Touch and Go

‘He had, and they sure were mad as hell. There was trouble, and I suppose when your Muriel got ill she wasn’t up to handling it.’

‘What sort of trouble?’ asked Kemp sharply.

‘She wasn’t specific. The estate had been settled in her favour by the time she came to us so we’d no part in it. Of course we checked things out with her law firm back in Vegas, and they confirmed everything was hunky-dory for her.’ Dale looked at the expression and didn’t like it much. ‘Except as far as her health was concerned of course,’ he finished, lamely.

Kemp felt it was time matters were brought to a head. ‘So what was in this will she made with your office?’

Van Gryson had his briefcase open on the sofa beside him. He took out a fat folder, extracted a document and handed it to Kemp.

It was a will made in proper form by Muriel Probert, widow, dated March 1987 and running to several pages. Details of the assets in personalty and real estate consisted mainly of business concerns and properties in Las Vegas. Apart from some gifts to various charities, the principal beneficiaries were Preston John Madison and Clive Edwin Horth. At the end of a short list of legatees who appeared to be women friends or servants Kemp found his own name: To Lennox Kemp, my former husband, in fond remembrance and deep gratitude, my largest ruby necklace in the hope he has got himself a lady more worthy than me.’

Kemp grinned to hide a deeper feeling. ‘At least she remembered me,’ he said, ‘but surely you haven’t come all this way just to hand it over?’

Van Gryson put a hand to his forehead. ‘God! If only it were that simple!’

Puzzled, Kemp gave the document back. ‘I don’t see any problems,’ he said. ‘Who are these two lucky chaps, Madison and Horth? They’re described as casino operators. I’d make a guess and say they’re the late Mr Probert’s partners.’

‘And you’d be right, Lennox. Madison—he’s called Prester John in gambling circles—he ran things for Leo Probert, and Horth’s one of his henchmen.’

‘So Muriel was just putting things right with them when she made this will. I don’t see anything wrong with that. She’d no family of her own, and she couldn’t have children. You knew that?’

‘Naturally we inquired as to other possible heirs in view of the terms of the will.’ Dale was huffed at the suggestion that Eikenberg & Lazard might not have been thorough. ‘She told us she was childless.’

Kemp thought of the operation Muriel had undergone in the early years of their marriage. Just fibroids, the doctor had told them when she went into hospital, but afterwards the surgeon had been uneasy, and a hysterectomy was mentioned. Muriel would have none of it; she had been young then, and hopeful …

‘Well,’ said Kemp, ‘all these assets were accumulated by Leo Probert. It seems perfectly fair to me that they should go back where they came from. Nice men, are they, Prester John and his pal, Clive?’

‘The worst,’ said Van Gryson morosely. ‘Julius Eikenberg and myself, we both wondered if they’d put pressure on her. Make a will in our favour or take the consequences. We explained the undue influence thing to her pretty thoroughly, Lennox, just to be sure, but she was adamant that she was making the dispositions of her own free will so we had to take her word for it. Perhaps when she’d become ill she didn’t have the strength to resist …’

Kemp nodded. ‘That could well be. She’d been threatened by their like before. Poor Muriel.’

Van Gryson sat up. ‘I’d sure like to know about that. She said something about it when your name came up. What did happen, Lennox?’

Kemp sighed as he dredged the old story up from where it had lain half-buried for years. ‘She ran up gambling debts in London,’ he said slowly. ‘The kind not legally enforceable. She was told she’d get acid in her face. She tried to commit suicide. I paid them off.’

‘She said you put your career on the line for her?’

‘You could say that. I embezzled trust moneys. Well, it was an emergency … and I loved her.’

‘You actually stole the money? You broke the law for her?’ Van Gryson was staring at Kemp with undisguised astonishment. Eikenberg & Lazard might wheel and deal along the thin edge of legality for profit’s sake but they knew their limits. ‘Did you go to prison?’

Kemp laughed. ‘It was a close-run thing. I sold all I possessed and reimbursed the trust fund just in time. But the Law Society got wind of it and I was struck off for six years … Don’t worry, Dale, I’ve long since been reinstated on the right side of the law.’

Van Gryson was still shaking his head in bewilderment. ‘You did all that for a woman!’ he said solemnly. He was silent for some moments as if this revelation of Kemp’s lapse had given him food for thought. ‘Have another drink, Lennox,’ he said at last. ‘You’re going to need it.’

He’s decided to let me in on the secret, Kemp was thinking as he sat back and savoured the good wine. Muriel has probably given that necklace away to some woman friend who had been kind to her, or to a maid down on her luck. Muriel had often had these sudden generous impulses, and she would act upon them without further reflection in a way that had been both irritating and endearing. It really didn’t matter. It was good to know she hadn’t quite forgotten his sacrifice …

‘This will—’ Van Gryson was tapping it on the edge of the sofa—‘would have been fine if Muriel Probert hadn’t taken it into her head to make another one.’

