[Late October 2017]
“Good morning Ray. Shall I prepare your usual?” I said to the latest customer who had ventured into my coffee shop that morning. It was blowing a bit of a hoolie out there. A strong south-westerly wind that was predicted to become a full-on gale before midday was dragging rain squalls along with it. Not a nice day to be out and about.
"Thanks, Alex and yes, my normal order would be great, when you have time.”
Because of the weather, Ray was my only customer at the moment. Every day, Ray and I went through this ritual, so I wasn’t offended by his comment about ‘having time’. It was his way of not wanting to put me out of kilter with what I was doing at that moment. On this particular day, I had completed all my usual duties well before he arrived. If I had been behind the bar when the shop was still a public house, I'd probably be polishing the glasses when he arrived.
I began to prepare Ray’s Americano which was to be served in a glass. When that was done, I poured some milk into a small jug and put them both on a tray.
Ray Thompson wasn’t a big spender by any means but he was a regular six days a week. I didn’t open the former pub and now the ‘Nags Head’ Coffee Shop on a Sunday but my guess would be that if I did, he’d be here then as well.
I took the tray over to where he was sitting. The table was not quite in the middle of the window but next to it. That’s where he sat every day unless someone got there before him. If they did, he didn’t make a fuss. That wasn’t Ray’s nature in my experience. He would glare at them for a couple of seconds before turning away and finding somewhere else to sit. I’d soon learned that Ray was not someone to make a fuss over something as silly as a place to sit. While he was a creature of habit, and he liked them he wasn’t a man to go overboard when things didn’t quite work out as planned.
Ray was already engrossed in his daily paper. He would study the racing columns avidly. The horse of his choice would be marked with a red pen. Before he left, he would copy the details down into a notebook.
As far as I knew, Ray never placed a bet and that it was all for his own amusement. If anyone asked him for a tip, he’d gladly give the questioner one or two tips for that day with the proviso that if any of them placed a bet and it came in, then the recipient of the tip would put the original stake into the staff ‘Tip Jar’ that sat on the counter. No one quibbled with this condition. If they did then as he called it ‘pony up’, they didn’t get any more tips from him. Very few of the regulars were on this list.
By the time Christmas came around, there was always a sizeable sum of money in the jar. Last year, it had been almost £2200.00. Other people would put small change into the jar but it was the racing tips that filled it. I shared the contents of the ‘tip jar’ amongst my staff and didn’t take a penny for myself. The bonus had made their last Christmas and New Year very enjoyable for them and this year was already looking to be as good if not better than last.
"Thanks, Alex."
“Blowing up a bit out there now,” I said.
“The horses won’t like running in this weather.”
“It is that lass. You’ll be quiet today. Most sane folk won’t want to venture out in a gale, like this. As for the racing, the card at Kelso is looking pretty good and their weather forecast is a lot better than down here.”
“What you say about the weather and customers is very true Ray, but here you are aren’t you?”
“True but there again, I’m a senile old fart, ain’t I?”
“Ray, you are not senile. You are sharper than many people half your age.”
"That is as maybe Alex but my family…"
He didn’t need to say much more. I’d been a witness to more than one row between him and his children, Phillip and Elizabeth. They wanted Ray to move into a care home so that they could get their hands on his property and sell it. Ray had been clear that his home was going to be gifted to a charity in his will and he was in no position to sell it without the charity being in on the act. How true that was, only he knew, but his answer had visibly angered his children on more than one occasion.
"Your family are money-grabbing turds if you ask me."
“Turds is about right given that my daughter Elizabeth’s married name is Brown,” joked Ray.
“What about you? Found Mr Right yet?”
I knew that Ray was using that sad state of my love life to change the subject.
“I’m done with men for the foreseeable future. That last one nearly had me over a barrel. It was only thanks to you Ray, that I’m not out on the streets.”
Ray looked up from his paper and smiled.
“All part of the service. I couldn’t let you get wed and then thrown out of this great emporium on your lughole now, could I? Where else am I going to get such a nice brew to start the day eh?”
I smiled.
“You could always take the bus into Horsham or Shoreham and take your pick of coffee emporia?”
Ray laughed.
"Why should I? I like your homebrew… especially compared to the lukewarm dishwater that those places serve."
To have my coffee called homebrew was actually a compliment. At least it didn't get you drunk. A mild Caffeine high possibly, but certainly not drunk plus, I roasted and ground the beans in the back room, so the 'home' part of ‘homebrew’ was very applicable.
[January 2018]
“Has anyone seen Ray this week?” I asked my two assistants. I refused to call them Baristas. The ‘Nags Head’ was not some pretend coffee shop that was part of a mega-chain. I liked my independence. I make sure that we only serve beans that I buy direct from the importer. Those beans come from ‘Fairtrade’ suppliers in Costa Rica and Ecuador. We roast and blend them on the premises. Our food is almost all made within 15 miles, and does not come wrapped in plastic or frozen for nuking in a microwave. Joanne and Frances have been with me since I opened the place almost four years ago and are more like partners than employees. Calling them Baristas was, in their eyes an insult.
“He was in on Saturday. Bobby George put a fiver in the tip jar and bought Ray his second coffee. Ray’s tip for the previous day had come in at 66/1,” said Frances.
“I’ve not been on duty since Thursday. He was in then”, said Joanne.
"It is not like him to miss a Monday," I said, feeling a bit worried.
“Why don’t you go around and see if he’s ok? We can hold the fort here,” suggested Frances.
Frances was old enough to be my mother, but I knew that what she was saying was right on the nail. He didn’t have anyone to keep an eye on him since his nearest friendly neighbour, Joyce Marshall went into a care home at the end of last September.
With a feeling of foreboding, I knocked on the door to Ray's cottage. There was silence from inside. Nothing moved. I'd never been there before, so I had no frame of reference to work from, but it didn't sound right.
I looked through the letterbox but could not see anything wrong. I could not hear the sounds of a TV or Radio. I knew from conversations that I and others had had with Ray over the months that he kept himself both informed and educated by listening to the Radio and watching some programmes on TV. For an instant, I wondered if he watched the racing on TV, but I forced that Idea to the back of my mind.
I looked through the front window, but all I could see was a dining room that looked perfectly normal. There was nothing for it, I had to go around to the rear of the cottage.
I didn’t need to look beyond the floor near the patio doors in his living room to see the problem. Ray lay there motionless. I strained my eyes and thought that I could see his chest rise and fall. Feeling both deeply worried and relieved, I pulled out my phone and dialled ‘999’.
"Police and Ambulance, please," I said to the operator when she answered.
“A friend of mine has fallen at home and is unconscious. I can’t get into his house.”
