It was during the next morning when I had the Inspector Dawes visit me again. The breakfast I'd eaten was just as miserable as had been that time at dinner and though I didn't like these visits from the police, gave me something else to think about instead of me just mopping around.
`Well it looks like you're off the hook Mr. Oates,' he said without any preamble.
`Off the hook? You mean I was a suspect in the death of Sheila?' I asked incredulously.
`Where an unusual death occurs and there's a lot of money involved, many people are suspect, not just yourself,' he replied.
`So what has brought about this change of my status?' I asked.
`Miss Fiona Hamilton was found dead in her apartment this morning.'
What! Fiona too?' I cried out at this news. What about Jacob?'
`He was traced to an hotel in Manchester and has told us a lot that filled in certain gaps in our enquiries. He was at Miss Hamilton's flat when Mrs. Justin-Forbes turned up. He left them together to go to Manchester but knew they were going to get cocaine from their usual supplier.
He gave us the name and the man is now in custody. The autopsy has shown that Mrs. Justin-Forbes died from inhaling a contaminated substance, i.e., cocaine, and were awaiting the result of the autopsy being performed on Miss Hamilton. If the result shows the same as your woman, the inquest will be held within a few days.'
The autopsy on Fiona showed the same as Sheila and batches of the cocaine seized at the suppliers home proved to be of the same batch, so he was arrested with a charge of manslaughter and drug trafficking.
The inquest was on behalf of both Sheila and Fiona and the verdict given as being death by misadventure in both cases. With this being announced, Mr. Wilkes put the will through for probate. The funeral was to be held five days later in the case of Fiona, and Sheila's, the day after.
Jacob cried at Fiona's funeral, making me cry along with him, and it was him that followed me the next day when we attended the crematorium for Sheila.
This wake we held in an hotel in Kingston, and I was surprised at the amount of old friends of her turned up, mother included as well as dad. It was also the first time I got to see her sister, niece and nephew, other beneficiaries of her will. It was here that Mr. Wilkes told us of the reading of the will that would take place in his office the following day.
I wish I hadn't, after this news, invited Sheila's sister and the two younger ones to stay the night in Hanover Square to be on hand for the reading of the will. I can't recount the number of searching questions I went through with her sister. Though how she was that, I couldn't envisaged. They were like chalk and cheese in not only appearance but in all things. Sour faced, a shrewish mouth and a most obvious dislike of me. I couldn't stop her from going through every room of the house and I could see her mind calculating the value of every item that she laid her eyes on.
It was in our bedroom that I told her to leave before she'd even got a chance to go through everything there. She wasn't there and then prepared to leave until I started to take my trousers off.
She left this behind too,' I said as I stepped out them. Do you want this too,' I asked as I lifted up my limp dick.
`You're disgusting,' she sneered and stormed out of the bedroom and being a bit ashamed of what I'd done, but not sorry for I had finally got rid of her.
She didn't speak to me at breakfast, but then, neither did her two children who were around the same age as myself. Trevor asked me as we left the breakfast table if he could have a private word with me. This I agreed to and we went off into the kitchen.
`Er, Anne, Alice and myself have been asked to be at the reading of the will. It appears that we too are to receive something,' he said almost apologetically.
`And so you should. I didn't think for one moment that your mistress would have forgotten all that you have done for her,' I said.
`Er, er, the problem is, that I don't think that we could all travel together in the car,' he managed to get out.
`Good! I can't stand them either. Phone for a taxi to take them. Us four will go in the car.' So that's how we travelled to Mr. Wilkes office in the City.
Seven of us sat round the table in the solicitors boardroom with a stenographer off to one side taking notes.
Er, we are gathered here today,' he stuttered to start, to read the last known will and testament of the late Mrs. Sheila Justin-Forbes.'
When was this written?' Sheila's sister demanded. I was told that only myself and my two children were beneficiaries.'
`Er, this will was dated just two months ago and was in her desk at the time of her death and so that supersedes whatever she wrote or said about any previous wills made.' He got a glowering look at this comment.
To Trevor, my both butler, chauffeur who has looked after all my needs,' to which I had to hide a smirk, and also Anne, my maid and Alice, my precious cook, I leave the sum of ten thousand pounds to each.'
There were gasps from the three named and I smiled but later regretted my generosity later in giving them this amount of hard cash.
`To my sister I leave one million pounds.....'
A million pounds!' she interrupted the solicitor in a loud and venomous tone. I was promised half of the estate.'
Be that as it may,' he said dryly. It's one million pounds. To my niece and nephew' he carried on. `I leave them half a million pounds each.' I smiled inwardly as I knew then that they expected to share the other half of the estate.
`After these bequests, I leave the residue of my estate to my husband to be, Randolph Oates.'
`Him! Her toy boy?' This got me and I stopped her from saying anymore by interrupting what could have been far worse in the names she could have called me.
`Mr. Wilkes! I hope that your secretary is making accurate notes at what is being said at this table, for if she so much as utters another word that is derogatory towards me, I will sue her for defamation of character. I think two million would be enough.'
