The Fifth Identity. Ray CW Scott
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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, he mentioned it to me and Ian Shaw once, said there was something about her, he didn’t think she was trustworthy.”
“Ah!” Richard Bilston ran his hands through his hair and grinned. “I’ve met the lady in question, albeit briefly. I can fully understand Matt’s reticence. I think she’s a domineering and aggressive bitch! But he’s a lawyer and he may put it more nicely than I would. But isolating the keys is always a wise precaution.”
Before meeting Richard Bilston the following Monday, Ruddock referred to the file, and found that the name of the cleaner was Mrs Salmon, she lived in Pennington village and she had been attending the property for some years. By chance Ruddock waylaid Pelham in the corridor on the Friday afternoon and asked him the question.
“Mrs Salmon,” mused Pelham, giving a sidelong glance at his watch which denoted that he was late for his usual Friday afternoon appointment - a golf date with a solicitor from a rival firm. “What about Mrs Salmon?”
“You mentioned once that you had reservations about her,” said Ruddock uneasily. “Was there anything specific?”
Pelham gave a wry smile.
“Yes and no. I met her a few times, I just had a feeling. She seemed … well… possessive…no …that’s not the right word…proprietary, as if she owned the place.”
“You mean, there could have been something going on?”
“Good God no! Nothing like that!” The idea seemed to amuse Pelham. “I felt she was …well…! Overbearing and …hmmm! Maybe untrustworthy. Put it this way, I wouldn’t leave my wallet lying around when she was in the vicinity…don’t quote me on that!”
“Oh!” Ruddock grimaced. “I think I get the picture.”
“When are you going to the house?”
“Next Monday. I’m going with Richard.”
“Good. Keep me informed.”
Chapter 2
Ruddock parked his car in the Billacc car park, entered the offices and was directed to Richard’s office. Richard was dictating a letter into his computer terminal and waved Ruddock to a chair. He finally laid down the dictaphone and leaned forward.
“You want a coffee before we go?”
Ruddock shook his head.
“Not for me,” he said. “I had one before I left the office.”
Richard picked up his brief case and led the way out into the car park where his car was parked. They got into the car and Richard pulled out into the traffic.
The trip to Pennington took a few hours, conversation was easy as they knew each other quite well. They were both much the same age and both were married with children approaching early teenage. They were also both keen football followers, Richard was a Chelsea man while Ruddock followed the Arsenal so football talk took up most of the journey. They had about half an hour to go before they touched upon the subject of their quest.
“Why did John never make a will?” asked Richard.
“I was hoping you could tell me that,” said Ruddock. “I find it quite incredible that a man of such wealth could make no provision whatsoever for the disposal of his estate. Let’s face it, none of us are immortal.”
“It’s strange that he never