LITMIR.BIZ

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the company of Bilston and Accrington, which traded under the trademark ‘Billacc’ and the company became well known in the industry and overseas. They also expanded into the software industry and designed many programmes that were in great demand in the accountancy, building and engineering fields. Some of their software programmes had also attracted the attention of the military; one programme in particular had been applied to assisting the internal design of a new class of air warfare destroyers for the Royal Navy.

      Kenneth Bilston died in the late 1990’s, his shareholding was inherited by his sons Richard and James and the business continued to prosper.

      In 2003 Accrington himself began to suffer ill-health and made arrangements to transfer his shares to Richard and James Bilston in the event of his death. By that time Accrington was a widower, his wife had died some years before, and there were no children. Although Accrington had made arrangements for the transfer of his shares, it was a cash transaction. He offered the shares to the brothers at a discounted price and the agreement was very amicable. Despite having considerable assets, Accrington had never made a will. He was reckoned to be worth about £18 million or more, having a large house in Hertfordshire, several small commercial properties around the Home Counties and a large share portfolio.

      Accrington had died recently in mysterious circumstances which were still subject to police investigation. In recent years Matthew Pelham had made strenuous efforts to persuade him to make a will, but he never did. Pelham had repeatedly pointed out the danger of his estate being appropriated by the government in due course if no next of kin were to be found, but Accrington, though he did hint once or twice in conversation that there could be next of kin, never divulged who they were. In fact when the subject came up he usually shut up like a clam. In the latter stages, when Accrington discerned that his days could be numbered, Pelham felt that he was making progress and considered that Accrington was coming around to his way of thinking. But Accrington’s sudden and unexpected end ensured that when he died he still had not made a will and consequently he died intestate.

      The worry, of course, for Matthew Pelham was whether or not Accrington had made a will that nobody knew about. So far nothing had turned up, and it was to be Ruddock’s task to virtually take apart the house where Accrington had lived alone, to see what papers he could recover. But first of all he had to make an appointment with the Bilston brothers to see if they had any suggestions. Courtesy indicated they should be given the opportunity to accompany him around the house, since they were virtually Accrington’s next of kin in a business sense and there could be sensitive business papers stored there.

      There had been a housekeeper, of sorts, when Accrington was living there. A local woman had been coming in twice a week to clean the place out, but she wasn’t a permanent employee and she didn’t live in. Ruddock had been advised that she had possessed a key, but Pelham’s first action had been to send a messenger down to relieve her of it, he didn’t want anyone holding keys to the premises while they stood empty. There was always the risk of petty pilfering taking place before they’d had a chance to vet the house and contents.

      There were various correspondence items in the bulky files, Accrington had purchased various properties, mainly commercial, and had some business tenants, and Fell Pelham & Drysdale had done the conveyancing. He had been living in the same house for many years in a village in Hertfordshire, on perusing the file Ruddock found he had been living there since the early 1970’s. The residence stood in a very substantial acreage of land and Accrington had added extensions from time to time.

      “As you know,” commented Pelham when he and Ruddock were closeted once more in Pelham’s office. “When a man dies intestate the court will appoint an administrator, which is either a spouse, next of kin, the Crown, a creditor or, in the last resort, a stranger.”

      “Yes, I was aware of that,” Ruddock said a little coldly.

      “Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to talk down to you, I’m really just marshalling the facts in my mind,” said Pelham. “So we are virtually in a position of administration pendente lite, in effect, there is a dispute as to the person who is entitled to probate. The Court, in its wisdom, has appointed us, Accrington’s lawyers, as administrators until this question is resolved.”

      “So we have to search for his next of kin, if we can find them.”

      “That just about sums it up,” said Pelham. “As for Accrington, he was a strange man. I could never claim I really knew John Accrington. He rarely talked about himself and I knew very little of his likes and dislikes. Of his origins I knew next to nothing, but I presume he was from England somewhere south of The Wash, he certainly didn’t have a north of England accent, he could have emanated near to London, maybe Kent or Surrey, or possibly north of London, I’m no real expert in accents.”

      “So we don’t know where he came from?”

      “No, no idea. As I said, I assume from his accent it was Home Counties which could cover a lot of ground, but I guess it could cover anywhere from Kent up to Oxfordshire or even beyond. But there may be something in his house that could give us a clue. If we can find his origins, then we can probably find out if there are any members of his family still living - siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and the like, and if we can trace them they could all have a share in the estate.”

      He broke off to sample the cup of tea from the tray that had previously been brought in by one of the young girl clerks, Ruddock took that as a signal to take a sip from his.

      “If we can’t find anybody then the Westminster government is going to make a killing, but it would be a pity to see Accrington’s assets and efforts over the years go into the Inland Revenue melting pot. They will no doubt fritter it away subsidising the bludgers and loafers we seem to patronise these days!’

      “Do the Bilston brothers have any ideas?”

      “Not when I last spoke to them about it, but although I know them and have had some meetings, I haven’t had that much contact with them. My main contacts were Kenneth Bilston and Accrington himself. Richard and James Bilston will be your next port of call, see what you can dredge up.”

      “Did he have any sporting preferences, football, cricket or anything else, that could indicate local or parochial origins?”

      “A good thought,” Pelham nodded approvingly. “No…I don’t know. Maybe Richard or James may know the answer to that one. Have a try at that, but if it’s Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal it won’t help us that much, people from all over the country seem to support them, tending to chase success. But if we uncover an unfashionable lower division club of hackers out in the sticks…then yes, a relevant question.”

      Richard Bilston was away in France and was due back the following Monday, so Ruddock booked an appointment through his secretary. James Bilston was also away in the United States and wasn’t due back for two weeks. Ruddock still had a couple of files that he was working on so he attended to some loose ends, before knocking off for the weekend.

      He presented himself at the Bilston & Accrington offices on the Monday morning and after a brief wait was conducted to Richard’s impressive office. They knew each other fairly well, Ruddock had dealt with some matters relating to the company when Pelham was away, and Richard Bilston had been in the lawyers’ offices about four months previously.

      Richard Bilston rose to his feet and came around the desk to greet Ruddock and waved him to a vacant chair.

      “Good morning, Norman,” he said, and shook Ruddock’s hand warmly. “So they’ve foisted this problem onto you, have they?”

      “Yes, I anticipate it can be solved fairly quickly,” said Ruddock. After small talk ascertaining each others well being and Richard’s family, they wandered very briefly into the weekend’s football results before Ruddock produced his brief case and a writing pad.

      “How can I assist?” Richard asked. “I had two policemen in here a few weeks back, they didn’t seem to have any answers at all.”

      “Yes, I know. They came in to see Matthew Pelham as well.” responded Ruddock, giving his ball point pen a few test runs on the paper

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