Read Online Two Women by Brian Freemantle - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Brian Freemantle
Ads: Link
between the two letters and against the name of the club there was an asterisk. There was also an asterisk against todayâs entry, which simply read: âJ. 2.30.â When, according to Jennings, Northcote was on his tractor, hauling across a field completely hidden from anyoneâs view the cutting machine beneath which heâd fallen.
It took Carver more than an hour painstakingly to go through every entry, which Northcote appeared always to do by initials, never recording a name. Those of SâB appeared a total of six times, always marked by asterisks, and by carefully going back through the marked pages Carver calculated the meetings were regularly once a month, nearly always the last Tuesday. They were always for lunch and never at the same restaurant. This week had been the first time the Harvard club was mentioned. Where would Northcoteâs diaries for the previous years be? Carver wondered. The manâs personal safe in the vault? Another check, for the following day.
In another right-hand drawer Carver found a cuttings book of newspaper and magazine articles on Northcote. The long, admiring feature by Alice was quite near the top. Even more recent was a Wall Street Journal interview in which Northcote had urged tighter financial supervision by the SEC and all the other authorities governing accountancy, both locally in New York as well as federally.
Neatly arranged in a multi-sectioned tray in the bottom right-hand drawer was a selection of keys, some â the country-club locker and spare sets for the cars, for instance â clearly labelled, others not. The age and model â and insecurity â of the safe surprised Carver when he found it. It was floor-mounted inside one of the cupboards beneath the bookcase and was key, not combination, locked. It took Carver less than fifteen minutes to find the key that fitted from among those unmarked in the bottom drawer.
The safe was only about a quarter full, all of it easily carried in a single trip back to the desk. Carver began to go through the contents in the order in which they had been stored, which was with the money on top of the pile. He didnât bother to count but guessed there were several thousand dollars in newly issued, uncreased one-hundred-dollar bills. There were three personal insurance policies, in total with a face sum of $3,000,000 but in the one he glanced through there was an endorsement increasing the value in the event of accidental death. There was a stock portfolio of perhaps twenty certificates, which Carver scanned through not even registering their valuations, interested only in any possible mention of the three companies. Once more there was none. George Northcoteâs will was unexpectedly brief. Apart from bequests to the staff â $50,000 for Jack Jennings â the bulk of Northcoteâs entire estate went to Jane, passing to Carver if she predeceased him in Northcoteâs lifetime. The only exception was a single legacy of $100,000 to Carver if she did inherit. In the event of their both predeceasing Northcote, the estate was to be divided equally between any surviving children. The will had been made soon after their marriage, Carver saw from its date, long before the difficulty of Jane conceiving had been realized. There was a codicil, attested just one week after the partnersâ meeting at which Carver had been proposed by Northcote and unanimously approved by the partners as Northcoteâs successor, appointing Carver the sole and absolute executor of the will.
The only things remaining in front of Carver when he put the portfolio aside were a small selection of photographs, the first easily identifiable as Northcote with Jane, when she was a child, and with his wife â one showing Muriel actually on their wedding day, in her wedding dress â which had to have been taken at least thirty if not more years ago.
Carver didnât recognize the woman in the last four
It took Carver more than an hour painstakingly to go through every entry, which Northcote appeared always to do by initials, never recording a name. Those of SâB appeared a total of six times, always marked by asterisks, and by carefully going back through the marked pages Carver calculated the meetings were regularly once a month, nearly always the last Tuesday. They were always for lunch and never at the same restaurant. This week had been the first time the Harvard club was mentioned. Where would Northcoteâs diaries for the previous years be? Carver wondered. The manâs personal safe in the vault? Another check, for the following day.
In another right-hand drawer Carver found a cuttings book of newspaper and magazine articles on Northcote. The long, admiring feature by Alice was quite near the top. Even more recent was a Wall Street Journal interview in which Northcote had urged tighter financial supervision by the SEC and all the other authorities governing accountancy, both locally in New York as well as federally.
Neatly arranged in a multi-sectioned tray in the bottom right-hand drawer was a selection of keys, some â the country-club locker and spare sets for the cars, for instance â clearly labelled, others not. The age and model â and insecurity â of the safe surprised Carver when he found it. It was floor-mounted inside one of the cupboards beneath the bookcase and was key, not combination, locked. It took Carver less than fifteen minutes to find the key that fitted from among those unmarked in the bottom drawer.
The safe was only about a quarter full, all of it easily carried in a single trip back to the desk. Carver began to go through the contents in the order in which they had been stored, which was with the money on top of the pile. He didnât bother to count but guessed there were several thousand dollars in newly issued, uncreased one-hundred-dollar bills. There were three personal insurance policies, in total with a face sum of $3,000,000 but in the one he glanced through there was an endorsement increasing the value in the event of accidental death. There was a stock portfolio of perhaps twenty certificates, which Carver scanned through not even registering their valuations, interested only in any possible mention of the three companies. Once more there was none. George Northcoteâs will was unexpectedly brief. Apart from bequests to the staff â $50,000 for Jack Jennings â the bulk of Northcoteâs entire estate went to Jane, passing to Carver if she predeceased him in Northcoteâs lifetime. The only exception was a single legacy of $100,000 to Carver if she did inherit. In the event of their both predeceasing Northcote, the estate was to be divided equally between any surviving children. The will had been made soon after their marriage, Carver saw from its date, long before the difficulty of Jane conceiving had been realized. There was a codicil, attested just one week after the partnersâ meeting at which Carver had been proposed by Northcote and unanimously approved by the partners as Northcoteâs successor, appointing Carver the sole and absolute executor of the will.
The only things remaining in front of Carver when he put the portfolio aside were a small selection of photographs, the first easily identifiable as Northcote with Jane, when she was a child, and with his wife â one showing Muriel actually on their wedding day, in her wedding dress â which had to have been taken at least thirty if not more years ago.
Carver didnât recognize the woman in the last four
Similar Books
