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grumbled.
    â€˜Useful for the trustees, though. Charles was a wealthy man with a wide variety of assets. Stocks and shares, property and so on. Sorting out a complex estate always takes time. Even so, we won’t be able to hold off Geoffrey Willatt for ever.’
    â€˜Fascinating,’ Stephanie breathed. ‘Vera sounds like a mystery woman.’
    â€˜Something else happened last night.’ He described seeing her leave the restaurant and his fruitless chase after her companion. ‘I did wonder if the man with her was the chairman of the Kavanaugh trustees. It seems unlikely, even though there was a resemblance. But it prompted me to looking through the file again and I’ve started wondering about the language used in the will. Geoffrey Willatt has given me a copy. It’s written out in shaky longhand but it’s simple and legally sound. In other words, very suspicious.’
    â€˜Why?’
    Harry grinned. ‘Any lawyer will tell you, do-it-yourself wills are almost always badly drafted.’
    Jonah coughed. ‘You just want to drum up more business.’
    Stephanie shushed him. ‘Are you saying Charles was too stupid to draft a will properly?’
    â€˜Not exactly. What I am saying is that I wouldn’t have expected him to use the briefest valid attestation clause. That is, the bit before the signatures. He used the phrase: signed by the testator in our presence and by us in his . Very neat. But it’s not a form of words that would spring naturally to the mind of a dying man.’
    She opened her eyes very wide. ‘Could he have copied it from his old will?’
    â€˜No. His lawyer, Cyril Tweats, had many qualities, but brevity was never one of them. He always used a more verbose formula. It was part of his style. My guess is that Vera checked out the wording in a book and dictated the terms of the will to Charles.’
    â€˜I agree,’ Stephanie said eagerly. ‘I’m sure you’re on to something.’
    Harry chuckled. Jonah was quite right: Stephanie was a woman after his own heart. ‘So it’s over to you two. If you can give the trustees any information which will help them to drive a suitable bargain with Vera, they will be delighted.’
    â€˜We’ll do our best,’ she said, reaching for her bag. ‘Thanks for the instructions. We’ll report back as soon as possible. Just one more thing I ought to mention.’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜We’ve had to increase our fees. Forced on us by the level of overheads. I’ve often told Jonah, he’s been selling himself short for years. Don’t think of it as a price rise so much as a long-overdue correction. See you.’
    Jonah winked at Harry, who mouthed at him, ‘Bloody answering machine.’ Whatever her qualities as an investigator, it looked as though Stephanie was intent on becoming the acceptable face of her uncle’s brand of capitalism.
    Ten minutes later he was walking back into Fenwick Court. As he stepped into reception Suzanne hailed him. The pleasurable alarm on her face filled him with foreboding: she loved nothing better than to be the breaker of bad news.
    â€˜Mr Crusoe wanted to see you. Urgently.’
    â€˜Any idea what it’s about?’
    She shook her blonde locks. ‘All he said was that he wanted me to make sure you got the message. At once. He doesn’t trust you to check your e-mail.’
    Harry made straight for his partner’s room. ‘A problem? Or is Suzanne simply enlivening her afternoon by turning on her best shock-horror manner?’
    Jim looked up from the pile of title deeds in front of him. ‘I think you would call it a problem. Luke Dessaur has been found dead.’
    Chapter 5
    He called Frances Silverwood right away. It was evident from her muffled tone that she was choking back tears as she gave him the brief details of which she was aware.
    â€˜Luke had booked into the Hawthorne