‘No – it was drawn up about a year before he, Dever, was killed. Like his brother, of course, Dever had been born into vassalage, but after he was moved to Salay Hames he was reduced to serfdom. Nothing was changed by becoming a self-employed magician. The Salay seigniory actually places magicians under the category of Mountebank. He lived in a trailer at the back of the park. He owned a car but it was in need of major repairs. He owned the usual stuff people buy for themselves, but nothing wildly extravagant and nothing close to that. He seems to have bought several pieces of magical apparatus. Those cabinets, for instance. I’ve discovered that large magical apparatus is usually built to order and is expensive, but I suppose the cabinets would be an affordable business investment to a working magician. Dever’s biggest asset was the building, the museum. He left that as an entire bequest to the park. Apart from that he owned almost nothing.’

‘So he must have done something with Lew’s money. How much was it?’

‘No way of knowing. Lew died fifteen years ago. The police know zilch about it.’

‘So if we assume it was worth stealing, it must have amounted to a lot,’ I said.

‘Yes. That’s what I’m thinking.’

‘Could Dever have kept it as cash, and then lived on it?’

‘He made enough from his magic shows to cover daily expenses. He didn’t need to spend the money he stole. What I discovered is that his actual main source of income was a trust fund. It was paid to him every month by one of the clearing banks on behalf of a financial house in Raba City.’

‘Is that where he stashed it?’

‘I don’t think so. It’s a beneficial trust, the sort of thing you can’t set up for yourself but has to be funded by someone else. I can tell you it is known as an Anonymous Mutable Beneficial Annuity, or an AMBA. I’ve tried to find out how he became involved in it, where the money originally came from, but that sort of fund is shrouded in deep secrecy. The payments are made through a protective network of holding companies, handling agencies, offshore fund managers and service regulators. Have you ever heard of an AMBA?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I know almost nothing about high finance. I’m a writer – I’m a low finance user.’