David stood in the dock and tried not to look as frightened as he felt. Three middle-aged magistrates, who wore whiskers that might have been fashionable in the Victorian era, were ranged on the bench above him. All appeared formidable. Only the man sitting in the centre had spoken during the proceedings, although he occasionally held whispered conversations with his two companions, which only served to heighten David’s anxiety.
David had never felt as alone as he did in that dock. Not even when he’d been tending his sheep on the Beacons, miles from the nearest road, let alone farmhouse. But the solicitor Aiden had engaged for him and the other runners had insisted all three defendants be tried separately.
The magistrate spoke, and everyone in the courtroom fell silent.
‘David Mark Ellis,’ he began formally, ‘we have considered all the evidence in this case. If you have anything further to say in your defence this is the time in which to say it.’
David recalled the advice the solicitor had given him and leaned on the rail in front of him for support. The magistrate pulled his glasses down to the end of his nose and looked over them. ‘You wish to speak?’
‘Yes, sir,’ David whispered tremulously.
‘What is it you wish to say?’
‘I am very sorry I broke the law. I promise I will never take illegal bets from anyone ever again.’ The solicitor had asked David to say more, but his mind had gone blank and he couldn’t remember another word.
The spokesman conferred with his colleagues again. After a few moments he looked directly at David.
‘David Mark Ellis, by entering a guilty plea to all the charges proffered against you, you have, on your own admission, broken the law. The only mitigating factor in your favour is that you have seen fit to make a full confession of your crimes. As this is your first offence, I have no doubt that you have been led astray by older men who have in all probability profited more than you from your wrongdoing. However, even taking all these things into consideration we cannot condone what you have done, nor can we be seen to be so doing. Therefore we will hand down a custodial sentence of six months’ hard labour.’
David gripped the railing in front of him even more tightly. His head swam as he fumbled to find another interpretation of ‘custodial sentence’. But whichever way he considered it, ‘custodial’ meant prison. He was going to prison! Where were Aled’s promises now?
‘The said custodial sentence to be suspended for one year. However, should you transgress and break the law during the year, in any way whatsoever, you will be taken into immediate custody and transferred to the nearest penal institution. In addition, we fine you the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds.’
The magistrate turned to the officers behind him. ‘We will now break for one hour.’
David was acutely aware of Harry and Micah sitting on the public benches to his right. But he couldn’t bring himself to look at either of them. Instead, he sought for and saw Aiden Collins moving to the back of the court. Aiden nodded and smiled at him. David only wished he could smile back.
One hundred and fifty pounds was a colossal amount of money. If he added his savings to the contents of his suitcase, he doubted he could have scraped together thirty pounds in total. And the last thing he wanted to do was ask Harry to loan him the money. But he decided that he could, and would, ask Aled James.
‘David.’
He looked down. Micah was standing next to him. ‘Come on, either Harry or I will drive you back to Edyth’s.’
‘You, please, Micah.’ David was too ashamed to face Harry.
‘As you wish. Edyth said she’d make a cold lunch for us that wouldn’t spoil if we were late.’
David stood transfixed, staring at the empty bench where the magistrates had sat.
‘David,’ Micah touched his arm, ‘it’s time to go.’
Micah looked round as they left the court. There was no sign of Harry or Alfred Lewis and he guessed that they were paying David’s fine.
Harry said goodbye to Alfred outside the court and joined Micah who was waiting by his van.
‘You didn’t see David inside?’ Micah asked. Harry shook his head.
‘He went back in. He said he wanted to thank his solicitor and say goodbye to Aiden. He’s worried about his fine. I think he wanted to ask Aiden to lend him the money to pay it.’
‘It’s already paid.’
‘You?’
‘Someone had to.’ Harry fished his keys from his jacket pocket. ‘David hasn’t that kind of money.’
‘If you go to Edyth’s, I’ll drive David there.’
‘He doesn’t want to drive with me?’ Harry guessed.
‘He’s feeling so guilty. I think he’d be happier if we chained him to a post and whipped him, or at the very least put him in the stocks and threw rotten vegetables at him.’ Micah joked.
Harry saw David emerging from the court with Aiden and the solicitor who had represented him. ‘At least the man Aled James hired had the sense to advise David to plead guilty.’
‘Given the evidence, what else could he tell David to do other than go on the run?’ Micah slapped Harry across the shoulders. ‘Go on, I’ll catch you up shortly.’