It was Kemp’s turn to sit up. ‘She did?’

‘It was all most unfortunate. We’re a big firm, Lennox, and a busy one. It’s not always easy to keep track of clients … I’m not making excuses for us …’

But that’s just what you’re about to do, thought Kemp, amused. And it’s high time you got on with it.

‘Julius and I were in Washington on Government contract business for most of April.’ Van Gryson put on an air of importance which was not sustainable for long. ‘The New York office was understaffed, and there’d been an unexpected late snowfall so that everyone was determined to get home …’ Dale paused to drink, which he did thirstily. ‘It was nearly closing time anyway when Mrs Probert came in and asked for either Mr Eikenberg or myself. Well, she was told we were not available by the only professional left in the office, a new recruit staight out of law school, our Miss Janvier. She saw before her a client in obvious distress who wanted help. Muriel apparently said that it was extremely urgent she make a will there and then—mark you, she never said change, she said, make a will—because she was soon going to die. Miss Janvier did what she saw to be her duty—more or less. She drew up the will, which was short, she got Muriel to sign it in the presence of one of the cleaners and a junior, neither of whom knew any more about the firm’s business than Miss Janvier herself—and that wasn’t much. Our little Miss Janvier had never drawn up a will for a client before, and her law school training doesn’t seem to have included how to use a filing system …’

Van Gryson stopped as his tone turned savage, and he wiped his brow with a large silk handkerchief as if trying to erase any memory of the unfortunate Miss Janvier.

Kemp had listened to all this with a mixture of amusement and understanding. He could appreciate the situation, one not totally unknown to solicitors. Gillorns were small fry compared to the magnitude of Eikenberg & Lazard as evidenced by their notepaper but even the junior staff in the Newtown office were carefully instructed on wills procedure. First, you asked the proper questions, and then, no matter what the client said, you checked. Poor little Miss Janvier had possibly been overwhelmed by her responsibility that snowy evening; she was new, she was eager, and perhaps no one had told her … She had seen only the emergency, the necessity for action, the woman in front of her was going to die …

‘Go on, Dale, tell me the rest of it.’

‘She took it with her.’

‘What, the original? The engrossment?’

‘If that’s what you call it. Yes. Said she wanted it by her. To keep it safe … Oh, Miss Janvier protested about that but Muriel was adamant. She took that newly-made will away with her in her handbag. Miss Janvier—downright pleased with herself no doubt for the speed with which she’d handled the matter—scribbled the attestations on the copy, and went off on holiday.’

‘Not even a photocopy of the original?’

‘The photocopying room was locked up by then. Everyone in the office had gone home.’

‘So now you have two wills, one superseding the other,’ said Kemp briskly, ‘but the later one must hold up in law.’

Van Gryson reached for his glass. He drank deeply and refilled it.

‘There’s worse to come.’

‘Don’t tell me,’ said Kemp, who had already guessed. ‘You can’t find the new will. You know it was made, you have a perhaps inadequate copy in your office, the client took the original and now it’s missing.’

‘How did you know?’

‘Happens all the time,’ said Kemp airily. He was beginning to feel the effects of the wine. ‘Nine times out of ten when a client takes an original will from their solicitor’s office it’s gone when they come to die.’

‘You’re a cynic, Lennox.’

‘No, just realistic. How did this one disappear?’

‘God only knows. It wasn’t in her handbag when we looked, and it wasn’t anywhere in that apartment. We’re her executors, damn it, don’t think we didn’t ransack the place. Besides, the staff swear Mrs Probert never went anywhere in the house except her own bedroom and the adjoining bathroom … She used the same rented limousine every time she went to the hospital, and the same chauffeur. He says she went nowhere else on these trips except for that one evening when she had him stop by our office. And that was only a couple of weeks before she died.’

Kemp sat still for a moment, deep in thought.

‘Muriel took the will away with her,’ he said carefully, ‘and she returned to her apartment with it. She must have had a reason for doing so. She had been happy to let you keep the other one so why would she want to take the new one? Perhaps to show it to someone …’

Van Gryson shook his head.

‘She was having no visitors at the time. And she never left the apartment again—of that we’re absolutely sure. According to the doctor, her condition suddenly deteriorated—he’d been expecting it and was keeping an eye on her. She could hardly move from her bed. When he advised hospitalization she wouldn’t hear of it, said she wanted to die in her own house so he ordered home nursing to see her through to the end …’