Ellie and Nathan both nodded solemnly.

  ‘Right,’ Max continued, ‘those in favour of paying the money into the bank now raise your hand.’

  Caroline assumed that she didn’t get a vote so she didn’t move. Max’s hand went up. Caroline watched as Ellie moved her eyes between her brothers and then slowly raised her hand.

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ snapped Nathan, getting to his feet. ‘This is bloody ridiculous. Let’s just take the money and be done with it.’

  ‘You’re outvoted, Nath, two to one.’

  ‘So it would appear. Well, I’ve got places to be so if you’ll excuse me.’

  He stalked out of the room and a few seconds later they heard the front door slam. Ellie jumped as the sound reverberated around the house.

  Max slumped in his chair, the corners of his mouth dragging downwards. ‘That was exactly what I didn’t want to happen,’ he said. ‘Damn.’

  Ellie gave him a sympathetic smile. ‘Don’t worry. He’ll come round. He’ll see that it makes more sense. We’ve done him a favour, really, slowing things down. And then we can distribute the money between the three of us when we know who the executors are.’

  Max nodded.

  ‘It doesn’t look like James is coming back either, so I think we’ll get off, Els,’ he said. ‘It’s work tomorrow. I’ll look into interest-paying bank accounts, and I’ll swing by the house to see if I can find the will.’

  Ellie nodded as they both stood up. Caroline stayed where she was. She was trying to process what she’d heard but was struggling a little because none of it was what she had been expecting.

  ‘Are you coming, Caro?’ Max asked.

  Should she say what she thought now, in front of Ellie, or would it be better to chat it through with Max first? What was the best thing to do? The meeting had been called to discuss these very issues and she had assumed that one of them would have voiced what she had been thinking so that she wouldn’t have to. As they hadn’t, she had no option but to say it herself, and there was no time like the present.

  ‘The thing is . . .’ she began, looking from Max to Ellie and then back to Max again. ‘The thing is, I don’t think we should take the money at all.’

  36

  ‘So, what does she want to do with it?’ asked James when Ellie was filling him in on what he had missed. He had been on the phone for most of the evening and it was only now, at bedtime, that they were together.

  ‘I don’t really know,’ replied Ellie, lifting the duvet and slipping underneath. ‘They left pretty much after that. Max seemed just as surprised as I was, and as Nathan had already stormed off anyway, he decided that we should all go away and reconsider whilst he looks into things. I’ll ring her tomorrow to see what she meant. And before that we had a vote about paying it into a bank account whilst we decide what to do next. Nath didn’t want to do that, but it’s okay because me and Max outvoted him.’

  James had been getting undressed as she spoke, but now he stopped, one sock on and one off and stared at her.

  ‘You voted in favour of putting it in the bank?’ he said. From his tone, Ellie got the feeling she had done the wrong thing, but surely that couldn’t be right. What else were they to do with such an enormous amount of cash? Keep it in a suitcase like her dad had done?

  ‘Well, yes,’ she said, feeling flustered and a little thrown. ‘Of course.’

  James sat down heavily on the bed, the air rushing out of his lungs as he did so. He shook his head. ‘We need to get that changed,’ he said. ‘We can’t let them pay it in anywhere.’

  Ellie was confused. ‘But why not?’

  James took a deep breath, as if he was having to explain something to a particularly stupid child, and Ellie started to feel defensive. She might be a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

  ‘At the moment, that money isn’t registered anywhere. It’s untraceable. As soon as we pay it in then there will be record of it.’

  He nodded at her, urging her to follow his train of thought without having to spell it out, but Ellie was lost.

  ‘So?’ she said.

  ‘No record means that it’s as good as not existing at all. As soon as it goes into a bank then people will start to ask questions about it. The bank. The Inland Revenue. Do you know how much will be left after the tax man gets his hands on it? Barely half. And for what? Just so Max and Caroline don’t feel nervous about having it under their roof? We can have it here if they’re that worried. I don’t mind taking the risk if it saves us one hundred and twenty grand.’

