The Fifth Identity. Ray CW Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ is going to make a killing, but it would be a pity to see Accrington’s assets and efforts over the years go into the Inland Revenue melting pot. They will no doubt fritter it away subsidising the bludgers and loafers we seem to patronise these days!’

      “Do the Bilston brothers have any ideas?”

      “Not when I last spoke to them about it, but although I know them and have had some meetings, I haven’t had that much contact with them. My main contacts were Kenneth Bilston and Accrington himself. Richard and James Bilston will be your next port of call, see what you can dredge up.”

      “Did he have any sporting preferences, football, cricket or anything else, that could indicate local or parochial origins?”

      “A good thought,” Pelham nodded approvingly. “No…I don’t know. Maybe Richard or James may know the answer to that one. Have a try at that, but if it’s Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal it won’t help us that much, people from all over the country seem to support them, tending to chase success. But if we uncover an unfashionable lower division club of hackers out in the sticks…then yes, a relevant question.”

      Richard Bilston was away in France and was due back the following Monday, so Ruddock booked an appointment through his secretary. James Bilston was also away in the United States and wasn’t due back for two weeks. Ruddock still had a couple of files that he was working on so he attended to some loose ends, before knocking off for the weekend.

      He presented himself at the Bilston & Accrington offices on the Monday morning and after a brief wait was conducted to Richard’s impressive office. They knew each other fairly well, Ruddock had dealt with some matters relating to the company when Pelham was away, and Richard Bilston had been in the lawyers’ offices about four months previously.

      Richard Bilston rose to his feet and came around the desk to greet Ruddock and waved him to a vacant chair.

      “Good morning, Norman,” he said, and shook Ruddock’s hand warmly. “So they’ve foisted this problem onto you, have they?”

      “Yes, I anticipate it can be solved fairly quickly,” said Ruddock. After small talk ascertaining each others well being and Richard’s family, they wandered very briefly into the weekend’s football results before Ruddock produced his brief case and a writing pad.

      “How can I assist?” Richard asked. “I had two policemen in here a few weeks back, they didn’t seem to have any answers at all.”

      “Yes, I know. They came in to see Matthew Pelham as well.” responded Ruddock, giving his ball point pen a few test runs on the paper to check that it was working. “Richard, you already know that John Accrington died intestate, which means that his private estate will have to be apportioned to any next of kin that we can find, but though he’s been a client for many years we know little about him. We don’t know whether he had any family, where he came from, whether he has any peripheral relatives such as cousins, nieces or nephews. We’ve done some work on it, we’ve checked the local telephone directories for anyone bearing the Accrington name but we haven’t found one.”

      “Have you tried Manchester or Lancashire directories?” asked Richard. “I imagine the name must have originated from there and may be more common.”

      “Not yet, but that doesn’t necessarily follow,” commented Ruddock. “Two or three hundred years ago I would have bet we’d have found a few in the Lancashire area, I agree some surnames are derived from place names. In the 1600’s and 1700’s they wouldn’t move around much, but with modern transport people have tended to move around all over the country so a surname that’s also a place name is no guide.”

      “So you’re likely to find people with surnames like London or Rochester being born up in Yorkshire or in Cornwall,” Richard nodded. “Yes, I can see the problem.”

      “Did John Accrington ever talk about anywhere in England or Wales which may give a clue as to his origins?”

      Richard thought about it, then compressed his lips and shook his head.

      “He and I didn’t have too many conversations, at least, not of an intimate nature,” he said. “Our contacts mainly applied to business matters, company sales, staffing, new products, sorting out computer glitches and the like. He used to be married, you knew that?”

      “Yes, but she died a few years ago, and I gather they were married for about ten years,” said Ruddock. “She was an employee here wasn’t she?”

      “She used to work in our cashier’s department and later as John’s secretary,” Richard nodded. “She was very much a loner too, which is probably what attracted them to each other. They had been stepping out for a few years before they married, the wedding was a quiet affair. John apparently took about ten days off and then returned to work. His wife worked on here for a few months and then resigned and ran his household. You’re right, they were married for about ten years.”

      “Did she have any family?”

      “Not that I know of, they were fairly mature when they married each other, both were in their fifties,” said Richard. “She wasn’t from these parts, I think she was Welsh and as far as I know she had no family. She had no other dependents or kin, which came up when we put in the superannuation fund. That was before John married her, I wasn’t too much involved with the firm then, not with the management of it, I had to start as a junior clerk!” He gave a rueful smile. “I was told later that we had asked her about next of kin but both her parents were dead, she was unmarried at the time and she also said she was an only child.”

      “Where did they honeymoon?”

      “Not sure about that, somebody who was working with her might know, there are a few older hands still with us. But they didn’t go overseas, apparently John never had a passport, I did know that, because my father mentioned it once. There was a possible contract for the company in the USA and John should have been the obvious one to go to California to negotiate it, but his lack of a passport came up then and he refused to do anything about it. Said at the time he didn’t like flying, but…” here Richard shook his head “…it didn’t stop him flying to places like Jersey, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

      “For which he wouldn’t need a passport,” Ruddock scratched his head. “I have instructions from Matthew Pelham to go through Accrington’s house with a fine toothcomb to try and find any papers that may relate to family, it occurred to Matt that either you or James may wish to come around as well, there could be company papers there.”

      “Makes sense to me,” said Richard.

      “Let me see, the house is at …!” Ruddock riffled through his papers.

      “Pennington, it’s a village in Hertfordshire,“ Richard said. ” Will Monday morning suit you?”

      “That’ll be fine,” Ruddock nodded, and rose to his feet. “I’ll see you Monday. Shall we say 10 o’clock?”

      “That suits me. Will you come here initially?”

      “Yes, no point travelling separately. Incidentally, Matt Pelham ordered all the keys to be brought into our offices a few weeks back.”

      “Why was that?”

      “He’d been to the house a few times, after Accrington was widowed he paid a few visits, mainly to nag him about a will. I think he formed reservations about the housekeeper, СКАЧАТЬ