“My name is Alex Turner. My friend is Ray Stewart. He lives at 12 Church View in Ashurst.”
“Yes. I’ll wait on the scene. Please hurry. He may have been lying there for more than a day. I can see that he is breathing but...”
I hung up the phone feeling better about myself but even more deeply worried about Ray.
Then it struck me… I had not tried the back door.
It was locked. Good for Ray, but bad for me. I had to wait for the emergency services to arrive. My last job was to call the Coffee Shop, and give them the bad news.
“Frances, Ray is lying on the floor of his back room. I can’t get it. I have called the Police and Ambulance.”
"He seems to be breathing, but god only knows how long he had been there."
“Oh. Yes… I get you. Let me see,” I said to a suggestion from Frances.
I went over to the vent from Ray's central heating boiler. Gingerly, I put my hand over the outlet. Nothing was coming out of it. I touched the metal hoping that it was at least warm. It was cold, icy cold.
“His heating is off.”
“Yes, Frances, the vent is cold to touch.”
“Of, course I'm worried. He could be dying of hypothermia right before my eyes, and short of breaking in, I can so SFA[1] about it."
“Can you run the show for the rest of the day? I may be some time dealing with this. Knowing the PLOD like I do I’ll have to give them a statement. That may mean going into Horsham or even worse, Brighton.”
“Yes, Frances. The moment I have any news, I’ll let you know. Then you can spread the word.”
“Yes, Frances. No embellishments, understand? This is very serious ,and the last thing the village needs is this to be blown up out of all proportion. Ok?”
I hung up before Frances could argue. She was a great person but… she was a gossip that would beat the hind legs of most other gossipers in the area. Like all good story spreaders, she had this knack of slightly enhancing the story every time she told it.
The sounds of an approaching Ambulance made me put those worries to the back of my mind. The short time that I'd had to wait was surprising. I knew from a previous experience that Ambulances often had to travel from Brighton or even farther afield to get to our little slice of heaven in the middle of the Sussex countryside.
I went around to the front of the cottage to greet the crew of the Ambulance. I smiled briefly, when I recognised the two members of the crew from their visits to my shop.
“He’s visible through the patio doors. Everything is locked down tight.”
We all went around to the rear of the cottage. Ray was still there. His chest was moving slightly.
“We can’t wait for the Police. I’m going to kick the back door in,” said the driver of the Ambulance.
Neither, of us, disagreed.
The door flew open after the third kick, his heavy work boots had done the trick. I stood aside and let the paramedics get on with their work. Ray’s house was stone cold. The heating wasn’t on. I checked the thermostat in the hall. It was set to 5 degrees. I turned the dial ,and almost immediately I could hear the heating system start up.
After a moment's thought, I turned it off again. If Ray was suffering from concussion or hypothermia then he'd be taken off to the hospital, and the house didn't need heating if there was going to be no one living there.
The two paramedics were busy with Ray, so I went outside to await the arrival of the Police.
Two Police cars arrived together about ten minutes later. This time their sirens brought out all the neighbours. One of the Officers kept the more nosey-parker of the neighbours away while the other one went inside to get an update from the Paramedics.
A few minutes later, the officer who went into the house returned.
“How is Ray?” I asked.
“Who are you exactly?”
"I'm the one who made the call to 999. I run the 'Nags Head' Coffee shop. Ray is a regular, and he missed two days, so we got worried. I saw him on the floor and called you lot right away."
“He’s in a bad way. Hypothermia and a bad concussion from the fall. Do you know if he has a history of falling?”
I shook my head.
“As far as I know, he’s a good one. He does not walk funny if you know what I mean. No sticks or Zimmer frames. That tells me that he's not one for falling. I've never even seen a cut on his face from shaving, and his hands are as steady as mine."
“You sound as if you know him very well?”
"I know him because he comes into the coffee shop every day it is open. He is a regular, and we chat about a few things like the weather and his racing tip of the day. I might add that Ray never bets on a horse, but he says that it helps keep his mind active. Other than that, this is the first time I've been to his house."
“Thanks for being frank with me. Ms ???”
“Alex Turner. Alex is short for Alexandra. It was fine until bloody Amazon released their bloody stupid assistant.”
The officer smiled.
“I get you on that on. If we need to contact you, we’ll catch you at the Coffee Shop. The Paramedics told me that they kicked the door in. I’ll make sure that someone comes out to repair the damage later.”
“They are taking him to Hospital then?”
The officer nodded his head.
“They need to get him stable first.”
“Thanks.”
I made a move to walk away. Then I stopped.
"There is one thing. Ray's central heating was turned right down. I turned up the thermostat, and I heard the boiler come on."
The office smiled.
“I wondered why the place was so cold.”
“If you want my opinion, he was getting ready to go out when he fell. I could see that he was wearing his outdoor shoes and his coat was on the floor. His house slippers were by the kitchen door.”
“You are very observant Ms Turner.”
"I people-watch for a business. You hear all sorts of tales in a coffee shop but around half of it is… if you excuse my language, total gobshite. You soon learn to read people and their personalities."
“You seem to be an expert?”
I laughed.
“A good number of years ago, I spent six months in a Costa Rican Rainforest studying a family of Monkeys as part of my gap year. We aren’t so different from them in many respects. You’d be surprised at how many human characteristics they exhibit when you observe them for a while.”
“You seem to be putting that to good use now?” joked the officer.
"Hardly, but some things sort of stuck."
He nodded his head.
“If you could let me know which hospital he’s being taken to, I’ll make sure that he gets some visitors.”
“Do you know about his family?”
"He has a son and a daughter. The son lives in Coventry, and the daughter is up in Leeds or fairly close by. He does not talk about them much. From the little he says, they want him to go into a care home so that they can sell his home and pocket the money. They don't seem to know that if he does go into a home, the home will be used to pay for his care."
“How do you know all this?”
“Gossip in the coffee shop Officer. That was confirmed by another of our customers who works for Social Services.”
“You aren’t far wrong. It is a shame really. Far too many children can only think about how much money their parents are worth dead.”
“Blame society for that. I’ll bet that many of them are up to their ears in debt and can’t see any way out.”
Before he could answer, I said,
"I'll be getting back to the coffee shop. If you need me to make a formal statement, then you know where I am six days a week."
"Thanks, Ms Turner."
As soon as I opened the door to the coffee shop, the place fell silent. It seemed that Ray’s accident was already widespread knowledge; no doubt thanks to Frances.
I headed into the relative safety of my office at the rear of the shop and took off my coat. Then I closed my eyes and counted to ten… twice… backwards before heading back into the shop.
For once, I was glad that the planning department had refused our application to remove the long bar from the place. We've gotten used to it now, but it did give us a place to hide when we needed it.