‘You won’t –’
‘Have a go at him? Give him a row? Wipe the floor with him? Do any of the other quaint things you people say when you’re angry with someone? No, Harry, I won’t because the last thing I want to do is make David feel any more wretched than he already does.’
Harry went to his car and drove off. Micah sat in his van and waited for David, he didn’t have to wait long. ‘I’m sorry,’ David apologised when he joined him. ‘The clerk made me wait. He wanted to give me a receipt for my fine.’
‘You paid it?’ Micah said innocently.
‘It’s paid, so Mr James must have given Aiden or the solicitor the money to settle it.’
Micah didn’t enlighten him. He started the engine and drove out into the road. ‘Have you thought what you are going to do now, David?’
‘Have lunch in Edyth’s.’
‘I meant for a job.’
‘That’s all settled. Aiden said they took delivery of a second roulette wheel this morning. It came in last night on a ship from America. It’s mine.’
‘Literally?’ Micah asked dryly.
‘To operate in the club.’
‘You still intend to work for Aled James?’
‘What happened wasn’t his fault, or Aiden’s. It was Gertie. I should never have got involved with her.’
‘I’ll second that.’
‘Anyway, after yesterday, I’m through with her, for good.’
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘I wish Harry hadn’t come to court,’ David said.
‘He came to support you, David.’
‘I looked a right fool in there.’
‘Possibly, because you behaved like one.’ Micah slowed behind a horse and coal cart. ‘You could at least have thanked him for being there for you and hiring a solicitor even if you didn’t use him.’
‘He only came to crow.’
‘Did he?’
‘Ever since he married my sister he’s been trying to tell me what to do and how to do it. Where I should live, what I should do with my life. Just like Mary has ever since I was little. Well I’m grown up now; I can run my own life.’
‘It seems to me that you’re not doing a very good job of it at the moment,’ Micah said evenly. ‘But that doesn’t matter, because there are a lot of people on your side. Just don’t be too anxious to insult them. You never know when you might need them again.’
Edyth had set ham, salad, cheese, and Moody’s ‘special’ white milk rolls on the table. For dessert, Moody had baked a chocolate cream cake. But although the food was good, the atmosphere was strained and Edyth, Micah and Harry were relieved when David finished eating and insisted he wanted to go back to Helga’s to change. None of them tried to stop him.
‘It might have been easier if Judy had been here, but she had a rehearsal arranged with the orchestra.’ Edyth ignored the peculiar look Micah gave her as she piled their dirty dishes on to a tray ready to carry out into the kitchen. ‘She and David get on reasonably well. Or at least as well as anyone can with David.’
‘He barges around like a ram in rutting season most of the time.’
‘Harry!’ Edyth looked at him, then laughed.
‘Sorry, I’ve lived too long on the farm. I think like Mary, and it would appear I’m beginning to talk like her.’
‘Why didn’t you tell David that you paid his fine?’
Micah asked.
‘Because there’s no point. If he can’t see what’s under his nose, I’m not going to tell him to look.’
Edyth was tired of talking about David. ‘More coffee?’ she asked as Micah took the tray from her and carried it into her upstairs kitchen.
‘Please.’ Harry left the table. ‘But before you make it, can I borrow your telephone?’
‘You know where it is.’
‘In your office downstairs.’
‘That’s a big name for a little cupboard off the kitchen.’
‘I need to telephone Aled James. Do either of you know where he is likely to be?’
‘I’d say the Windsor hotel or the Tiger Ragtime,’ Micah answered.
‘Judy said that Aled has a suite in the Park Hotel in town that he uses as an office as well, but your best bet is the Windsor. If either of his hired thugs are there they will know where he is, and if they aren’t there and Aled wants to be found he will have left a telephone number where he can be contacted. But,’ Edyth set the sugar bowl in the centre of the table, ‘if you are going to ask Aled to leave David alone I don’t think you’re going to have much success. Not the way David was talking over lunch about running the roulette wheel in the club.’
‘I need to discuss a few things with Aled,’ Harry said evasively. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘I’ll put the kettle on.’ Micah parried Harry’s smile.
‘I’m trying to prove to your sister that I am domesticated and will make a good husband.’
‘Don’t go overdoing it or all the wives in the family will start expecting the same service.’ Harry ran down the stairs.
‘Is Judy really in a rehearsal in the club?’ Micah asked Edyth when he returned from the kitchen.
‘I believe so.’
‘Because that’s what she told you?’
‘And because I saw some of the musicians walking past when I was serving in the shop. They were carrying their instruments.’
