Free Gift Wrapped by Peter Turnbull

pounds risked in recently floated companies. So it wasn’t particularly strange that James Wenlock lived in the size of house he lived in and drove the sort of cars I recall he favoured ... top of the range Audis, for example. I merely assumed that he had made a few shrewd investments and I thought no more about it. Either that or he had got himself into the buy-to-let market and was renting out terraced properties near the railway station to university students. I confess that that is also a very nice source of income, very nice indeed.’
    â€˜I see,’ Yellich replied. ‘That might be worth our looking into, but Mr Wenlock never spoke of his investments?’
    â€˜Not to me, but then he wouldn’t have done so anyway. This is a large company,’ Bellingham explained. ‘We have ten chartered accountants and thirty-five certified accountants, and there is little contact between the two. That’s the way we like it ... but ... let me think for a moment. You know, you’d better ... or you’d be better, rather, talking to Nigel March. I always used to see them in each other’s company.’
    â€˜Nigel March?’ Yellich repeated, as it committing the name to memory.
    â€˜Yes ... March ... exactly the same spelling as the month, and also of the small market town of Cambridgeshire.’ Bellingham smiled. ‘You know, I always thought that March is a kind of non-month; it is neither winter nor spring in March and you’ll probably find Nigel March to be like that, a kind of non-personality, as if living up to his name. I have never found much to get hold of in terms of his character – not much there at all really. I have always thought that Nigel March is a bit like “me robot” – he has a perfunctory attitude to his work, so he does his job and holds his job down. He keeps his head above water ... you can’t take that from the man ... but he’s a bit pedantic ... quite perfunctory. He goes through the motions but doesn’t give much of himself as he gets through his working day. But he’ll be able to tell you more about James Wenlock than I probably can.’
    â€˜Where is he?’ Yellich asked. ‘We would like to talk to him.’
    â€˜He’ll likely be at his desk. If not there then he’ll be in the building somewhere.’ Bellingham smiled again.
    â€˜Thank you; we’ll go and have a chat with him.’ Yellich paused and then added, ‘What do you know of James Wenlock’s home life?’
    â€˜Again, it’s not something he and I ever talked about. My home life wasn’t exactly happy and I used to stay late to avoid going back, but you know, these days I can’t wait to get home.’
    â€˜Oh,’ Yellich replied warmly, ‘you and your wife were able to settle your differences?’
    â€˜We did that all right, we settled it all very well. We got divorced.’ Clarence Bellingham chuckled at his own joke. ‘These days I love the journey home because I have found that going home to an empty house is also going home to a tranquil house. My heavens, I should have got divorced years and years ago. All those long years of arguments and all that horrible silent tension ... all that could have been avoided ... but so far as I could observe, James Wenlock never showed any sort of reluctance to go home at the end of the working day, none at all. He would just tidy his desk, walk out of the building to the car park we use, get into his Audi and he’d purr away, chrome wheels, tinted windscreen, all that Flash Harry number ... His was a real poser’s car, which we didn’t approve of, but we had no control over his choice of car or all the add-on goodies it boasted. We didn’t like the boy-racer image – not as an accountant with this firm,’ Bellingham grimaced, ‘but we couldn’t do anything about it.’
    â€˜It certainly isn’t the image that