“I’ll say this just the once.”
There were a few titters from the customers. That made me think. For an instant, I felt foolish because I’d used a catchline from an old BBC TV comedy series.[1]
“Ray is being taken to Hospital. I don't know which one yet, so don't ask. What we do know is that he suffered a fall in his kitchen. He may well be suffering from hypothermia as well as other things. The house was stone cold when the Paramedics broke the door down. He's alive but in a bad way. That's all I know, so don't bother asking me any more questions.”
There was a stony silence in the room. Two people hurried out the front door probably to start spreading gossip. I only hoped that it wasn’t embellished too much.
Others chatted amongst themselves in hushed tones. There were occasional furtive glances in my direction.
I can only take so much of that so I exited into the workroom at the back of the shop and got on with roasting the next batch of Guatemalan coffee beans.
God knows I tried to stop worrying about Ray, but I failed miserably. I liked the old bugger. He brought me down to earth regularly. For that, I would be eternally thankful.
Then I kicked myself for even starting to think about him in the past tense. He wasn't dead yet, and if I was any sort of judge of character, he would fight this.
[to be continued]
[1] The TV series was ‘Allo Allo’.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086659/
[two days later]
“Any luck?” asked Sylvia.
I had been calling around all the local hospitals in the hope of finding where Ray had been taken.
“So far nothing. Or they just don’t want to say because I’m not a relative.”
“You need to get onto the cop shop in Horsham. Sweet talk them and they’ll let on.”
"Yeah, you might be right on that one,” I replied.
“Has any of the local officers been in today?”
"Not yet, but it it’s not quite chocolate croissants or doughnuts time yet,” commented Sylvia.
The topic of Police, and their addiction to all forms of sweet delights had moved from the TV screen into reality. The local Police were no exception in that. A local baker supplied the coffee shop with some 'fancies' two or three times a week. Often, that just happened to coincide with a visit from a local patrol car.
There was no visit from any of the local Police Officers that day or the next. When they did come in for some refreshment, I made a point of serving them myself.
"Now, Officer, I have a deal for you. The coffee and doughnuts are on the house if you can give me some information," I asked with a smile.
“Don’t we normally ask for information from you?”
"This is different. I want to track down which Hospital Ray Thompson was taken to. I've been getting the runaround. I was the one who found him,and he is very much missed around these parts."
"I don't know, but I know someone who does,” replied the Officer.
“I’ll give my Sergeant a call. He collates all this sort of thing just to keep our records straight.”
"That would be great. The next coffee for you, and him are on the house."
He smiled.
“Are you trying to bribe a Police Officer?”
“Not in the slightest. I’m just being a good citizen. One good turn and all that.”
“Naturally.”
Two days later, I received a text with the details of the Hospital where Ray was being treated.
“St Georges? Where the heck is that?” remarked Sylvia. She was well known for getting lost in the shops in the nearby town of Horsham.
“Tooting, Southwest London,” I replied.
“How the hell did he end up there?”
"I don't know, but his injuries must be a lot sight more serious than any of us imagined."
“When are you going?”
“Going where?”
"To visit him, silly?"
I smiled back at my assistant.
“The day after tomorrow. That is if you don’t mind working on your day off that is?”
“Nice of you to ask…?”
"If you don't want the overtime, then I'll ask Joanne…?"
“Just joking. Of course, I’ll cover for you.”
I grinned back at Sylvia. I knew right from the start that she'd cover for me, but we have this little game to go through first.
Getting to the Hospital was not going to be easy. It looked like I’d have to take a train into London, getting off a Clapham Junction and then a bus. In my previous life pre coffee shop, I’d grown to hate London. It all became just too busy and smelly for me in the end. That was one of the reasons I left and moved to the West Sussex countryside. The slow pace of life was perfect for me after my last relationship with someone who purported to be a local man, went badly wrong. He was nothing more than a chancer, who was already married and had a family in Crawley. It was thanks to Ray, that I'd been saved from a load of grief.
"I'm here to see Ray Thompson," I said to the nurse at the reception desk.
"Third bed on the left, but you will have to wait for a few minutes. The Doctor is with him at the moment."
“Thanks. I’ll wait.”
“You aren’t the first visitor for Mr Thompson today. There were two others here a while ago. As far as I know, they went off to get a coffee. One of them wasn’t too pleased to see the other one.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I’m just a friend from where he lives. I was the one that found him lying on the floor.”
“Well done for that. From his notes, it seems that he was pretty close to breathing his last when the Paramedics got to him.”
Ten minutes later, the nurse signalled that I could go into the main part of the ward. I walked towards Ray’s bed not exactly sure what I would find.
What I found was Ray smiling at me.
“At last… Someone I can talk to without getting my head bitten off. Did you bring me some of your excellent coffee by any chance?"
Ray’s words lifted my spirits considerably.
"Hello, Ray. Not read the racing pages today?"
He shook his head.
“The Nursing Gestapo Obersturmbannführer that runs the ward has decided that I am beyond all hope and therefore in no need of the Racing Post."
I began to feel that things were not as they seemed on the surface.
There was a chair by the side of his bed, so I moved it so that I could see him and sat down.
"Ok, Ray, sock it to me. Why the hell are you in this goddam out of the way hell hole?"
Ray laughed.
“Hell hole? I like that one.”
He wiped the smile off his face.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve been here. I’m terminal.”
“What do you mean terminal? Are you going to die tomorrow or something?”
He shook his head.
"Not quite but it all started back when I was in the Army, I was injured while we were doing some jungle training in Malaysia. I was airlifted out of there and back to Hong Kong, which where I was stationed at the time. This is all before the 1997 handover naturally."
Ray closed his eyes as he remembered back to that time.
"I was clobbered on the back of my head by a large branch. I had all sorts of tests when I was in the Base Hospital. The result was that they found that the branch hadn't done any permanent damage."
He looked me right in the eye.
“There was something else wasn’t there?”
“Yes, there was. Several years later, the doctors found a small tumour growing right at the base of the cerebral cortex. Inoperable naturally.”
“You sound … so relaxed about a death sentence?”
“Time… Time my dear Alex. Time is a great healer.”
“When I left the Army, the doctors referred me here. There is a clinic here that is part of the Royal Marsden. That is one of the top cancer hospitals in the country.”
“That’s one bit of the mystery solved. What happened at your home?”
“The cancer is growing. I’ve been falling a bit recently, but nothing very serious until this last time. The tumour is strangling the bits of the nervous system that control my limbs. I fell when my legs stopped, and my body didn't. I knocked myself into next week."
“But the heating? It was turned off?”