This shut her up.
`So having read out the will and wishes of the late Mrs Justin-Forbes, I have fulfilled my duty as her solicitor. Mr. Austin, within a few days, will see that you, Mrs Campbell, and your children, Roger and Cecilia of the same surname, will receive a cheque for the amounts stated in the will. And that concludes this meeting.'
What about her jewellery?' Mrs. Campbell asked. This... That... Him,' pointing at me. `Is he going to wear it?' she sneered with the words being spoken quite sarcastically.
`You can have her bloody jewellery except the engagement ring, for that is worth more to me than the whole rest of it. But you'll have to wait until I send it to you for you'll not step one foot inside that house the way you have behaved over the last two days.'
Her face was a bright crimson at being put down in this way and I'm sure she remembered the secretary taking notes and swallowed the words she would have like to have given voice to. So the meeting ended. With me and those of, now my house, shook hands with Mr. Wilkes before leaving his office and being driven home to Hanover Square. I left the other three to find their own way to whatever station they wanted to get home themselves.
It was another sombre and lonely dinner that I had that night and what with the stress and worry that I might have been tried for murder was too much, and so I went out and got as pissed as a fart.
When I woke up in the morning, with a throbbing hangover, found I was in a strange bed with some young female. I had no recollection of meeting her, whether it was in a club or off the street, I just didn't know. She was still asleep when I woke, her naked body lying there beside me and the first thing I noticed was that her cuffs and collar didn't match. She was blond on top but a light brown down below. It must have been her tits that caught my eye for they were full and didn't disappear when she was on her back.
But with a multitude of blacksmiths hammering away at their anvils inside my head, the sight of her naked body didn't turn me on at all. I got off the bed and staggered through to a small bathroom and nearly threw up when I looked at myself in the mirror, but managed to hold myself back and buried my face in a basinful of cold water.
That helped a little as I went back and found my clothes and got dressed. Now not knowing if she'd been a hooker or not, I left twenty pounds on the side and left her still sleeping in the bed. It was a seedy hotel in Soho I found out when I got down and out onto the street. I managed to hail a taxi and was soon at home in Hanover Square where I took several Disprins and went to bed.
It was during the late afternoon when I woke up. The headache gone but still had that nagging tooth at the back of my mouth. I had another desultory dinner before going back to bed again, crying this time that Sheila wasn't there beside me.
I woke up to more bad news, though it was really after breakfast that I got this. Trevor asked to speak to me. He hummed and arred a bit, but the upshot was that he gave me his notice to quit the service. Not only him, but Anne and Alice as well. Fucking hell was my first thought. I'd given them too much money and they were now feeling somewhat independent in earning a wage that I could supply them with.
I could understand the motive of Alice for she said that she was only six months away from retirement anyway, and this money would now see her through till this came about. She had enough stamps to ensure that she would receive her full pension and that she could now retire, albeit six months earlier than expected, and spend that extra time with her sister in the cottage that they had bought between them for their old age.
So two weeks later I had Hanover Square house all to my own and what a miserable state I was then in. Fortunately, those few months after leaving school, I had learned to cook meals that were edible. But it wasn't the same having to cook and eat a meal without anyone else to talk to. One mundane task was to have to make my own bed sometime during the day and not have to keep getting into an unmade bed. But I was also feeling the lack of not having somebody in that bed with me.
Apart from that, I still had this nagging tooth that was now starting to drive me mad and resolved to get this sorted out sooner rather than later. It was this tooth that caused the next change in my life.
It wasn't a cheap dentist, but what the hell, I could afford the best now, knowing that I now had over ten million pounds. Not that I kept it all to myself for I astounded mum and dad by given them four million pounds. Christ! Was I the flavour of the month or not! Mum's objections to me taking up with Sheila were now stale bread. It was from dad that I got the homilies of not letting the money I had now inherited go to my head and waste it on frivolous things like flashy cars and even flashier women. His words were taken to heart and did as he advised.
But back to the dentist. Well not him per se, but the waiting room. For it was there that I read a piece that attracted my attention. I'd already been giving an injection into my gum before he wanted to pull this nagging tooth, and I leafed through this medical magazine.
It was about a clinic, quite local to London, that was looking for volunteers for them to progress forwards into their research of genes and ancillary effects. They were looking for people between the ages of twenty and thirty for this study. I managed to get the dentist to say that it was a legitimate thing and there were usually quite a lot of clinics wanting people to be their guinea pigs into medical research. No was his answer to it being dangerous. They had too much to lose if it was.
He pulled my tooth, without any pain I might add, and I left after paying a hefty fee but also with this page from the magazine. I mulled it over for a day for a day or two and then decided to go for it. For I had nothing else to do. I didn't need to find work and I definitely didn't want to go out and pick up some broad off the streets for company. I just hoped that the woman/girl that I had picked up was clean when I wrote my letter to this clinic.