  Ellie’s jaw dropped. ‘That much?’

  ‘Well, yes. For the whole amount. So that would be forty thousand lost for us.’

  ‘God,’ said Ellie. ‘I see.’

  ‘I’m with Nathan,’ said James. ‘We should just split it three ways now and then if Max and Caroline want to pay theirs into a bank that’s their decision.’

  Ellie could feel her cheeks blush. How had she not realised that something so seemingly simple would have such enormous ramifications? But then, she wasn’t the business person here. How was she supposed to know? Perhaps if James hadn’t been so distracted by his phone and had been there then . . . but there was no point thinking like that.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said James softly. ‘Just ring Max tomorrow and tell him you’ve changed your mind. You can explain why if you like. It obviously hasn’t occurred to him either; he’s such an innocent sometimes. I’m sure it’ll be fine when he understands just what’s at stake. But it’s pointless to shoot a flare up into the sky for the world to see. No one knew the money was there so no one will know if we just divvy it up between us.’

  James got into the bed next to her and gave her a peck on her nose.

  ‘The sooner we can get it all sorted out, the better. Then you can stop worrying your pretty little head about it. Lights out or do you want to read for a bit?’

  As Ellie lay there in the dark listening to the sounds of the house, she thought about what James had said. It would be strange having so much cash. Usually she paid for everything by credit card, although she had seen people at tills who kept wads in their wallets. Seeing the money just there for anyone to steal had always made her nervous. She imagined thieves following them out of shops and jumping them in a dark alley. But you never heard of that kind of thing happening. This was England, a perfectly civilised and safe country. There was no reason why you couldn’t carry cash, just as long as you took sensible precautions.

  Still, she couldn’t imagine making any large purchases in cash. It was more likely to be smaller things, twenty pounds here, twenty pounds there. It was going to take a very long time to work their way through ninety thousand pounds like that. The thought made her smile and she drifted off to sleep with images of twenty-pound notes floating through her head instead of sheep jumping fences.

  37

  The next morning, having the conversation with Max about the bank account was almost the first thing that James mentioned.

  ‘I have an early meeting,’ he said as he ate a piece of toast standing up, ‘but make sure you ring Max and tell him that you’ve changed your mind about paying the money in. I’m sure he won’t do anything hasty, but better to be safe than sorry.’

  Ellie looked at the clock as the front door slammed behind him. It was just after eight. Was that too early to ring? The banks didn’t open until nine so Max couldn’t do anything before then, but she needed to make sure she caught him before he left the house in case he didn’t pick up his mobile messages. They wouldn’t thank her for a call so early when the household was chasing its tail to get out on time, but that couldn’t be helped.

  She dialled their landline, assuming there would be more chance of someone answering that, even if it was one of the boys. Within a couple of rings, a very anxious-sounding Caroline answered and Ellie realised that receiving a call on the landline so early would generally mean bad news.

  ‘Caro, don’t panic. It’s only me,’ she said quickly, to ease her nerves. ‘I just wanted a quick word with Max before he left. Is he there?’

  ‘Oh, Ellie. Hi,’ Caroline replied, breathy with relief. ‘Yes. Hang on.’

  Ellie heard her call for Max and moments later he came on the line.

  ‘Hi, Ellie. Is everything okay?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes. It’s just that I was telling James about what we decided last night, and he says that if we pay the money in there’s a good chance that we’ll get stung for tax on it. So I’d like to change my vote. I’m not saying that we should split it now, just that we shouldn’t pay it in, at least until we’ve checked whether James is right.’

  There was a pause that went on for so long Ellie wasn’t sure Max was still there.

  ‘Max? Did you get that?’ she said.

  ‘Sorry. Yes. Just thinking it through,’ Max replied. ‘I suppose he might be right. I hadn’t thought of that. And inheritance tax is how much?’

  ‘Forty per cent.’

  Max whistled and Ellie pulled the receiver away from her ear.