“Force of habit. My late wife always complained about the heating bills so I got into the habit of turning it off before I went out. I was about to head out to the Post Office to collect my Pension when… I woke up in Worthing Hospital lying on a bed of warm water. When I'd properly warmed up, and they'd gotten access to my medical records, I was transferred here.”
“It is a good job that there are people who care about you then.”
“I owe you a lot for finding me when you did.”
Then a voice from behind me said,
“Just who the hell are you then?”
I turned around and saw a younger version of Ray. I’d seen him before, it was his son Phillip.
“I’m Alex. I found him and called the Paramedics.”
"You had better sling your hook. You are not getting any of my Father's money. I know what people like you are after, and that is money."
“I think that you are mistaken. I run the coffee shop that your father goes to almost every day. We were worried that we had not seen him for several days.”
“Yet you came all this way out of the goodness of your heart? Bollocks. I think that you should leave right now before I get the nurse to call security. You are not wanted here.”
The angry look on his face plus the throbbing of a vein in his neck told me that my time was up.
“I’ll see you soon Ray. There are people back home ,who do care about you despite what this conspiracy theorist says.”
"Thanks, Alex," said Ray as he sank back into the copious pillows that filled the end of his bed.
As I left, I glared at Ray’s son. I knew from what Ray had said over the months that he was not the best of friends with his son but seeing him in person again for just a few minutes made my flesh crawl. I’d forgotten just how awful a human being he was.
As I walked out of the ward, my mind was still wondering why Ray’s son was such a PITA. There was no need to be so obnoxious. I would not stay in business for very long if I ran my Coffee Shop with that sort of attitude toward my customers.
As I waited for the lift a voice behind me said,
“Alex, have you got a minute.”
To say that I was startled would be the understatement of the week.
I turned toward the source of the voice. It belonged to a young woman of Chinese descent.
“What…?”
She smiled at me.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I heard my half-brother, Phillip, go off at you just now.”
“Half-brother? I don’t understand?”
She smiled again.
“Can we go somewhere to talk? There is a lot you don’t know about Ray.”
I wasn't sure if I wanted to know more about Ray, but I didn't want to argue.
“Shall we go to the coffee shop or whatever it is called?”
She shook her head.
“I thought that the Chapel might be more private? Besides, my half-brother will not think of looking for me there. He seems to take great delight in throwing verbal insults at me.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
"I'm Jade, by the way."
Her name fitted her green eyes perfectly.
We followed the signs for the Chapel.
The place seemed so peaceful when compared to the hustle and bustle of the hospital that was just a few yards away.
“I expect that you have a million and one questions. Dad would often write to me about his life in Ashurst. He told me about you and how you looked after him in your shop."
Her English was faultless.
"I'm studying… well, was studying Art History at St Andrew's. With Dad so ill, that will have to go by the board for now. Neither of his other children wants anything to do with him, other than to get their hands his money when the cancer kills him. It has never been that way for me."
“Why haven’t you visited him?”
“That’s easy to answer. There is a busybody who lives a few doors from him. She keeps my half-brother informed about who visits him. That’s how he knew about you before he came to the village. For some reason, he thinks that everyone is after Ray's money. They aren't, but he won't be told by me or even Ray."
“That nosey parker would be Mrs Anderson, I presume?”
Jade nodded her head.
Mrs April Anderson was well known as a spreader of gossip, rumour and what we now call fake news in the village.
Jade opened her large shoulder bag. She took out a photo album and handed it to me.
The photos were mostly of her and Ray in various locations. I recognised the Minoan site on the island of Crete. The two of them were together and enjoying themselves. It was either very real or a very, very good fake. I remembered Ray going to Crete on Holiday the previous year, so I began to feel these there were the real thing.
“I know Ray went to Crete. He sent us a postcard.”
Jade smiled.
“I know. I was the one who posted it in Chania.”
Jade pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to me.
The wording on the top told me that it was a birth certificate that had been issued in Hong Kong. It was dated April, 1996. I could see Ray’s name and occupation. The mother was listed as a domestic servant. Then I saw the sex.
“This is for a boy?”
Jade’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“That’s me. I’m trans. Ray told me to tell you should this moment arise.”
“What moment?”
“Dad is dying. He has four to six months left at most. The tumour is growing. He’s known for a long time that his time left was limited. The latest fall just confirmed that.”
"He's had other falls?" I said, still a bit suspicious of her.
Jade nodded.
“He had two over Christmas. Not serious, but enough to send him to the floor. This time, he hit his head badly. They will only get more frequent."
Her voice told me that she was very sad at the prospect of losing her father.
"I'm going to drop out of University to look after him for what time he has left. Phillip is an angry person. He's angry at me for simply being alive. He can't grasp what it means to be trans, so he rejects it in its entirety. He'll address me in the third person or worse and calls me ‘him’ in a loud voice. I don’t mind. When Dad has gone, I can get on with my life and forget all about him.”
“What about your half-sister? Elizabeth?”
“She does what big brother says. She threw a mega wobbly when Dad introduced me. She could not take that he’d been unfaithful to his wife. It didn’t matter that their marriage had been over in all but name for years. She just refuses to admit that I exist. She has her life, and I won't interfere. Dad taught me to be an independent soul. It is hard. Coming from a big family, and social network back in Hong Kong, but I have learned to stand on my own two feet. Dad… was always there for me when I needed him. I "am just sad that he won't get to see me graduate.”
"Jade, I hate to ask, but why are you telling me all this?"
"Dad told me when he was hospitalised like this that I was to give you this.”
She pulled out an envelope from her bag. It was addressed to me.
“He wanted to explain in his own words before he couldn’t.”
“Do you want me to read it now?”
"Please. I don't know what it says, but there might be some questions that you have. If I can't answer them, then I'll get dad to do that when Phillip has left to go home.”
I opened the envelope and read the letter. It was written in Ray’s beautiful script, the script that I saw almost every day when he made notes about the form of various horses in his notebook.
I took my time and read it twice before speaking to Jade.
“He wants me to be the executor of his will. Why me?”
Jade smiled.
“He trusts you. He does not trust Phillip.”
“Where is the will?”
"In the bank for safekeeping. I expect that Phillip will be looking for it at Dad's home. He told me that he's going down there tomorrow. I'm going to stay with Dad until he is discharged. That could be in a few days. They want to run some more tests."
“How do you know all this?”
Jade smiled.
"I was listed in the Hospital records as Dad's next of kin. When they phoned, I dropped everything, packed a bag and caught the next train down here. I was here several hours before Phillip came barging in, and wanting to know why I’d been let into the building or words to that effect. Like what he did to you, he wanted me thrown out. That’s Phillip all over I’m afraid.”
