"No. At least, he himself was heir to a lot of money. It's quite true that it comes to me. He always said he should leave it to me, and, as a matter of fact, I believe he made out some kind of a will, which two of the servants witnessed. I don't know whether it was legal, of course."
"Just a moment!" interposed Hugh. "What is all this about Carter's expectations? Something was said about them the other day, but where are you supposed to come into it?"
"It's Wally's Aunt Clara," explained Mary. "She's been in a lunatic asylum for years, but she's frightfully rich, and Wally was her next-of-kin. I believe she's going on for eighty, so she must die fairly soon. Not that I ever set much store by it. I mean, Wally's expectations were practically a family joke."
"But it's you who'll come into the money now that Mr. Carter's dead?" said the Inspector.
"Yes, I suppose so. I hadn't really thought about it," replied Mary, looking rather scared.
"Do you mind if we get this straightened out?" said Hugh. "I frankly haven't got the hang of it. What relation to you is this aunt of Carter's?"
"Oh, she isn't my aunt!"
"No, that I'd grasped. How does the relationship work?"
"Well, I don't think it does really. She's a Carter, you see. I suppose, in a way, I'm connected with her through Wally, but she isn't actually a relation. She wasn't actually Wally's aunt either, though he always called her aunt. She was a cousin."
Hugh said patiently: "What exactly was your relationship to Carter?"