  ‘Okay. Well, thank James for me, would you. I was going to the bank this morning so it’s a good job you caught me. I’ll hold fire. But I’ll go to the house and see if I can find the will. We should get that started at least.’

  Ellie felt relief run through her. ‘That’s great, Max. Thanks. Sorry to be so flaky.’

  ‘No. You’re right. Thank you.’

  ‘Is Caro there? Can I have a brief word?’

  ‘She is but she’s racing to get out of the house with the boys. Can it wait until tonight?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Ellie replied brightly, trying not to show her resentment that her best friend had better things to do than to talk to her, even though she knew she was being ridiculous. ‘Tell her I’ll ring her later, would you?’

  ‘Will do,’ said Max. ‘Got to go now. See you.’

  And then he was gone. Ellie stood with the receiver in her hand for a few moments. Well, that was good about the bank at least. She would text James to tell him. He’d be pleased. But really what she wanted was to quiz Caroline on what she had meant about not wanting to take the money at all. However, that, it seemed, would have to wait.

  She put the phone back in its cradle and went to chivvy the girls along for school. She found Olivia in the hall, checking through her bag to make sure she had everything she needed and ticking everything off on her fingers.

  ‘Good girl, Livvy,’ she said. ‘Where’s Lucy?’

  Olivia rolled her eyes. ‘She’s in her bedroom. Crying. Again.’

  Ellie’s heartstrings tugged a little.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked as she headed up the stairs.

  ‘The usual,’ sang Olivia in a matter-of-fact way.

  Ellie got to Lucy’s door and knocked lightly before opening it and putting her head around.

  ‘Are you okay, Luce?’ she asked.

  Lucy was sitting on the floor. Her reading book was lying upside down against the skirting board. It looked as if it had been thrown there. Her unbrushed hair was sticking to her face, which was blotchy and damp with tears.

  ‘Oh, Lucy,’ Ellie said, going in and dropping to her knees so that she could hug her daughter. ‘What on earth is the matter?’

  She wrapped her arms around her. Lucy felt tiny and fragile, as if one squeeze too hard could break her little bones. Lucy leant into the hug but then Ellie felt her stiffen and she pulled away.

  ‘It’s not fair!’ she spat.

  ‘What isn’t, poppet?’ asked Ellie, although she had a fair idea.

  ‘Why can’t I do it when everyone else can? I try just as hard as them. Harder. Chloe Davenport gets a new reading book every day. She says I’m stupid. I’m not stupid, am I, Mummy?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ reassured Ellie. ‘And it’s very wrong of Chloe to say something like that. Everyone reads at different speeds. It’s fine. And if Chloe reads so quickly then she probably isn’t understanding the meaning of the words properly.’

  Ellie knew she shouldn’t criticise another child, but she was cross. It was so unjust that Lucy was being made to feel bad for something that just wasn’t her fault.

  ‘And,’ continued Lucy, gulping back the sobs, ‘she told everyone else that I’m too stupid to read.’

  ‘But that’s not true, Lucy. You’re not stupid, far from it. Your brain just works a little bit differently to everyone else’s.’

  ‘Well, I wish it didn’t,’ shouted Lucy and flopped back into Ellie’s embrace.

  Ellie hugged her tightly. She would do anything she could to make Lucy feel better. It must be so hard for her to understand, particularly when Olivia read with such ease. Miss Elliot, Lucy’s class teacher, was fantastic with her. Ellie would try to have a quiet word when she dropped the girls off, ask her to keep an eye on this Chloe. She sounded like a nasty little girl, although Ellie knew that she was probably perfectly lovely. No different to Olivia, in fact.

  ‘Come on now,’ she said gently. ‘We need to get ready for school. Shall I do your hair? Would you like plaits or ponytails today?’

  ‘One high ponytail,’ said Lucy. ‘So it swings when I move my head. Like an actual pony.’ She shook her head to illustrate.

  ‘Great idea!’ said Ellie. ‘Pass me your brush and a bobble.’

  Twenty minutes later they were all in the car, Olivia and Lucy enthusiastically discussing what the plot of the forthcoming Disney release might include, all thoughts of reading speeds forgotten.