From the little I’d seen of Phillip; I could see him acting like a bull in a china shop.
“I saw the consultant not long after I arrived. Because I was listed as the next of kin, he gave it to me straight. He told me that when you came to visit as he knew that you would once, he’d found out that it was you who found him, I was to take you to one side and speak to you. Yesterday, I went to the bank in Central London and took out the things I have shown you today. I have access to his safe deposit box. His will is in the bank. Only Dad, me and his solicitor, a Mr Gerrard, can get to it.”
“Won’t Phil start making complaints when he can’t find the will? He seems that sort of person?”
“He is. I will give him the business card of the firm of solicitors who drew up the will, and that's who Mr Gerrard works for. Dad said that they have been instructed to give Phillip a letter from him, but they are duty bound not to discuss the contents of the will until the reading of it after his death."
“This sounds all very melodramatic?”
"It is, but Dad is just being Dad. You know how much he is a stickler for detail. Everything must be in its place and only in its place.”
That I could agree with. Ray was always very particular about where we put his coffee on the table. He was always immaculately dressed when he came into the shop. Nothing that Jade had told me was out of character for him.
The more I interacted with Jade, the more it became apparent that she was the real deal. Most of the albeit few trans people I’d ever met had either huge chips on their shoulders or were very good at hiding themselves in the crowd. Jade seemed to be just a normal woman who was two to three years younger than me even if as she’d said, she was even younger than that if she was a student. Kudos to her for that.
OTOH, her half-brother was in my eyes, a nasty piece of work. Talk about chalk and cheese.
When I got back to the coffee shop, as expected, I was deluged with questions about Ray.
“Hold on a moment there, people. Let me catch my breath and have some coffee. Then I’ll tell you all at once.”
The place went silent. The only noise was from Sylvia who was making me a coffee.
After a sip of the brew, I put the cup down and turned to face a sea of expectant faces.
“I saw Ray in the Hospital. The diagnosis is that he is terminally ill. An old injury from his time in Malaysia with the Army has developed into a tumour. As it is located at the top of his neck, it is inoperable. He thinks that he has at most six months left. The tumour caused the fall in his home. It was not the first one recently. That’s about it from a medical point of view but there is more.”
I took another sip of coffee.
“While I was there, I met his son. A nasty piece of work, as many if not most of us already knew. His first words to me were… and, I quote, 'Just who the hell are you then?' which was followed up by 'You had better sling your hook. You are not getting any of my Father's money. I know what people like you are after, and that is his money.'"
I heard a sharp intake of breath from several people. Then there was an ‘ouch’ from Sylvia.
“That is not all. I also met his other daughter, Jade.”
That got everyone’s interest.
“Ray had a fling with someone when he was stationed in Hong Kong just before the handover to the Chinese. Jade is a student in Scotland. If you can remember back to last summer, Ray went to Crete for a holiday. There is a postcard from him somewhere on the wall.”
I pointed to the wall on the left of the counter. It was almost completely covered in postcards.
“Jade was there with Ray. She had some photos of both of them at the Minoan palace of Knossos. Jade, is clearly a very different person from the brother."
After another sip, I carried on.
“I won't say any more, but suffice to say, we have a traitor in our midst. Jade is Ray's nominated next of kin, but a neighbour tipped off the son about him going into hospital and also which one he was at. I know that he will be visiting in a day or so, and will be turning Ray's home over looking for his will. Ray, has appointed me his executor, which will make the son mad, but that is Ray's wish, and before anyone asks, I don't know the contents of his will. Ray’s son Phillip, and Jade do not get along. No surprise there really.”
“As the cartoon says, ‘That’s all folks!’ for the time being.”
Sylvia asked,
“Is this neighbour… you know who?”
“Yes. No surprise there then.”
There was silence in the shop while everyone digested what I’d said. I decided to break the ice.
"Ray is going to need some visitors plus plenty of help when he comes out of the hospital. Who's up for it? Can we set up a rota for visiting, and doing his shopping until he is more mobile?"
There were no dissenters amongst the regulars in the coffee shop. In the village at large, I was not so sure…
[to be continued]
Ray’s son Phillip descended on our little world three days later. I say descended because his first port of call was the coffee shop where he said loudly,
"As you lot of village idiots know very well, Ray is my father, and I don't want any of you busybodies from interfering in his life. Actually, he won't be returning home, so don't even ask. I am here to close up the house, and remove anything of value before it gets stolen by you bunch of retards."
His opinion of us was right there for everyone to see.
With that, he left us alone. Whilst my little emporium of good food and drink was in the centre of the village, we are not the centre of the action. That is the village hall as it should be, but his action had not gone down well with the population. Video of him calling us ‘retards’ would go viral on the village social media site within an hour. It was kinda ironic because at that moment, there were two PHD’s in the shop. Retards my ass.
Phillip drove off in his car clearly heading towards Ray’s modest house. I picked up the phone and called ‘999’.
“Police please,” I said when the emergency operator answered.
“I want to report a robbery in progress at 12 Church View, in Ashurst.”
“The person breaking in is the son of the owner who is in Hospital dying of cancer.”
"I know it is unauthorised because the son is not the owner's appointed next of kin. That is his daughter Jade. I have a document showing that. I am in possession of it because I am the executor of his will.”
"I don't want to have the son arrested for theft, and handling stolen property after the reading of the will. I just want him stopped from taking what is not legally his. His father, Ray has made a detailed list of his assets, and to whom they will be left. I have that list which also identifies how those items will be dispersed after his death.”
"Thank you, I will be waiting for your men to arrive."
I hung up the phone wishing that I had not had to make that call. The arrival of the post that morning had contained a letter from Ray's solicitors and had pre-empted the arrival of Phillip. I'd received instructions about securing the house from being pilfered by his son. The letter informed me that a court order was being sought that would stop Phillip, and his sister from interfering with the property, as well as with the care that Ray received at the end of his life.
The letter had made me angry. I wondered why there are so many families up, and down the land are such total jerks when it comes to the end of a relative’s life? I knew from personal experience how rifts can develop between family members of property, and especially money that a newly deceased person has. In my case, it had left me with scars from the physical altercations between my father and his brother. I was only six when the family disintegrated around me and left me wondering what I had done wrong to make it happen. It was only years later that I discovered that it wasn’t my fault after all.
The lack of accountability for those who had caused me so much pain and angst as a child had been the driving force behind why I studied law. It wasn't until I was on the inside that I saw just how corrupt and impotent it was when dealing with the issues of real life. Add to that my background of being in care and it was made clear very early on that I’d never get beyond a Junior Barrister no matter what I did inside the court room.
I pushed my own prejudices to one side and said,
“Sylvia, I have to go to Ray’s house. I’ve called the Police about his son.”
