Heirs and Assigns by Marjorie Eccles

Author:Marjorie Eccles
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780106915
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

Reardon, after his meeting with Cherry, was unusually silent as they drove into Birmingham city centre, but Gilmour, at the wheel, was happy with his own thoughts. He was feeling quite chipper, after spending an hour with Maisie while Reardon had been talking with the superintendent. He’d found her looking well, blooming in fact, sitting beside a warm fireside, knitting baby garments and gossiping with her sister, Ruby, who was staying with her for as long as Gilmour might have to be away. She’d hardly seemed to be missing him, in fact, until Ruby had tactfully slipped out to the shops and left them alone for a while to talk.

He found a place to park near the green oasis surrounding the cathedral. The paths that crossed it were busy with people going about their business, feeding the pigeons or simply sitting on the park benches, taking advantage of the weak sun which the vagaries of the weather had brought out on this wintry day. After leaving the car, the two of them made their way down Bennett’s Hill, a prosperous commercial street of banks, insurance and other office buildings. The solicitors’ office they sought, unlike some of the newer, larger and more dignified buildings, was squeezed between two others, with a narrow frontage and a heavy door, though a brass plaque indicated this was indeed the offices of Harper, Kingdom and Harper. Outward appearances were deceptive. The premises evidently went a long way back and, inside, the front office was a hive of bustling activity with an overall impression that red tape and the stacks of paper on every conceivable surface might one day take over what little space was left. From behind frosted glass doors men, and sometimes women, emerged and disappeared through other doors on mysterious errands. An elderly clerk peered from behind an overloaded desk and asked in an offhand way what their business was, and when they’d shown their badges, spoke into an internal telephone. ‘You can go up,’ he told them. ‘Mr Robert’s office. Top of the stairs. He’s busy but he’ll see you for a few minutes.’

‘Thank you,’ Reardon answered, with no little irony.

Robert Harper was also surrounded by papers. The mountains they’d left behind at Bryn Glas, which had so overwhelmed Gilmour, were beginning to look like mere molehills beside these Himalayas. Could anyone ever find time to actually read them all? Presumably Mr Robert did; in the next few minutes he proved himself admirably au fait with the affairs of Llewellyn Holdings.

‘I was very sorry to hear of Mr Llewellyn’s passing,’ he said, swinging his spectacles by the earpiece. Removing them had the effect of making him look much younger than he had at first appeared. He was probably in his early forties, despite a receding hairline and a somewhat corpulent frame. Was he conscious of a lack of gravitas so that he chose to wear pinstriped trousers and black jacket, plus an old fashioned ‘come to Jesus’ wing collar? ‘And even

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