‘Bill made a will leaving the garage to Billy. When I asked to look for it, that alerted her.’

‘Alerted her to what?’

‘To the danger of me finding it. Nobody’ll find it now.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She will have destroyed it.’

‘Malee?’

‘Yes, of course. I should never have suggested that she look for it.’

‘Sorry, Shannon, you’re going too fast for me here. What are you saying?’

‘I’m saying that somewhere in the house where Bill lived for most of his adult life there was a copy of the will he made leaving the garage to Billy. Once I alerted Malee to that idea, she found it and destroyed it.’

‘But why would she do that?’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jude! Because it left the garage to Billy! If that will didn’t exist, Bill would technically have died intestate. I don’t know much about the law, but I do know that if a married person dies without a will, the estate goes to the surviving partner!’ Shannon leant against the work surface, drained by this outburst.

‘You’re right about one thing,’ said Jude coolly.

‘Oh?’

‘Bill Shefford did make a will.’

‘See? I told you.’

‘But he made that will very recently.’

‘Oh?’

‘After he married Malee. And in the will, he left the house and his savings to her. And he left the garage, the whole Shefford’s business, to Billy.’

‘I don’t believe you but, even if I did, what difference would that make? It would still have been to Malee’s advantage to destroy it.’

‘She didn’t destroy it. She fully supported the provisions Bill had made for her and for Billy.’

‘Oh yes? And why should I believe that?’

‘You could ask her.’

‘Talk to Malee? You’ve got to be joking.’

‘It’s better to talk to someone than go around nursing groundless suspicions of them.’

‘My suspicions are not groundless! Malee is, and always has been, nothing but a gold-digger!’

‘But you can’t—’

Jude was interrupted by a weak voice from the front room calling, ‘Shannon.’

Instantly, daughter went to mother. Jude followed, asking, ‘Is there anything more I can do for you, Rhona?’

‘No, I just want Shannon,’ said the old woman with a note of petulance. ‘I don’t trust healers! They don’t do any good for people. Just get them worried about things they don’t need to worry about. They’re all rubbish. The first one you brought to me, Shannon, he was rubbish. And this woman’s no better!’

The sudden change of attitude hit Jude like a slap in the face. Though Rhona had expressed scepticism of the healing profession at their first meeting, there had been no criticism voiced since then. Jude wondered whether the old woman’s mind was starting to go. She had been aware recently of a tendency towards rambling.