“Ouch!” said Sylvia.
“Can I do anything?”
“Hold the fort here. If the PLOD arrive, send them around to Ray’s house. Other than that… just smile nicely at the customers.”
Sylvia stuck her tongue out at me. We were cool.
I walked the short distance to Ray's home. His son's car was parked half on the road and half on the grass. Phillip was trying the front door when a woman appeared from a house two doors farther along the road.
That woman was Mrs Finch, one of the local busybodies. She hurried up to Philip and made herself known. To my surprise, he told her to mind her own business, and added the words, 'old crow' to the stream of expletives that came out of his mouth. His words stopped me dead in my tracks. My already low expectation of him had sunk even lower. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and turned away from him. I quickly engaged the voice recorder. Then I held the device up to my ear and said a few words.
"Ok Sylvia. I'm outside Ray's home. His son is here and mouthing off to Mrs Finch. See you later."
I made it look as if I was hanging up on a call before turning back towards Phillip Thompson.
"Mr Thompson, there is really no need to be any more of an obnoxious prick than you already are."
“Oh good. The local know it all has arrived.”
"I received a letter from your father's lawyer today. They are applying for a court order to stop you from interfering with Ray's life."
“That is Mr Thompson to you bitch.”
“Call me all the names you like, but they won't stop me from helping a friend in need. Ray has appointed me to be the executor of his will, and his lawyers do not want anything removed from Ray's house before the reading of the will. Before you ask, I do not know what financial disbersments are in the will. That is between your father and his legal representatives.”
"You will do no such thing. I have lawyers too you know. Mine says that I have a very good case to take control of his assets and care."
“What about his other daughter Jade?”
“The impostor you mean? She’s not his daughter. She isn’t even a she. A fucking pervert if you ask me.”
“Yet your father is paying for her education?”
“Was you mean. When I’m done, I’ll make sure that he has to pay back every penny he has conned out of my father.”
I noticed that he called Jade a ‘he’. That would not go down well with the court… if it came to that.
“Good luck with that. In the letter I received today, Ray’s lawyers told me about a DNA test that shows that you are wrong. Jade is Ray's daughter, and the sooner you accept that the better for all concerned. Even if you don’t then, knowing Ray as I do, I am sure that he will have made provision for all his children in his will. As I said, I do not know the contents of the will and I will refuse any financial bequests that he may make to me. I will gladly put that in writing. Not everyone in your father's life is a money-grabbing SOB as you might think."
“I don’t care what you say or do. There are things in the house that are rightfully mine.”
"Then why not wait? You have waited this long, so what is a few more months eh?"
"What, and leave it to scumbags like you to pilfer everything?"
"I don't have a key. If you notice, the lock on the door is new. It was replaced after the paramedics broke in to save your fathers life. The Police contacted a locksmith to come and repair the damage, and after consulting with your father's solicitors, they replaced all the locks. I have no idea where the keys are. I suggest that you ask the Police?”
My phone buzzed. Someone has sent me a text.
“Police were here. On their way to you, Sylvia.”
I smiled.
“It seems that the Police will be here in a minute.”
"Good, then I'll get them to arrest you."
“Oh… On what charge?”
"Conspiring to rob my father, for starters."
"You do know that conspiracy is a difficult charge to prove in court. I take it that you have evidence of this crime that you are willing to give to the Police?"
“What? Are you a lawyer or something?”
I grinned.
“I was something. I am a qualified Barrister. Please… don’t let me stop you from digging the hole that you are in. I’ll gladly bury you in thick Wealden Clay.”
Just then, a Police Car arrived. I knew the officer, Constable Joanne Wynn.
“Arrest this woman. She is conspiring to steal goods and money from my father!” said Phillip as the constable was getting out of her car.
PC Wynn nodded in my direction.
“Mr Thompson, I presume? I have had a report of you making accusations against Ms Davenport and others. Is this correct?"
“Too dam right it is.”
"Then Mr Thompson, I suggest that you come to the Police Station and make those claims in writing. Then and only then can we investigate matters more fully. How about it?"
“I’m not leaving here just so that people like her can rob my father!” said Phillip pointing at me.
“I’ll leave now Constable. I’ll be in my Café should you need me.”
I turned to walk away.
“Stop her. She needs to be arrested,” shrieked Phillip.
“Mr Thompson, I need some evidence besides, Ms Davenport is well known to us, and I don't think she will be going very far. Shall we go to the station for that statement?"
I walked away full of admiration for the way that the Constable was diffusing the situation. The words 'well known to us' made me smile. I was, or rather my Café, was well known to the Police as a place where they could get good coffee and food rather than being well known for my criminal exploits.
I returned to the Café, and after a short chat with Sylvia, I got in my car and headed for London. I wanted Ray to hear my recording ASAP.
He opened his eyes and smiled.
“Now that is sight for sore eyes. Come and sit down. Then you can tell me what has been happening outside this prison and in the real world.”
I spent the next hour updating Ray on events at home. This included playing him the voice recording of my confrontation with Phillip.
"My son is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character. He is very erratic, but once he gets an idea into his head, there is no shifting it or him from a course of action."
“He did demand that I was arrested on the spot, apparently for conspiring to rob you of your life savings.”
Ray laughed.
"What did I say about ideas and my son? Get that recording to my solicitors."
Then he looked at me with a serious face.
“What is all this about you being a Barrister?”
Very few people in the village knew about my past career.
“It is true or rather was true. I worked in London for three years after qualifying and was preparing to try to become a QC[1] when I had a relationship go wrong, badly wrong. He made all sorts of accusations against me. The old saying, ‘there is no smoke without fire’ came true. My reputation was ruined. For a barrister, reputation is what brings in cases and pays the bills. I was likely to be faced with huge problems finding cases so I gave up the law, sold my flat in Docklands and came down here. I'd become very peed off with just how impotent we were to make the lives of others better so I walked away and gave them the finger."
“Was anything your ex claimed true?” asked Ray mostly out of innocence.
“Only one thing. I did have a brief fling with another lawyer who had represented some very bad people. That was my reputation killer even if it happened before I qualified as a lawyer."
“That’s not good for your legal career but good for us. Where else can I get such good coffee eh?”
"Thank you for the vote of confidence Ray."
“Would you ever go back? To the law that is?”
“No chance of that. After six months down here, I got to like the more relaxed life. Until then, I had not fully understood how much stress there was in my old life. One of my old law professors once said that appearing in court is much like an actor going on stage. The jury is the audience. Whereas an actor has a set of lines to learn, and they pretty much repeat them in every performance, a Barrister has to think on their feet. Naturally, they will have lines prepared for every eventuality but if they fluff them, their client could go to jail for a long time. I consider myself lucky to have gotten out when I did and before I fluffed my lines.”
