Read Dead Money (A Detective Inspector Paul Amos Lincolnshire Mystery) for Free Online Page A

Miles, a friend; a chap called Jim Berry who helped him a great deal with his business; and finally the church he had taken to attending in his later years."
    "Large amounts?"
    "Just a few thousand pounds in total. Mrs Jones was still very well provided for."
    “Was Mr Jones content with this arrangement? Are you aware of any plans he might have had to change the will again?”
    Renshaw hesitated.
    “I'd be obliged, inspector, if this conversation could be kept confidential between ourselves. Mr Jones had indicated to me that he intended to reduce the bequest to Miss Miles but he had not yet settled on a figure. I had the impression that he did not intend to cut her out altogether but it was, after all, the largest of the three bequests.”
    Amos subsided. The will offered no real motive for murdering Jones at this particular juncture.
    “How well did you know Raymond Jones?” Amos tried a different tack.
    Renshaw was ill at ease. He did not regard discussing Jones on a personal level as a breach of professional confidence yet it seemed, if anything, worse, somehow disrespectful.
    “I'm sorry to ask,” Amos assured him on seeing his discomfort, “but I must tell you quite frankly that we have a very wide field of possible suspects and nothing that points to any particular individual. Anything that might help us to narrow the scope of the inquiry could set us a long way forward in bringing Mr Jones's killer to justice. I need hardly remind you that this was a particularly merciless attack.”
    These words had the desired effect of assuaging Renshaw's conscience.
    "My father knew Raymond Jones senior. He ran a general stores in the town - groceries, hardware and so on. He set up before the second world war and kept going through the 40s and 50s.
    "Jones senior had two sons and a daughter. The girl worked hard in the shop and kept it going when her father's health began to fail. The two boys showed no such enthusiasm. Neither wanted to put the effort into a business whose days, they felt, were numbered."
    Renshaw sighed.
    "In a way, I suppose they were right," he went on. "Supermarkets were just starting to come in and the writing was on the wall for traditional retailers. Old Mr Jones couldn't or wouldn't see it and his daughter didn't know how to contradict him.
    "The chap was heartbroken that his sons didn't want to follow him into the business and he was of that generation of fathers who thought girls didn't count. He died of cancer in his early 50s, leaving the business, quite unjustly, to the two sons who didn't want it and his own daughter virtually destitute.
    "She married a childhood sweetheart who still carried a torch for her, though I think her enthusiasm for the match had waned somewhat over the years. She certainly felt bitter about the whole business but there was nothing I could do for her.
    "My father had drawn up the will and it was watertight. He, like Mr Jones senior, believed girls found husbands who would look after them so he did nothing to persuade his client to make proper provision for her. She left the area a couple of years later and I have no idea where she is now.
    "The two boys promptly sold the business and split the proceeds. That was how Raymond Jones got started. He certainly demonstrated a good head for business. He got quite an inflated price.
    "You may hear rumours," the solicitor added quite unnecessarily, "that Raymond Jones cheated his brother Leonard on the deal. I can assure you that such suggestions are utterly without foundation. My father acted in the sale of the business.
    "Leonard, like his sister, subsequently left Lincolnshire while Raymond set up as a builder's merchant. He saw there was money in building. He diversified into plant hire and construction and sold a thriving business to a medium-sized conglomerate anxious to build up nationwide coverage. He invested the money in more businesses and even bought back part of his construction company a few years later for a