‘Jed has heard rumours about Aled and Judy. Not all the staff in the Windsor are as discreet as they should be.’
‘What kind of rumours?’ Edyth’s heart started thundering against her ribcage. She’d never been very good at lying.
‘You don’t know?’
‘I know that some people on the Bay should mind their own business not other people’s.’ She sank down on one of her easy chairs.
‘Has Judy told you that she’s having an affair with Aled James?’
‘She told me that she thinks she’s in love with him.’
‘Dear Lord.’ Micah buried his face in his hands. ‘I love that girl like a daughter and she deserves a lot better than Aled James.’
‘Judy’s nineteen, Micah, that’s a bit old to be your daughter.’
‘Like a younger sister then. She’s a child …’
‘She’s the same age as David. They both think they know what’s best for them. And they both want to run their own lives. As I did, not so long ago. We can’t stop them from making mistakes.’
‘I suppose we can’t.’ He sat opposite her on the sofa, reached out and took her hand into his, stroking the ring finger on her left hand. It was bare because she had stopped wearing the wedding and engagement rings Peter had given her when he had left her. ‘It makes you wonder what our children will be like, doesn’t it? What will we do if they mess up, Edyth? Will we be able to stand back and allow the Aled Jameses of this world to lead them astray?’
‘We may have no choice. Because if they are anything like David and Judy they won’t take any notice of what we say.’ Edyth turned aside, hoping he wouldn’t see the guilt in her eyes. When she was busy in the shop she managed to forget the letter hidden at the bottom of her desk drawer. But the moment she was with Micah its presence surfaced, throwing a dark shadow between them and poisoning every private moment they spent together.
‘You do want children, don’t you?’ he asked, misunderstanding her silence. ‘We have talked about it …’
‘Yes, I want children,’ she said quickly.
‘Just as soon as those annulment papers come through. And they can’t take very much longer. A ship came in from South America this morning. The captain had a good voyage. Even with the stops he had to make along the way, he did it in less than a month.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I walk down to the docks most mornings to see if any of the Argentinian ships have brought a letter for you. I love you, Edyth,’ he said simply. ‘I can’t wait to make you my wife. You do feel the same way?’
She squeezed his hand. ‘That’s Harry coming up the stairs. I’d better go and make that coffee.’
Harry looked around the door. ‘You two look comfortable. Don’t disturb yourselves on my account. Aled can see me right away so I’m going to drive down to the Windsor now.’
Edyth rose from her chair. ‘I’ve left the shop for longer than I should have already. Will you be back for tea?’
‘No.’ Harry shook his head. ‘I’ll see Aled then drive to Pontypridd. I have a couple of meetings arranged with the board. I’ll spend the night with Mam and Dad and go back to the farm tomorrow.’
‘Give everyone my love, and kiss the children for me?’ Edyth hugged him.
‘I will, sis.’ He looked at her and Micah again. ‘I can’t wait for the next family wedding; it’s going to be such a happy one.’
‘That it is.’ Micah laid his hand around Edyth’s waist.
‘I’ll see you out, Harry. Unlike pastors, I have to work in the afternoon.’ Driven by guilt, Edyth couldn’t wait to get away from Micah and immerse herself in work.
‘What about the coffee?’ Micah called after Edyth as she ran down the stairs after Harry.
‘Bring it down into the kitchen. We’ll drink it there if I have time.’
Harry parked his car outside the Windsor Hotel and took his briefcase from the boot. He glanced around Stuart Street, saw the groups of idle men lounging on the corners of Louisa Street and George Street and did something he had never done on the farm or in Pontypridd. He locked his car.
He walked into the hotel foyer. The receptionist dropped his pen and closed the ledger he had been working in. ‘Mr Evans?’
‘Yes,’ Harry answered, surprised at being recognised.
‘Mr James is expecting you, sir.’ The receptionist signalled to the bellboy. ‘Take Mr Evans up to Mr James’s suite.’
Given Aled’s varied business interests, Harry expected him to be entertaining visitors, but he opened the door himself. And when Harry entered the sitting room he saw that it was empty. Aled tipped the bellboy sixpence before Harry had a chance to put his hand in his pocket, closed the door on the boy and motioned Harry to the sofa. A catalogue of gaming machines and a tray of coffee were set on the table in front of it.
‘I have no idea why you wanted to see me, but never let it be said I’m a poor host. Coffee?’ He indicated the tray.
‘No thank you, I have just had lunch with my sister, Micah Holsten, and David.’ Harry offered Aled his hand but Aled chose to ignore it.
