‘And how did that make you feel?’

‘Absolutely furious! After all the hard work Billy had put in over the years to keep Shefford’s going, his Dad was just riding roughshod over him. I couldn’t allow that to happen.’ Frankie was overwrought. She gulped down what remained in her glass and topped it up from the Captain Morgan’s bottle. She didn’t bother to add any more Coke.

‘So, what did you plan to do?’ Jude persisted. ‘Did you argue with Bill? Did you tell him what you thought when he asked you to sign the will?’

‘No. He could be bloody-minded. If you’d got something serious to say, you had to catch him at the right moment. So I thought I’d just … well, obviously not put the envelope in the post … but wait, catch him when he was more relaxed and ask if he really had considered the effects of what he was doing.’

‘And where did you put the will? Did you bring it back here?’

If Jude had hoped the precious document was about to be handed over, she was in for a disappointment. ‘No, I left it in my drawer back at the garage. I knew Bill would never look in there. And I was still hoping for a chance to talk to him about it when he … when he died.’

Carole felt she had been out of the action for too long. ‘And what did you do with it then?’ she demanded.

Frankie looked defiantly from one to the other of them and took a long sip of almost-neat rum before replying, ‘I burnt it.’ Although no criticism had been voiced, she continued defensively, ‘It was the only thing I could do! A matter of justice. There’s an incinerator we use round the back of the garage. I used it to burn the will the night after Bill died, when everyone had gone home and I was the only one there. I knew if the revised version never saw the light of day, the old one would still be valid. And Billy would inherit what was rightfully his … as he always should have done.’

Carole knew this wasn’t true. The law dictated that a new marriage invalidated previous wills. So, Frankie’s rash action wouldn’t have had the outcome that she hoped for. In fact, it would have made things worse. Had the new will been posted off as his father intended, Billy Shefford would have inherited the business. Malee would have just got the house and savings. Still, Carole reflected, there wasn’t much point in telling Frankie that now.

A look between her and Jude confirmed that they were both feeling the same level of deflation. If Frankie hadn’t leapt to conclusions; if she had only read the new will … But there was no point in considering such variant scenarios. What had happened had happened, that was all there was to it.