“But the rewards? Weren’t they very good?”
"For some yes, but many of us jobbing Barristers, the pot of gold was taking silk and becoming a QC. To get there, many were relying on Cocaine or booze or both. Coffee is my only drug of choice these days."
I sat back and looked at Ray. He seemed full of beans.
“Any idea when you are getting kicked out?”
“Tomorrow all being well. Then I am supposed to come back for check-ups every month. That will be a pain. I’m not allowed to drive.”
“Er… Ray, as long as I’ve known you, you have never had a car?”
He grinned.
"Details, my friend, details."
That was a typical Ray’s riposte. I could tell that he was feeling a lot better.
“Do you want me to come and collect you?”
He smiled.
“And piss my dear beloved son off even more? Let him do something worthwhile for a change.”
After wiping the smile from his face, he said,
"Can you make sure that Jade has somewhere to safe stay that is out of the his way for a bit?"
“I can do that.”
“Good. I gave her your mobile number when she was in here earlier. I told her to lie low for a few days until Phillip has gone home. He'll want to take me with him, but with my check-ups being here, I can with all honestly say no thanks. The McMillian people have already been to see me, and will arrange for help at home when I need it, but as far as he is concerned, that is now, if you get my drift?"
“Ray, will you answer me one question?”
He smiled,
“For you my dear, anything.”
“Why did you never bet on the horses? The tip box is proof that you are good at selecting winners?”
Ray grinned.
"Whoever said that I didn't? I just didn’t want my business broadcast by the usual suspects in the village. By not saying one way or the other people were left to make up their own minds, but between you, me and the bedpost, I did have the odd flutter or three but keeping quiet about it was good because as you well know, not everyone is as honest as you.”
He smiled. That told me that when it came to laying a bet, it was a lot more than the odd flutter.
For once in my life, I was lost for words.
[to be continued]
[1] QC : Queen’s Councillor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QC
[four months later]
It was a slow Wednesday morning when Ray and Jade came into the shop. She said her hello's to Sylvia, and me before leaving on an errand for Ray.
Jade had been looking after her father for about a week after he had been discharged from Hospital and after his son, Phillip had left to go home very much with his tail between his legs.
He'd been back a few weeks ago and found Ray in good spirits but with Jade ever-present. Ray and Phillip had had a huge row, which ended with Phillip being banished from the house for good. Jade had taken a leaf out of my book and had recorded the encounter. That recording was later sent to Ray's legal representatives.
The downside of that was that Ray had a fall, and was taken to Hospital in Worthing as a precaution. He was kept in an observation ward overnight for observation before being sent home.
“Take it easy Ray. Slow down. Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
"Alex, my last check-up has shown that the tumour is growing rapidly and my sands of time clock is running out of sand. The incident with Phillip was the last straw. I’ve decided to go into a hospice in Shoreham on Friday. That will keep my dear son off my back. My solicitor is coming over tomorrow. I'm going to sign a letter that permits Jade to stay in my house until my will is read. Both Phillip and Elizabeth have been served with the court order banning them from interfering with my house but knowing them, it won't matter. Phillip needs my money because according to his local newspaper, his latest get-rich-quick scheme went belly up. He knows that I told him years ago that I was done with funding his loser schemes.”
He winked at me. I guessed that he was leaving his house to Jade and wanted her to be in place before he passed. Possession is important when it comes to dividing up estates.
“Has it come to that?” I asked quietly.
Ray nodded.
“I'm having problems with my neck, and my consultants are saying that it will only get worse. At least when I'm in the hospice, my son can't go around making waves. Any scenes, and they'll ban him for good.”
“Does he know about the move?”
Ray shook his head.
"No, and I'm not saying a word until it is all over and done with. That's when I'll call him with the bad news. The last time he was here, Phillip was talking about getting me into a nursing home nearer his home, and away from the people that I know and love. My lawyer, Mr Gerrard knows of my wishes to stay here and to be cremated at Worthing Crematorium. Then my ashes can be scattered at Chanctonbury Ring[1] like my mothers were just over twenty years ago.”
I nodded my head.
“On the subject of love…” said Ray.
“I’ve seen how you look at Jade.”
Ouch… He’d nailed me to the cross in one go.
“Me?”
"Yes, you. As far as I know, you have not had a boyfriend or girlfriend since you came down to this neck of the woods from London. I think that you might like to have a relationship with Jade. If you do just do one thing for me, and that is, don't hurt her. She's been through a lot, especially before she came to this country.
Her mother's family escaped the post-Mao, Cultural Revolution and made it first to Macao and then to Hong Kong. We had a brief affair when her mother came to clean for us. I had no idea that she was pregnant."
Ray looked very sad, which was unusual for him.
“Several years after HK was handed back to the PRC, her mother tracked me down via the Army. I went out there right away. To cut a long story short, six months later, Jade had a British Passport. Not long after that, Jade came over here and went to a public school on the edge of London that was funded by my winnings. I also have funded her university education.”
I smiled at Ray.
"Ray, I get the message. You are being a protective parent. That is fine by me."
He shook his head.
"There is more to it than that. I promised Jade's mother that I would properly look after my daughter. I was a horrible parent to Phil and his sister Elizabeth. Being posted all over the place was hard on them, and when Jade came into my life, I promised to make amends. I spent as much time with her as I could."
“But you never brought her home before your first big fall?”
“I didn’t. You have seen Mrs ‘twitchy curtains’?”
"Oh! I'd forgotten about that busy body. Those trips to race meetings were just a cover then?"
He shook his head.
“They were real. We’d meet up at a course and spend a few days together. She loved being outside and began to love the thrill of racing. She’s hopeless at picking winners but those trips enabled us to spend some quality time together all over the country and away from the prying eyes of my son and daughter. I grew to love her dearly and had begun to hope that I’d live to see her married once she'd finished her transition, but Jade being Jade wants to finish her degree first. Now I’ll never get to give her away… I was in Iraq when Elizabeth was married. I had wangled some leave to be there, but I missed the whole thing due to a dust storm shutting down the airport. I didn’t want to make that mistake twice, but it is too late now.”
I sat thinking for a few seconds before answering.
“Ray, you can rest easy. I won’t do anything regarding Jade.”
He shook his head.
"That's not what I meant at all, and you know it."
I didn’t say anything.
“Just take care of her. She might have travelled a third of the way around the world to be here, but she is not that world-wise. Because of her being trans she has been very careful about dating."
