The Fifth Identity. Ray CW Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ they were in here last week.”

      “They don’t seem to have any ideas either,” snorted Pelham. “All I got from them was snide comments, bad manners, bloody sarcasm and …well never mind! We’ve been made administrators of the estate so it’s up to us now, and to you personally, to find beneficiaries - it there are any. There is some urgency with this one. Have a look through the file and see me tomorrow. Alright?”

      Ruddock met up again with Ian Shaw as he walked into his own office and turned to Shaw.

      “What does chacun á son goût mean?”

      “You’ve been listening to the old man.”

      “Yes, you told me once what it meant and I also looked it up, but I’ve forgotten it.”

      “I looked it up in a French - English dictionary when he used it in front of me,” Shaw replied. “He was talking to somebody on the telephone. It means ‘each to his own’!

      “Ah!” Ruddock nodded sagely and made a note on his pad. “Yes, I remember now. I’ll note it down for the next time he uses it.”

      Ruddock studied the Accrington file at length for the rest of the afternoon. It made very interesting reading and he found himself becoming fascinated by it.

      Ruddock had not had much to do with John Accrington’s affairs previously, which were mainly handled by Matthew Pelham. The file related to John Accrington, who with Kenneth Bilston had started an office equipment company in the late 1950’s in Leicester, which had then moved to Staines in Middlesex when it became larger and they wanted to be nearer to the commercial hub. They initially made spare parts for office machinery, adding machines, typewriters and the like, and as that industry grew in the post war period so did their business. In the 1970’s they diversified, they realised as computers began to dominate the scene more and more that office machinery was likely to undergo a complete upgrade and change. Similar conclusions had also been reached by the typewriter giant IBM who at that time had decided to sell their still profitable typewriter arm and move into computers. Accrington and Bilston had also anticipated the change and created a department for making and repairing computer equipment. However, as time progressed they also off-loaded their typewriter and adding machine business and specialised in the computer market.

      As the demand for computer equipment grew, so did the company of Bilston and Accrington, which traded under the trademark ‘Billacc’ and the company became well known in the industry and overseas. They also expanded into the software industry and designed many programmes that were in great demand in the accountancy, building and engineering fields. Some of their software programmes had also attracted the attention of the military; one programme in particular had been applied to assisting the internal design of a new class of air warfare destroyers for the Royal Navy.

      Kenneth Bilston died in the late 1990’s, his shareholding was inherited by his sons Richard and James and the business continued to prosper.

      In 2003 Accrington himself began to suffer ill-health and made arrangements to transfer his shares to Richard and James Bilston in the event of his death. By that time Accrington was a widower, his wife had died some years before, and there were no children. Although Accrington had made arrangements for the transfer of his shares, it was a cash transaction. He offered the shares to the brothers at a discounted price and the agreement was very amicable. Despite having considerable assets, Accrington had never made a will. He was reckoned to be worth about £18 million or more, having a large house in Hertfordshire, several small commercial properties around the Home Counties and a large share portfolio.

      Accrington had died recently in mysterious circumstances which were still subject to police investigation. In recent years Matthew Pelham had made strenuous efforts to persuade him to make a will, but he never did. Pelham had repeatedly pointed out the danger of his estate being appropriated by the government in due course if no next of kin were to be found, but Accrington, though he did hint once or twice in conversation that there could be next of kin, never divulged who they were. In fact when the subject came up he usually shut up like a clam. In the latter stages, when Accrington discerned that his days could be numbered, Pelham felt that he was making progress and considered that Accrington was coming around to his way of thinking. But Accrington’s sudden and unexpected end ensured that when he died he still had not made a will and consequently he died intestate.

      The worry, of course, for Matthew Pelham was whether or not Accrington had made a will that nobody knew about. So far nothing had turned up, and it was to be Ruddock’s task to virtually take apart the house where Accrington had lived alone, to see what papers he could recover. But first of all he had to make an appointment with the Bilston brothers to see if they had any suggestions. Courtesy indicated they should be given the opportunity to accompany him around the house, since they were virtually Accrington’s next of kin in a business sense and there could be sensitive business papers stored there.

      There had been a housekeeper, of sorts, when Accrington was living there. A local woman had been coming in twice a week to clean the place out, but she wasn’t a permanent employee and she didn’t live in. Ruddock had been advised that she had possessed a key, but Pelham’s first action had been to send a messenger down to relieve her of it, he didn’t want anyone holding keys to the premises while they stood empty. There was always the risk of petty pilfering taking place before they’d had a chance to vet the house and contents.

      There were various correspondence items in the bulky files, Accrington had purchased various properties, mainly commercial, and had some business tenants, and Fell Pelham & Drysdale had done the conveyancing. He had been living in the same house for many years in a village in Hertfordshire, on perusing the file Ruddock found he had been living there since the early 1970’s. The residence stood in a very substantial acreage of land and Accrington had added extensions from time to time.

      “As you know,” commented Pelham when he and Ruddock were closeted once more in Pelham’s office. “When a man dies intestate the court will appoint an administrator, which is either a spouse, next of kin, the Crown, a creditor or, in the last resort, a stranger.”

      “Yes, I was aware of that,” Ruddock said a little coldly.

      “Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to talk down to you, I’m really just marshalling the facts in my mind,” said Pelham. “So we are virtually in a position of administration pendente lite, in effect, there is a dispute as to the person who is entitled to probate. The Court, in its wisdom, has appointed us, Accrington’s lawyers, as administrators until this question is resolved.”

      “So we have to search for his next of kin, if we can find them.”

      “That just about sums it up,” said Pelham. “As for Accrington, he was a strange man. I could never claim I really knew John Accrington. He rarely talked about himself and I knew very little of his likes and dislikes. Of his origins I knew next to nothing, but I presume he was from England somewhere south of The Wash, he certainly didn’t have a north of England accent, he could have emanated near to London, maybe Kent or Surrey, or possibly north of London, I’m no real expert in accents.”

      “So we don’t know where he came from?”

      “No, no idea. As I said, I assume from his accent it was Home Counties which could cover a lot of ground, but I guess it could cover anywhere from Kent up to Oxfordshire or even beyond. But there may be something in his house that could give us a clue. If we can find his origins, then we can probably find out if there are any members of his family still living - siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and the like, and if we can trace them they could all have a share in the estate.”

      He broke off to sample the cup СКАЧАТЬ