  38

  Caroline couldn’t concentrate. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the pupil absence numbers she was trying to collate, her mind was firmly on the money. Max had spoken to her briefly before he left for work about the reason for Ellie’s early-morning call. Apparently, James thought that paying the money into the bank might make it attract tax. Well, what was wrong with that? If tax was due on the money then they should pay it. That was what it meant to live in a civilised society where everyone played their part. The law stated that forty per cent of any inherited money above a certain amount should be paid in death duties and so that’s what should be done. If everyone tried to avoid paying tax, where would they be? The country would grind to a halt.

  What she didn’t understand was how James could baulk at paying the tax when the whole amount was a windfall anyway. It wasn’t as if he had earned the money himself. It had literally just dropped into their laps. It was pure greed to want to take it all, as well as being against the law. He was showing his true colours by wanting to keep it secret, that was for sure.

  Caroline felt pleased that the possible implications of paying the money into a bank hadn’t occurred to her and Max. Their thought processes hadn’t been tarnished by such considerations. You could call them naive if you liked, but she’d rather be naive than have a mind that worked like James’s appeared to.

  However, paying the money into the bank or not was not the main problem as far as she was concerned. It was true that it had taken her a while to get her thoughts in order, that she had had her head turned by the sheer quantity of cash, but now she was over the initial shock of the discovery, she was clear about what she thought.

  The money was dirty, tainted, unclean. It had either been given to Tony as backhanders for services rendered, which was illegal, or it was there waiting to be used to pay someone else off, also illegal. Either way, Caroline was certain that it would be wrong to take it. It wasn’t theirs to take, and it probably wasn’t Tony’s either. It would be tantamount to theft.

  What they should do with the cash was crystal clear to her as well. They must take the whole lot to the police and get them to investigate where it had come from. Then, if the police could find nothing untoward, they would get it all back. It could then form part of the estate and would be distributed in accordance with whatever the will said, less any tax owing. It was as plain to her as the nose on her face.

  Yet this manifestly correct course of action hadn’t been suggested by any of them the night before, not even Max. To be fair, they hadn’t got very far into the discussions before Nathan had taken his bat home over the bank account issue, so maybe the ethics of taking the money for themselves would have come up later. Somehow, Caroline doubted it.

  However, she wasn’t going to let it go. She would be the voice of reason, or morality. The money wasn’t theirs to take and so they shouldn’t take it, particularly when they suspected there was something dubious about it, and she would argue the point until she was blue in the face if she had to.

  It would help if she could get Ellie on her side, she thought. At the moment she was distinctly outvoted. She could persuade Max, she was sure, but it was clear that neither Nathan nor James, who would no doubt seek to control Ellie’s vote, would agree with her. But if she talked to Ellie so that she understood her thinking then they could outvote Nathan and would be able to do what was right. She would ring Ellie tonight, she thought, talk it through with her and get her to see things from her point of view.

  Satisfied with her proposed course of action, Caroline forced herself to concentrate on the job in hand and pushed the money to the back of her mind.

  39

  Max rang Caroline in his lunch hour to tell her that he had tracked down the will. It was, as he had suspected, with Tony’s solicitor, who had told him that it contained nothing unexpected. The estate, including the proceeds from the sale of the house, was to be split three ways between him, Ellie and Nathan with some small cash gifts for each grandchild. Valerie wasn’t mentioned. The executors were the solicitor and Max.

  ‘Just you?’ asked Caroline. ‘Not the other two?’

  ‘No. Just me and him,’ said Max matter-of-factly.

  ‘I wonder why Tony did that,’ she continued.

  ‘I assume because I’m the eldest, and he thought it would all run more smoothly if there were only two of us dipping our oar in. The solicitor knows what he’s doing and there’s no reason why I can’t act in the best interests of us all. It’s a pain in the backside, though. There’s quite a lot to organise, and if I leave it to the solicitor then he’ll obviously charge us for his time.’