‘Which you’ve never used,’ Patrick pointed out.
‘Well, no, but I could, but my point is that to take the hard drive out of a laptop you have to dismantle the thing. I certainly wouldn’t like to try.’
‘Why not just wipe the drive?’ Alec said.
‘Because wiping it doesn’t get rid of the information. You can recover it with the right software,’ Patrick pointed out.
‘Specialist stuff,’ Alec argued.
‘Possible to get hold of though,’ Patrick told him. ‘There are sites that specialize in hacking software and there’s usually recovery stuff on them.’
‘Patrick, I’m not sure I want to know and I definitely don’t want to know how you know. Anyway, from what I’ve seen of Kinnear, that’s way too subtle,’ Alec argued again.
‘I think we may be missing the point here,’ Harry said. ‘We don’t actually know if there’s anything on the laptop.’
‘If there’s nothing, why bury it?’
‘Um, good point, I suppose. What about the other stuff?’ They had not yet examined the other contents of the protective plastic bags.
‘Time to take a look,’ Alec agreed. ‘Patrick, would you run upstairs and grab my laptop. I think the leads will fit this one. Harry, would you mind popping the kettle on. Now, what do we have here?’
Naomi heard the crinkle of plastic as Alec explored the contents of the bags.
‘They’re a bit damp,’ he said. ‘Rupe didn’t wrap the books quite as well as the laptop, but I think they’ll dry out OK.’
‘Books?’ Naomi asked.
‘Yes. Three small hardback … journals from the look of it and … Harry, this is more in your line, I think. It looks like a ledger of some kind.’
Patrick returned with Alec’s laptop and Alec gave him the job of firing up the one they had found in the hole.
‘Make sure everything is dry,’ Harry warned. ‘I don’t want you starting a fire or anything.’
Naomi, impatient now, realized that she was the only one not doing anything. ‘So? What do they say? Why did he hide all this stuff?’
‘I think it’s going to take more than a two-minute peek to answer that one,’ Alec told her. ‘OK, journals was probably too grand a name. He didn’t keep a daily diary or anything. The first entry is from 2001, March 2nd. The next isn’t until the following week. You know, I think I remember seeing a book like this in the study.’
‘But these?’
‘Naomi, hold on there. I don’t know yet. The first entry is something about a trip to the theatre in Doncaster and in the second entry he’s rather pleased with himself for picking up an arts and crafts coal scuttle for bugger all at a sale.’ He flicked a few pages on. ‘More sales, a walking holiday in Yorkshire, an argument with someone over the price of a piece of Meissen. He won, by the way. Naomi, if there’s anything important here we’re going to have to go through the lot.’
‘What are the more recent entries?’ Patrick asked.
‘I was about to get to that. OK, last entry was made about ten days before he died. He and Marcus had lunch together and he says: “I told Marcus I would not be in for a few days. I need some time to think things through and get away from it all, though I know, if I’m honest with myself, there is no getting away. I could run away, of course, but that would be cowardly and it would leave those I care for in the firing line. I have no illusions. If they could not find me, they would take their spite out on someone other than me, and that I cannot, in all conscience, allow. So, I have done what I can, made my preparations and it is a comfort to know that all of my affairs are ordered, so far as they can be, and now I must allow events to run their course.”’
They sat for a moment in silence, the finality of Rupert’s words reaching them, casting a despairing miasma across their little company.
‘He knew he was going to die,’ Naomi said at last.
Nineteen
Alec left early the following morning. No one had slept for more than a few hours. Reading the journals and examining the laptop had taken the rest of the evening and run on into the early hours. It had been after two when Alec finally gave in and shooed everyone off to bed. He had been up again at six and gone just after seven.
Naomi, sitting in the kitchen and finishing the pot of tea, felt far from happy. She had been in two minds about insisting she go with Alec, but had finally decided that she would be more use at this end. She had woken with a plan of action in mind.
Patrick took her by surprise by padding into the kitchen only a half hour after Alec had gone. Harry wasn’t far behind.
‘I thought Patrick at least would have slept in,’ she said.
‘Brain was buzzing,’ he told her. ‘I thought I may as well buzz down here.’
‘And I just can’t sleep past seven on a weekday,’ Harry added. ‘I’m too much a creature of habit.’
‘Is it OK with your work? I feel so bad about dragging you all the way up here.’
‘Don’t. I called them on Friday and told them I’d be gone a few days. I’ve holiday owing and extra hours built up on flexitime, so it’s fine.’
‘Thanks. So, what was the brain buzzing about?’ she asked Patrick.
‘Oh, just the stuff he wrote. I was trying to put it together. I can’t get why he hid the earlier journals. I mean, the last one talks about Kinnear and all that stuff …’
‘Except it says very little in real terms.’
‘True, but reading between the lines, he felt threatened and it was something from way back that he was scared about. Something Kinnear knew about him.’
‘It certainly sounded like blackmail,’ Naomi agreed. ‘But how did Kinnear find out whatever it was? Harry, did the ledger tell you anything?’
Harry filled the kettle and set it to boil before responding. ‘It’s hard to say. The ledger seemed incomplete. There were references to sales and purchases not actually entered into the ledger, as though he cross-referenced the figures elsewhere. What I suspect is that Rupert was keeping a second set of accounts and that the ledger was part of that. I’d need a lot more information and I’ve still not collated all we have here, but I suspect that Rupert was not as honest and straightforward as either Marcus or Alec gave him credit for. Some of the entries concern antiques, so far as I can tell. It’s possible that he was either trading for himself behind Marcus’s back or he was lying about the price received for certain items.’
‘You didn’t mention this last night.’
‘No. I wanted to be sure. Alec was very fond of this man. I’ve no wish to sully a reputation unnecessarily or spoil a memory.’
‘No, perhaps you’re right. We’ll have to face up to it sooner or later though. There’s the possibility that this house and Alec’s inheritance are tied up with this. A serving officer; dodgy inheritance …’
‘I can imagine the consequences,’ Harry said. ‘Some of the more interesting entries referenced the stock market.’
‘Oh?’
‘Um, do you think Alec would mind if I took another look at Rupert’s study? Only if I’ve read this right there should be records of his portfolio somewhere. Of course, it might be with his solicitor but …’
‘No, I wouldn’t have thought so. The solicitor gave Alec a pack outlining his inheritance and all the tax side of it and so on. He’s had a good look through and he never mentioned anything like that.’
‘Right, well, we shall have to see what we can find out. I’d like to think I’d have a handle on this before Alec returns. It would be nice to tell him there’s nothing to worry about in that direction, but at the very least it would be good to make him aware of exactly which laws his uncle Rupert had been breaking.’
Naomi nodded slowly. ‘There’s something else I want to do,’ she said as Harry got up to make more tea. ‘We’ve got a list of names and addresses for people Rupert contacted in his research. They may not be remotely relevant, but I’d like to check them out. I thought we could say we were trying to finish his book. A sort of posthumous tribute.’