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Back Guilt at the Garage Save as PDF
Chapters (31)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Simon Brett
  3. GUILT AT THE GARAGE
  4. Dedication
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN

‘Were you happy with that arrangement?’

‘More than happy. I had no desire to deprive Billy and Shannon of their rightful inheritance.’

‘Did you tell Shannon that?’

‘She didn’t ask me. She just asked if she could come to the house to search for a will. When I said no, she rang off.’

‘So, what are you going to do now, Malee?’

‘In the absence of a will, Bill technically died intestate. That means I will inherit everything. I will then transfer Shefford’s Garage to Billy. It will take a long time and a lot of lawyers’ fees.’

‘But if you were to tell Shannon and Billy that, it would set their minds at rest.’

‘I have tried to tell them. But it is a difficult thing to do when they slam the phone down as soon as they hear my voice. Anyway, I am not sure they would believe me. They distrust me, you see. And Shannon’s mother hates me.’

What she’d heard from Jude made Carole unable to argue with that. ‘Very odd,’ she mused. ‘I wonder what happened to the will.’ Malee shrugged glumly. ‘I wonder if Bill got as far as signing it and getting it witnessed …?’

‘I do not know.’ Suddenly the widow looked exhausted. The rigid control she had been exercising over her emotions was under threat.

‘And if he did,’ said Carole, ‘who were the witnesses?’

Another weary ‘I do not know.’

‘What would you feel,’ asked Carole, as a new thought came to her, ‘if someone else were to tell Billy and Shannon what you’ve just told me? About the provisions Bill intended to put into his will? It might reassure them and get them off your back.’

Malee shrugged. ‘Why would they believe someone else? Are you suggesting you should tell them? Why should they believe you?’

‘I wasn’t thinking of myself, but I have a friend who’s a … healer.’ She tried very hard to drain the last drop of scepticism from the word. Long habit made that hard. ‘She’s treating Shannon’s mother. I could ask her to … sort of mediate.’

‘Do what you want,’ said Malee listlessly.

‘So … a missing will,’ said Carole. ‘Anything else missing?’

‘Yes,’ said the widow with sudden energy.

‘What?’

‘Bill’s appointments diary. A green book he always had with him. And I haven’t seen it since the day he died.’

EIGHTEEN

Gulliver was lucky. He got a second walk that Sunday morning, a beneficiary of the confidence his owner’s encounter with Malee Shefford had engendered. Carole already had so much to reveal to Jude on her return from Leeds, that she wondered if she could gild the lily with one more revelation.