‘Aiden came here straight from the court. He said he’d seen you and the pastor there. You paid David’s fine.’
‘I did.’
‘Aiden would have paid it.’
‘I’m not here to look for reimbursement,’ Harry said quietly.
‘I’m not offering.’ Aled sat on the sofa and pointed to an easy chair. ‘Sit down.’
‘Thank you.’ Harry set his briefcase next to the tray of coffee. He unlocked it and removed a file.
‘If you’ve come to ask me to fire David, I won’t.’
‘I know.’
‘Then you approve of him working for me?’
‘No, I don’t,’ Harry said flatly. ‘But there’s no point in discussing it. David’s too stubborn to listen to anything I have to say and while you believe that you’re annoying me by employing him you won’t let him go.’ Harry pushed the file across the table towards Aled. ‘That is a copy of the original paperwork in a Gwilym James file on our father. I had it made up for you.’
Aled opened the file. It contained a sheaf of papers. He picked up the letter that lay on top. ‘This is dated over twenty-three years ago.’
‘It’s a copy of a letter from my mother to yours suggesting that she contact Mr Richards. He was our father’s solicitor.’
Aled read the letter once, then more slowly a second time. ‘As this is a copy how do I know that your mother ever sent such a letter to mine?’
‘It’s in the files, so your mother must have taken it to a meeting she had with Mr Richards. Look at the copy of the note beneath it and the bank statements in your mother’s name.’
Aled went through the rest of the papers in the file. He moved the catalogue and tray of coffee aside so he could spread them out on the table.’
‘After my mother removed me from your mother’s house, she wrote to your mother and told her to contact Mr Richards and ask him for an annuity, so you could both live, if not in comfort, at least not in want. There is no record of your mother writing back.’
‘My mother couldn’t read or write.’
‘Then someone must have read my mother’s letter to her. As well as my mother’s original letter there is a note from Mr Richards detailing a visit your mother made to him shortly after she received it. He made arrangements for your mother to be paid an annuity of £104 a year. It wasn’t a fortune but it would have been enough for her to rent a better house away from the colliery wasteland that surrounded Bush Houses.’
‘But it couldn’t have been paid –’
‘As you see from the copies of Gwilym James’s bank statements of their “special fund”, which was set up before either of us were born to pay compensation to the victims of our father’s indiscretions, the annuity was paid in full into a Capital and Counties bank account that bore your mother’s name until your sixteenth birthday.’
Aled looked at the papers. ‘I am certain that my mother never received a penny of this. If she had, we would never have lived the way we did. She wouldn’t have died in squalor and I would certainly never have had to go to sea when I was twelve years old.’
‘I spoke to Mr Richards on the telephone after I went through this account. He remembered your mother. He also said he took great pains to explain everything to her. He told her that she could go to the bank in Tonypandy every week and withdraw the two pounds, which she did for about three months. Then she went into the bank and told them she was moving from Clydach Vale to Cardiff. The bank arranged for the payments to be made from their Butetown branch. They were collected every week for almost ten years, Mr Richards assumed by your mother. He was very concerned when I told him that she had died when you were twelve. It is typical of the man’s honesty and integrity that he blamed himself for not visiting your mother after she moved here from Clydach Vale to ensure that she was still receiving the money.’
‘She never mentioned an annuity to me.’ Aled frowned with the effort of remembering childhood events and conversations that he had tried so hard to forget. ‘She said the only things my father ever gave her were some clothes and a few pounds, which didn’t even keep her until I was born. She said he never even tried to see me.’
‘Do you remember the time just before you moved from Clydach Valley to the Bay?’
‘I remember her buying me cakes and new boots and clothes and I recall her telling me that we’d be all right when we moved to Cardiff. But after we’d been living in Tiger Bay for a few weeks, she was working the streets.’ Aled left the sofa and walked to the window.
Harry looked past Aled to the view of the docks and the hulls of ocean-going steamers that could be seen between the buildings. He had a few painful memories of his own childhood, all stemming from the time before his mother had married his stepfather, but he doubted that any were as traumatic as the ones Aled was carrying. However he remained silent, wary of showing any sympathy lest Aled take it as patronising.
‘Not being able to read or write is a handicap,’ Aled said quietly. ‘It’s a wonder I learned because I only went to school for a few months in Clydach Vale before we came down here and then I only went to the church school for six months. It was more important that I earn money than get an education. But I managed to get one anyway, in the best possible college: the slums of New York.’ He turned and smiled grimly at Harry.
