“Everyone knows Charlie Todd, sir. He’s a character in his own right. But the family is an institution. They employ a lot of people.”

“Tell me.”

“Old man Todd, Charlie’s father, started off as proprietor of the Grand Hotel, on the prom. It really was grand too, in those days. Grand, but old-fashioned. He tarted it up, put in a few more bathrooms, a swimming pool, encouraged coach trips to stay there. Turned it into a sort of high-class holiday camp. Then he started buying land, before prices really rocketed. He never seemed to have any trouble getting planning permission for the development. He owns all those caravan sites and chalets on the other side of the coombe. Since then the Todds have branched out into gift shops, cafés. I’ve heard it said that they own half the property in the High Street, but you’d have to check on that. Old man Todd had three sons …”

“Is he still alive?” Savage interrupted.

“The old man? I believe so, sir. He’d be nearly ninety now. My gran went to the board school with him.”

“Go on. You said he had three sons.”

“Sir. Ernest, Laurence and Charlie, and there was one daughter. I can’t remember what she was called, but she married another local businessman, called Sandiford. It was seen as a bit of a business merger, but I think that the Todds got the better deal. They still live locally. They had a daughter, and she married …”

“All right, lad. We’ll skip the detailed family tree for now, shall we? What about the sons?”

“Sorry, sir. Ernest helped his father at the Grand for a while, then he took charge of all the caravan sites and that holiday camp on the hill. They called the business Todd Leisure Enterprises. I suppose that they formed some sort of company. Laurence was involved too, though I’m not sure what he does.

“By all accounts Charlie was always a bit—odd. Not simple exactly, but not quite normal. His mother was quite a few years older than Albert, the old man. They say he married her for her money not her looks, and she must have been well into her forties when Charlie was born. Ernest and Laurence went to school here in Gillicombe and left at fifteen to work for their father. I know that, because Ernest was on the board of governors when I was at school, and he told us so every speech day. I suppose because he was a bit slow, Charlie got sent away to some private place.

“Apparently the old man wanted to make Charlie manager of the Grand when Ernest set up Todd Leisure, but he soon realized that it wouldn’t do. When Charlie came back after National Service he was a bit wild. There was a scandal, I think, about girls in the town. One of them was under age. The parents made a fuss. Old man Todd tried to have Charlie locked up in some sort of mental clinic, but the doctors wouldn’t certify him. His mother had died by then. Albert gave up any hope of Charlie earning his own living, and offered to pay him an allowance if he promised to keep away from Gillicombe. I don’t think it was specially generous, but Charlie seemed to manage on it. He didn’t quite keep his part of the bargain, though. You quite often saw him around Gillicombe.”