“I suppose we all look a bit like that, after this affair,” Wendover commented to himself. “Clinton’s half killing himself with anxiety; young Hawkhurst’s far from normal; and I suppose I must look a bit white about the gills myself. It’s only to be expected.”
Sir Clinton wasted no time on preliminaries, but came to the point at once.
“Mr. Shandon told us that you knew the contents of Roger Shandon’s will. Can you give me the gist of it? It’s not a confidential document now, of course.”
“There’s a copy of it in the safe here,” Stenness explained. “You can look it over if you like.”
“Thanks. But if you can remember the main points it may save me the trouble of reading through it.”
Stenness took a key from his pocket and went across to open the safe which was built into the wall of the study.
“The will’s simple enough. All the property is to be divided equally between Neville Shandon, Ernest Shandon, Miss Hawkhurst, and Arthur Hawkhurst. There’s the usual provision about heirs and survivors of that group.”
“What I particularly want to know is whether there’s any residuary legatee mentioned, anybody who takes the remainder of the estate after all other legacies have been paid in full.”
“I don’t remember any provision of that sort,” Stenness admitted, searching among the papers in the safe. “Here’s the copy of the will if you’d care to look at it.”
He handed it over to Sir Clinton who unfolded it and began to read.