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Chapter 8

Lili was waiting with her basket of shopping in the queue at the checkout of her local supermarket in Aldeburgh when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and grinned. ‘Ray!’ She stepped forward and gave him a hug. In the time since she’d arrived in Aldeburgh, she and Ray had become good friends, and his son, Nate, had become her partner. Ray was a former police officer, from New Scotland Yard, who had specialised in finding lost art and the criminal gangs behind the thefts, but he had left all that behind and retired to the Suffolk Coast.

‘You look well,’ commented Lili. Tall and slim, Ray hadn’t let himself go in retirement. She recalled when she’d first met him. With his curly grey hair, blue eyes, and commanding presence, he had reminded her of the first actor who had played Doctor Who. She smiled. ‘It’s so good to see you.’

She’d been so busy over the previous few weeks that she’d hardly seen him, apart from the occasional times that she had been home when he’d dropped off his grandson a bit later than usual from school because he’d had an after-school club.

‘How’s business?’ she asked. She knew he was doing well. Ray had swapped finding lost art for finding lost people – at least, that was the way Lili liked to think of it. He’d set up an heir-hunting business, tracing the lost relatives of people who’d died without leaving a will. Ray researched family trees, using genealogy to trace relations who had no idea they could be beneficiaries of a will.

‘Business is booming.’

Lili smiled. She’d thought it might be. Who wouldn’t want to discover they were the lost heir to a fortune? Of course, it was rare to come into so much money. Not everyone he found came into a massive windfall. Once he started researching family trees, there might be many lost relations who had a claim to an estate, and the size of the estate might not be huge. But Lili imagined that for most people, any windfall was welcome.

The discovery that they were related to someone who they’d never know existed was also something that, she imagined, would intrigue most people. However, Ray would be the first to admit that it wasn’t always a good thing; he’d often say he was in the business of revealing the skeletons in people’s closets. Some people walked away with more than a windfall – sometimes they were also left with questions and intrigue.

Abigail suddenly came to mind. She’d inherited the cottage by the sea, which for most people would be amazing. It was incredibly sad, profoundly so, that her husband had had the good fortune to be given the place, but they now wouldn’t be together to enjoy it. He hadn’t even had the chance to share his good fortune with her before he died.

Lili thought how she wouldn’t be surprised if Abigail sold the cottage. She knew that her friend had holidayed there every year for Toby’s sake, even though she had never liked the sea because of how her father had died.

Lili looked at Ray, thinking of lost relatives, family trees and skeletons in closets. The problem with Abigail’s inheritance was that it had raised more questions than it had answered. Why had it been placed in trust for him since his childhood by the sister of Lord Somerville?

‘Ray—’ she started, about to ask his advice about how one would go about finding out who the trustees of a trust were.

‘Talking of businesses, how’s The Potting Shed? We don’t get a chance to chat much at all, even if I do catch you after dropping William home. He just wants to see you and tell you all about his day.’

Lili knew what he meant.She felt lucky. She had a very good relationship with Ray’s grandson. With no children of her own, yet, and William with no mother – she’d died of cancer five years earlier, when he was only three – Lili was so happy that the little boy had taken a shine to her, and she to him. She didn’t see how her budding relationship with his father, Nate, would ever have worked out otherwise.

‘I’ve left Zoe in charge while I work on the landscaping project at Somerville Hall. She’s more than happy working the extra hours.’ Lili didn’t know what she was going to do when Zoe left for university. Zoe was saving hard so she wouldn’t have to work a part-time job when she was there. Luckily for Lili, she’d deferred for a year; Lili didn’t know how she’d have managed both the shop and the landscaping if she hadn’t.

The landscaping project had turned out to be bigger than she’d expected, and she anticipated she’d be there for some weeks yet, working with the small team of gardeners who were employed at the hall. It had been Ray’s idea for her to use her horticultural and gardening skills to set up another business doing landscaping work. Lili smiled. She had been hopeful that she might do some work in small back gardens – she hadn’t expected her first landscaping and design project to be at Somerville Hall, the rather grand residence of the Somervilles, which had the largest private gardens in the area. She’d been meaning to let Ray know about it; she knew he’d be thrilled for her. How fortuitous to bump into him in the local supermarket.

She wasn’t surprised that Ray had asked after The Potting Shed. ‘How’s Sarah?’ Lili ventured. She wasn’t sure how things were going between them.

Ray’s ready smile faltered. ‘We’re going on a date.’

‘Well, that’s wonderful news – isn’t it?’ The look on Ray’s face said he wasn’t so sure. Lili felt like saying,it’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?To try to get back with your wife after you separated. Ray and Sarah hadn’t divorced – yet. Lili knew it wasn’t something Ray wanted. He was trying to avoid the nail in the coffin at all costs.

‘I’ve invited her for dinner on my houseboat.’

Lili didn’t see what was wrong with that. ‘Sounds like a plan.’

Ray’s houseboat, moored in the next town, Thorpeness, was just like something that might be seen in the Florida Keys – it even had a little wraparound porch. Ray enjoyed fishing from the boat in the sunshine, and he ran his heir-hunting business from the boat too.

‘I think it’s very romantic,’ Lili said. She could just imagine the houseboat all lit up at night, with a table and two chairs set out on the little wooden veranda and the sparkly lights from the town reflecting on the water.

‘The thing is, I’ve just taken on a lodger in the spare bedroom.’

‘A lodger?’ Lili wondered why. She couldn’t imagine he needed the money. He had his police pension and good money from the heir-hunting business. Lili knew he took no money upfront from clients whose family trees he was researching. If they successfully put themselves forward as potential lost heirs, then he would take a fixed percentage commission from the estate. It could be quite a paltry sum, considering all the work that had gone into finding them, but it could also be quite a large amount. She knew he didn’t mind either way. Ray wasn’t in it for the money; it was just something he loved to do.

‘He is a lodger, but it’s not like I was looking to have one. It came about purely by chance. I was just doing someone a favour, letting them crash at my place for a bit.’

‘Ah.’That explains it, thought Lili. It was just like Ray, helping someone out. She could see the problem, though. A lodger in a small houseboat didn’t make for a romantic evening in for two.

‘I didn’t think it through,’ admitted Ray.

‘Why don’t you book a restaurant instead?’

‘Well, that’s the thing. I kind of talked it up. The two of us sitting eating a meal on the veranda, looking out over the water. She’s always said the houseboat was a stupid idea of mine, so the fact that I’ve talked her round to actually come aboard – not to mention having dinner with me – amazes me.’

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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