‘I don’t know what happened to the annuity.’ Harry closed his briefcase and lifted it to the floor. ‘I believe you when you say that your mother didn’t receive it, but as you can see from the statements it was paid into a bank account bearing her name. Not that I can take any credit for it because all the arrangements were made by Mr Richards. He is a fair man who did all he could to ensure that no woman or child suffered as a result of being abandoned by our father. Either the money is still in the bank account or someone took it from there. You have the number and the name of the bank. As your mother’s son and heir you can make enquiries. They wouldn’t discuss the account with me or Mr Richards when we telephoned.’
‘Can I keep the papers?’
‘I made the copies for you.’ Harry opened his wallet and extracted a business card. ‘This is the address of the solicitor’s firm that made the arrangements. Mr Richards, the man who saw your mother, is semi-retired but the other people in the firm should be able to help you if you have any queries.’ Harry rose to his feet and picked up his briefcase.
‘If the money was in the account and my mother knew about it, she would have used it. If it was taken out, it wasn’t taken out by her and that means that someone stole it.’
‘It looks that way. I’m sorry. It would have made a difference to your life, and your mother’s.’
‘And maybe even the way I feel about you,’ Aled said thoughtfully. ‘But if this solicitor opened the bank account in my mother’s name, how could someone have taken it?’
‘Your mother might have signed over the account to a third party.’
‘Not knowingly. She wasn’t very bright but she wasn’t stupid.’
‘I’ve told you all I can. You’re welcome to study the originals of those documents. They’re in Pontypridd but I can have them sent to the Cardiff store if it’s more convenient for you. And you can call and see me any time. My door will be always open to you.’
‘Even after what I did to David?’
‘If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else, given the way he’s behaving. And it must have cost you a bit to keep him out of gaol.’
‘You knew I paid a bribe?’
‘I don’t like the way the world works, but I am a businessman. I try to live in it honestly and fairly but I don’t always succeed.’
‘If attitude and integrity are anything to go by you have succeeded more than I have. I only wish I’d had your start in life so I could have done the same.’
‘So do I, Aled.’ Harry held out his hand and this time Aled shook it.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Charlie Moore demanded of Gertie when she burst into his office.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Moore.’ The clerk who dealt with Charlie’s personal correspondence raced in after Gertie. ‘I tried to stop her, but she hit me.’
‘I have to see you, it’s urgent.’ Gertie faced Charlie.
Panting and dishevelled, she glared at the clerk. ‘It’s personal.’
‘You can go, I’ll deal with this,’ Charlie snapped at the clerk. ‘Close the door behind you.’
‘Aled James came to see me last night, and he set one of his bruisers on me,’ Gertie blurted as soon as they were alone. ‘They know I put the finger on David Ellis and the others.’
‘What’s that got to do with me?’
‘You put me up to it, and I told Aiden Collins just that.’
‘You what!’ Charlie’s face darkened in anger.
‘I said you made me do it. I wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know,’ she added defiantly. ‘Everyone on the Bay knows that you were running the turf before Aled James showed up and Aiden Collins took over.’
‘I might have been running the turf, but no one could prove that it was me who suggested you shop David Ellis and the others. And, you didn’t need much persuading,’ he said acidly. ‘You wanted to kill him two days ago.’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’ve calmed down since then. And I have to leave Tiger Bay. Aiden Collins told me to move on and I intend to do just that. But I need money to set myself up somewhere else.’
‘You’ve made a bloody fortune from me over the last year,’ Charlie said curtly. ‘And you told Anna that I stopped paying you, so she’d give you extra.’
‘How do you know?’ she challenged.
‘Because Anna told me the free service only applied to me, not to the Smith brothers.’
‘You treated me worse than any of my other customers and I have the bruises to prove it.’ She pulled up the sleeve of her dress to show him the blackened finger marks on her upper arms. ‘Those are the reasons I charged you top whack.’
‘I won’t give you another penny, Gertie.’
‘If you don’t, I’ll go to the coppers again and tell them that you put me up to shopping David because you run your own books. And I’ll give them a list of your operators just as I gave them a list of Aled’s. John and Tom Smith’s names will be right at the top.’
‘As if the police don’t know who they are,’ he sneered. ‘I’ve paid them well to look the other way when John and Tom work the pubs.’
‘Aled James paid the police well too, but the officers can’t ignore people who go into the station and volunteer statements. If they could, they would have ignored me. But once it’s down in black and white it’s a different story.’
