The Appleton Case by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Goodreads: 25343981
Published: 2015-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“Another lovely day,” Stuart said as Janet joined him in the garden.

“It’s so nice to have all this sunshine,” Janet agreed. “I hope it isn’t too much extra work for you.”

Stuart laughed. “I love watering the flowers,” he told her. “I don’t get to do it very often. We usually have plenty of rain.”

“Everything looks gorgeous,” Janet told him, taking a moment to truly enjoy the beautiful flowers that seemed to be blooming everywhere in their garden.

“It’s come a long way in the last few years,” Stuart told her. “When I took over there was nothing here but grass and mud.”

“Do let us know what we need to pay you for looking after all of this,” Janet said. “I just hope we can afford you.”

“I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement,” Stuart said with a wave of his hand. “I love the job.”

Janet smiled and then tried to think of a way to gradually bring the conversation around to the various things she wanted to ask the man. After a moment, she shrugged. It would be easier to simply be blunt.

“We found a few letters in the house from Gavin to his mother,” she said.

Stuart stopped watering the roses and looked at Janet, clearly interested in what she was saying. “Did you now?”

“Yes, we’ve just dropped them off to him at his garage,” Janet replied. “But he seemed quite disappointed with them. I gather he was looking for something other than those particular letters. Do you have any idea what he might be after?”

“I never believed it was letters he was after,” Stuart said in a quiet voice. “I think his mother left something really valuable in the house, but only Gavin knows what it is.”

“Like what?” Janet asked.

“I don’t know,” Stuart shrugged. “She married a succession of very rich men. Maybe there’s some jewellery or a vase from ancient Egypt or something.”

“I haven’t seen anything that looks valuable,” Janet said. “Although we haven’t been through every drawer in every room yet.”

“You may not even recognise the thing as valuable,” Stuart suggested. “But I bet Gavin knows exactly what it is. I think his problem is that he isn’t sure where it is.”

“Has he been in the house since his mother died?”

“Not as far as I know,” Stuart said. “I’m not exactly sure what happened to Margaret, but the first we knew about her passing was when a man from the trust showed up with a solicitor. The trust had the locks changed and the man asked us to keep an eye out for Gavin in case he came around.”

“Which he did.”

“Yes, later that same day he was over there, trying to get in,” Stuart told her. “I rang young Robert and he came and had a word with him.”

“So he didn’t know about his mother’s death until that day, either?” Janet asked.

“I guess not,” Stuart said. “He and Margaret had had a big fight about six months before she died and Gavin hadn’t been around to see her after that.

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