and pale, and about ten years older than the enthusiastic honey seller Julia remembered from the Christmas market just a few weeks earlier.
‘Oh well, you know…Putting one foot in front of the other. I decided to make a start on some paperwork, try to get to grips with the dreaded admin. I thought it would make me feel better. I’ve been going through Matthew’s papers.’
‘Ah, well, that sounds like a good step forward. It can be hard, though, I’m sure. A lot to think about, and decisions to be made. And it’s all so personal, somehow. Seeing his handwriting, all theeveryday things…’ Julia sighed, remembering how hard it had been when her much beloved mother had died.
‘Yes, there’s that. But, there’s something more…Something…strange.’
Hester stopped. Just when Julia thought she’d changed her mind about speaking about whatever was bothering her, Hester continued: ‘I don’t know who to speak to about this. I don’t want to make a drama, and lord knows I’ve got enough to worry about, but there’s something…Can we keep this between us?’
‘Of course.’ Hester looked worried, and Julia tried to use her most reassuring social worker voice.
‘There’s less money than I thought. Our retirement money…It wasn’t a fortune, but we’d saved up a bit here and there since we were young, and we didn’t touch the interest, so it added up over time. But half the money is gone.’
‘Gone? Did you check the transactions?’
‘Yes, it turns out Matthew took it out about two months ago. I don’t look at the account very often. We just leave it there, pop in what we can. The notifications go to Matthew’s phone, so I didn’t notice. But it’s gone.’ Hester looked like she might cry.
‘And he didn’t say anything?’ asked Julia,
‘No.’
‘Who did he transfer it to?’
‘The bank account is just letters. AAI. I have racked my brains as to who that might be, but I can’t think of anyone. A name, a company.’
Hester shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Did the two of you talk about money?’
‘We talked about everything! Well, I thought we did. If you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have said there were no secrets between us, but now…I’m driving myself mad thinking about what could be going on. Was he being blackmailed? Or was there another woman? Or an illegitimate child who just turned up out of theblue? It’s just not like Matthew, not Matthew at all.’ She paused and sighed. ‘But I suppose everyone says that, don’t they? When the terrible truth finally comes out.’
‘Now, let’s not jump to conclusions. It might have been an investment, or something to do with the business. Let’s think about this logically and see what we can find out.’
‘That’s why I came to you, Julia. I know you’re good at this sort of thing. Should we go to the bank?’
‘We might have to do that, Hester. But we can likely find out for ourselves. Go and get his phone and laptop. Let’s do some digging.’
Julia had thought that a simple search of ‘AAI’ on Matthew’s email and phone might find her the solution, but this was not to be. On Matthew’s phone, a search of AAI brought up his Dutch friend Willem Kraaij, who rather enjoyed sending Matthew articles about bees, but also wasps and mosquitos and spiders. Hester did not think that Willem was the answer to the riddle. Julia then looked at all the ‘A’ contacts on Matthew’s phone and emails, but who could tell? Was AAI Anne Jones, or Anton Delaware, or perhaps George Adams? The list was endless – it could be anyone.
It was only when Julia widened the search to related keywords – ‘money’, ‘invest’, ‘payment’ and so on – that she had success. On the laptop, the search turned up an email trail with someone by the name of Anthony Ardmore, of the company Ardmore Accelerated Investments.
‘AAI,’ said Julia, triumphantly. ‘Got ya!’
Julia opened the first email, with the subject line:Investment opportunity. ‘Here we go,’ she said, turning the laptop towards Hester. They had moved inside, as the afternoon temperaturehad plummeted, and they were now at the kitchen table. ‘Do you recognise the name Anthony Ardmore?’
‘No, I’ve never heard of him,’ Hester said weakly.
‘Well, let’s see what he’s got to say, shall we?’
The two women read on. The emails were enough to give Julia a headache. It all sounded rather complicated. Anthony Ardmore – why did that name ring a bell?–was offering Matthew some kind of investment opportunity that was somehow related to the farming of medicinal plants. From what Julia could make out, Ardmore Accelerated Investments would invest in a number of different farming opportunities for medicinal plants such as turmeric, garlic and African potato.What differentiates us from our competitors, read an early email,is that we have the inside track on cutting-edge drug development in the US. A number of innovative and revolutionary dread disease drugs have recently been passed by the FDA, with our targeted ingredients as the primary active ingredients. Big Pharm is keeping this silent – but now you are in on the opportunity!
Julia read the emails with a sinking heart. In her life as a social worker, she had seen too many elderly people taken in by get-rich-quick schemes – some clearly daylight robbery, like the old lady who had been sending her Facebook friend, Harrison Ford, a thousand pounds a month to help him rescue squirrels. Others were murkier, ideas that on the surface sounded slightly credible, but when you unpacked them, came to nothing. She would never forget the desperate grandmother who had invested her small inheritance in a natural toothpaste. She hoped that Matthew had not been taken in by something like that, but she didn’t know enough about developments in the world of medicine to say for sure.
‘He really pushed the deal, didn’t he?’ said Hester, reading one of the emails from Anthony Ardmore over Julia’s shoulder. You can see why my Matthew might have been taken in by it.’