‘Cunning little bitch, aren’t you?’
‘Just looking after number one,’ she countered, ‘because if I don’t, no one else will.’
‘And if I give you money you’ll go and never bother me again.’
‘That depends on how much you give me,’ she said archly.
‘How much do you want?’ He opened a drawer in his desk.
‘Fifty quid.’
‘Not a hope in hell.’ He slammed the drawer shut.
‘Come on, Charlie,’ she coaxed. ‘If I don’t get out of here I’m going to be found floating face down in the dock. You don’t want my murder on your conscience.’
‘The way you’re behaving, I’m tempted to kill you myself. Fifty quid!’ he sneered. ‘No girl is worth that kind of money, Gertie.’
‘I am, because if I don’t get it I’ll not only go to the police, I’ll go to your father. And I know you don’t just run the bookies. You’ve all sorts of scams going. The brandy you smuggle in through customs for the pubs and clubs on the docks, the goods that fall out of ships’ containers and find their way into your warehouses, the ten per cent of seamen’s wages you demand every time you give a man a berth on a ship –’
‘You can’t prove any of that,’ he broke in.
‘But I can create a stink by talking about it. Especially to your father – upright councillor and citizen like him. He likes people to think he’s honest. His career as a city father wouldn’t last long once people found out otherwise.’
‘Here.’ He opened his drawer again. ‘There’s a tenner.’ He handed her two five-pound notes. ‘That’s all I’ve got. Get out of here.’
‘Drop the other forty into Anna’s tonight or I’ll –’
‘You’ll what?’
‘Waylay your father when he comes to see Colleen. I wouldn’t dream of taking him from her. But I’m sure he’d be interested in having a chat with me once he hears how much I know about his darling blue-eyed son.’
‘You say one word to my father –’
‘Oh, I’ll say a lot more than one word, Charlie,’ she warned. ‘Forty pounds delivered to my room in Anna’s this evening or I’ll talk to your father. By the way, you don’t have to bring it personally.’
Aled spent a long time looking through the papers after Harry left his room. He returned all of them to the file except a couple of Gwilym James’s ‘special funds’ bank statements, locked them into the desk in his sitting room, walked up Bute Street to the club and sat in on the orchestra’s rehearsal with Judy. The moment the orchestra leader saw him he started perspiring and several musicians hit wrong notes out of sheer nervousness. Aled left after ten minutes without making a comment. He walked back down Bute Street to his bank and asked to see the manager on an urgent matter.
‘He’ll see you right away, Mr James,’ the clerk bowed and scraped as he showed Aled into the manager’s office. ‘But he asked me to tell you that he can only spare you twenty minutes as he has another appointment.’
Aled went in. The manager had already taken a decanter of malt whisky out of his cabinet and cut two plump Havana cigars.
Aled took the whisky and the cigar, produced the records Harry had given him and explained in as few words as possible what he wanted.
The manager topped up their glasses. ‘I’d help you if I could, Aled, you know that. You’re a damned good customer. Accounts the size of yours don’t walk through the doors that often these days. Butetown might be the first place in the world that a million pound cheque was written but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen any transactions that size on the Bay. But, to get back to this old account of your mother’s, we only keep records of transactions that go back five years. Everything older is sent to Head Office. You could try writing to them to see if they can help you. But the boys in Head Office are sticklers for doing everything by the book. They’ll want to see a statement of your mother’s old account.’
‘If she ever received any, they’ve long since disappeared. I told you, she died when I was twelve and we were living in rented rooms. Everything she owned, which wasn’t much, was either thrown out or sold.’
‘Perhaps you have her birth certificate?’ When Aled shook his head he said, ‘marriage certificate?’
‘She wasn’t ever married to my knowledge,’ Aled divulged curtly.
‘Death certificate?’
‘I don’t even have that. Have you always worked in this bank?’
‘The Capital and Counties Bank, yes. My grandfather did, and my father is a director. When my father was younger he managed the main Cardiff branch. I followed him into the business straight from public school.’
‘Were you working in this bank sixteen years ago?’
‘The bank yes, this branch no.’
‘Could you give me the name of someone who was?’ The manager put his fingertips together and stared thoughtfully into space for a few seconds. ‘The name that springs to mind is Geoff Arnold, the estate agent. He’s rumoured to be worth hundreds of thousands. His father was an ordinary seaman; his mother took casual work unloading ships when the family hit hard times. But to look at him now, you’d never think that he started off as a humble clerk behind the counter here, would you?’