Minette Walters - Fox Evil

"No," agreed Mark. "She knew you too well."

The old man gave a faint smile. "I presume Leo's behind it… and I presume it's about money-but in that case why doesn't he say what he wants? I've agonized over it, Mark, and I can't understand what this endless repetition of lies is supposed to achieve. Is it blackmail? Does he believe what he's saying?"

The younger man gave a doubtful shrug. "If he does, then it's Elizabeth who's persuaded him." He reflected for a moment. "Don't you think it more likely Leo's fed the idea to her and she's busy repeating it as fact? She's very suggestible, particularly if it means she can blame someone else for her problems. A false memory of abuse would be right up her street."

"Yes," said James with a small sigh- of relief? -"which is why Mrs. Bartlett is so convinced. She mentions several times that she's met Elizabeth."

Mark nodded.

"But if Leo knows it to be untrue, then he also knows that I merely have to produce Nancy to discredit what he and Elizabeth are saying. So why attempt to ruin my reputation like this?" Mark propped his chin in his hands. He didn't know any better than James, but at least he'd started to think laterally. "Isn't the whole point of the exercise that Nancy doesn't exist for Leo or Elizabeth? They don't even know what name she was given. She's just a question mark on an adoption form more than twenty years ago-and as long as she remains a question mark, they can accuse you of anything they like. If it's any help, I spent the last hour working backward from effect to cause. Maybe you should do the same. Ask yourself what the result of these phone calls has been and then decide if that's the result that was intended. It might give you an idea of what he's after."

James thought about it. "I've been forced onto the defensive," he admitted slowly, explaining it in military terms, "fighting a rearguard action and waiting for someone to show himself."

"It looks more like isolation to me," said Mark brutally. "He's turned you into a recluse, cut you off from anyone who might support you… neighbors… police-" he took a breath through his nose-" solicitor … even your grandchild. Do you really think he doesn't know that you'd rather leave her as a question mark than put her through the nightmare of a DNA test?"

"He can't be sure of that."

Mark shook his head with a smile. "Of course he can. You're a gentleman, James, and your responses are predictable. At least recognize that your son's a better psychologist than you are. He knows damn well you'd suffer in silence rather than let an innocent girl think she's the product of incest."

James conceded the point with a sigh. 'Then what does he want? These lies to stand? He's already made it clear he and Elizabeth will bring claims under the family-provision legislation if I try to cut them out altogether, but all he's doing by accusing me of incest is giving this alleged child of mine a reason to bring a claim as well." He shook his head in bafflement. "Surely a third claimant would reduce his share? I can't believe that's what he wants."

"No," said Mark thoughtfully, "but Nancy wouldn't have a case anyway. She's never been financially dependant on you in the way that Leo and Elizabeth have. It's the catch-22 I told you about when you first consulted me… if you'd refused to support your children through their difficulties, they wouldn't have a claim. Because you've helped them, they've a right to expect reasonable provision for their future… particularly Elizabeth who would be left effectively destitute if you abandoned her."

"Through her own fault. She's squandered everything she's ever been given. All a legacy will do is maintain her various addictions until they kill her."

Which had been Ailsa's point, thought Mark. But they'd been over it numerous times and he'd persuaded James that it was better to leave Elizabeth an equitable maintenance allowance than open the door to a claim for a larger share after his death. Under family-provision legislation a testator's moral responsibility to provide for his dependants had become a legal obligation in 1938. Gone were the Victorian days when the right to dispose of property freely was inviolable, and wives and children could be cut off without a penny if they displeased their husbands or fathers. The social justice favored by twentieth-century parliaments, both in divorce and the bequeathing of property, had imposed a duty of fairness, although children had no automatic rights to inherit unless they could prove dependency.

Leo's case was less clear-cut as he had no history of dependence, and Mark's view was that he would have a hard time proving an entitlement to a share of the assets after James drew a line in the sand following Leo's theft from the bank. Nevertheless, Mark had advised him to make the same maintenance provision for Leo as he had for Elizabeth, particularly as Ailsa had reduced the size of her bequest to her children from the promised half of everything she owned to a token amount of fifty thousand, with the rest passing to her husband. It was hardly tax efficient, but it allowed for the second chance that Ailsa wanted.

The difficulty was-and always had been-how to dispose of the bulk of the estate, specifically the house, its contents, and the land, all of which had a long connection with the Lockyer-Fox family. In the end, as so often happened in these cases, neither James nor Ailsa was willing to see it broken up and sold off piecemeal, with family papers and photographs destroyed by strangers uninterested in and ignorant of the generations that had gone before. Hence the search for Nancy.

The irony was that it had produced so perfect a result. She fitted the bill in every respect, although, as Mark had suggested to James after the first time he met her, her attraction, both as an heir and a long-lost granddaughter, was greatly enhanced by her indifference. Like a femme fatale, she seduced through coolness.

He linked his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. He had never discussed any of his clients with Becky, but he was beginning to wonder if she'd been through his briefcase. "Did Leo know you were looking for your granddaughter?" he asked.

"Not unless you told him. Ailsa and I were the only other ones who knew."

"Would Ailsa have mentioned it to him?"

"No."

"To Elizabeth?"

The old man shook his head.

"Okay." He hunched forward again. "Well, I'm pretty sure he does know, James, and it may be my fault. If not, he's taken a gamble that it was your most likely course of action. I think this is about removing the only other heir from the equation in order to force you to reinstate your previous will."

"But Nancy's been out of the equation for months."

"Mm. Leo doesn't know that, though… wouldn't even guess. We didn't. It's as I said earlier, we thought she'd be a clone of Elizabeth… and I can't believe Leo's expectations were any different. You base your judgments on what you know, and by the law of averages Elizabeth's child should have jumped at the chance to inherit a fortune."

"So what are you suggesting? That these calls will stop if I make it clear she's not my heir?"

Mark shook his head. "I think they might get worse."

"Why?"

"Because Leo wants the money and he doesn't much care how he gets it. The sooner you die of exhaustion or depression the better."

"What can he do if the main beneficiaries are charities? Ruining my reputation won't prevent them from accepting the legacies. It's written in stone now that the estate will be broken up. There's nothing he can do about it."

"But you haven't signed the will, James," Mark reminded him, "and if Leo knows that, then he knows your previous will, leaving the bulk of the estate to him, still stands."

"How can he know that?"