“I understand. I’ve not exactly broadcast my sexuality. Unless you have the right connections, coming out and wanting to be a successful barrister is a recipe for going nowhere. One of the partners in my Chambers found out about my previous relationship with someone who was on the face of it, a respectable lawyer, but in reality, he was a front for organised crime. He made sure that I knew that because I could never be trusted, I’d never become a partner at the chambers even if I qualified as a Barrister. That and many other things made my decision to quit the law very easy, but I not before I dobbed him into the law for drunk driving. That made his life very difficult in the chambers, and not long after I'd opened this place, I found out that he had resigned, and was now working up north somewhere, doing property conveyancing.
“Any regrets about quitting the law? Aren’t there law firms that employ LGBT people?”
“There are some very LGBT-friendly firms, but by then, I'd gotten pretty disillusioned with the law in general. I have no regrets besides, I get to serve great coffee and dish out law advice for the price of something to eat and drink."
“That is true,” said Ray.
He managed a smile, but I could tell that he was hurting.
Ray moved to the hospice that Friday, but before he left, he and Jade came into the shop where he left one last racing tip for the big race at Newmarket the next day. He was in good spirits, but I could tell that he was struggling. Just getting to his feet was a struggle. It was as if the cancer was strangling the messages that were being sent from his brain to control his limbs.
All the regulars were there to give Ray a great send-off. There were a few tears said for this quiet, unassuming man as he left the café for the last time. The mood in the shop after he'd gone was very sombre.
Jade returned a few hours later and gave me a report on Ray.
“He shooed me away as soon as possible. I didn’t mind. He was clear that he wanted to find his way around on his own while he could. The staff will keep an extra eye on him for a few days.”
I poured Jade a cup of her favourite green tea and took it over to where she was sitting. I sat down at the table opposite her.
“How are you managing?”
She didn’t answer right away. Her eyes went everywhere but towards me.
“I’m doing ok.”
"Sorry, Jade, that isn't going to wash it. You need to focus on yourself for a bit now that Ray is being cared for in the Hospice.”
She returned a small nod.
“Are you going back to University?”
“I don’t know. Without Dad, I just feel lost. I have no one left.”
“What about your mother? Wasn’t she in HK?”
"She was, but her phone went dead several months ago after I told her about Ray's condition. My emails get returned as undeliverable. Ray hired a local P.I. to look into things, but it seems that my mother just upped and left. She told no one about leaving. She just didn’t show up for work one day. The P.I. finally discovered that she's gone back into the PRC but could never find out exactly where she ended up. There are lots of her family still there in several parts of the country and I could only afford a bit of travel and the obligatory bribes to officials.”
“I feel sorry for you. I’m always here if you need someone.”
“Dad said that you’d say that but… I’ll soon be all alone.”
“This is my home but…”
“You are going to feel lost and alone very soon?”
"Something like that. Ray tried to tell me that I will be fine, but it does not seem like that at the moment."
"Until the sad day arrives, just get on with life and support your father as best you can, or rather as best as he will allow.”
Jade managed a small smile.
“The latter I’m afraid.”
Ray died thirty-four days later. Jade was at his side for his final few hours. Ray, being the thorough and meticulous person, that he had always been, and had everything arranged for the funeral and his subsequent cremation. Those plans were interrupted by the arrival of his son and daughter.
Thankfully, the funeral home was adamant that they would not release Ray’s body. He’d given them specific written instructions about the handling of his body before cremation. Those instructions had been witnessed by his GP and a local magistrate. Short of a high court writ, nothing was going to happen. I tried to tell Phillip and Elizabeth this, but they were having none of it.
I told them to their faces when they came to confront me about it.
“Please go and consult a lawyer. My advice is free. Theirs won’t be free and will be the same as mine. Your father was a stickler for detail and all that it entails. Deep down, I know that you know that he will have covered all the options.”
“That’s just so that you can benefit from his estate,” said Elizabeth.
"I have no expectations about being a beneficiary to his estate. He told me that I would not benefit financially from his death very early on, just so that I would not be biased in the advice that I gave him. That advice was always caveated with ‘discuss this with your solicitor’. To my knowledge, he always did that.”
“Lies… all lies,” said Elizabeth.
"Please go and consult a lawyer," I replied before leaving them to stew in their pile of effluent.
Thankfully, the funeral service went through without disruption. All three of Ray's children were present, but both Phillip and Elizabeth refused to acknowledge the presence of Jade. I felt bad for Ray. He would not have wanted such bad feelings to exist between his children.
Phillip and Elizabeth didn't hang around for the wake, that I put on at the 'Nag's Head'. As I didn't have a license to sell alcohol, I relied on Ray's friends to bring it along. I provided a table for the booze, and some glasses. My staff laid on a great feast in Ray's honour, and a good time was had by one and all.
I just made sure that Jade was coping with everything. Thankfully, Ray's other children hadn’t spread the word about Jade’s gender but to be honest, I didn’t think that any of Ray’s real friends would have mattered. They treated Jade very well for which, I was very thankful, but I felt deep down inside me that the reading of the will the next day would not be so joyful.
I took Jade into Horsham where Ray's solicitor's office was located, the following morning. She'd worn the same black dress and jacket as she had for the funeral. I knew that this was part of her saying goodbye to her father.
There were eight of us present for the reading of the will. Ray’s solicitor, Frank Gerrard, his son Phillip, daughter Elizabeth, a couple of lawyers who were representing Phillip and Elizabeth, Jade and her lawyer, Justin Shaw, and myself. I’d recommended that Jade get her own legal representative. She'd oringinally wanted me to represent her, but I was not a practising lawyer anymore. I’d made a few calls and obtained the services of a good probate lawyer, Justin Shaw, from Guildford to represent her.
Jade had not wanted Justin to represent her mostly because of the cost. She relented when I told her that Ray had given me an envelope full of cash the day, that he went into the hospice for this very thing. I had a letter signed by him and notarised to back it up. Ray was true to form right to the end.
As Mr Gerrard prepared to start reading the will, Elizabeth interrupted him.
“Why is she here?”
The ‘she’ in question was Jade.
“She is not family.”
Mr Gerrard took out two sheets of paper from his file and gave one to each of the lawyers representing Elizabeth and Phillip.
"As you can see, these are the results of a DNA test showing that Ray was Jade's father. That evidence will stand up in court. Ray had duplicate tests carried out at three other labs, and all the results were the same. Two of those labs are used by the Police to perform DNA testing. Is that good enough for you?” said Mr Gerrard quite sternly.
The two lawyers remained impassive as they looked at the results.
“It appears that Jade is the biological daughter of Ray.”
“We refuse to accept this!” said Phillip.
"That is your prerogative, and you may wish to consult your legal representatives about your options after the conclusion of these proceedings. Ray anticipated your objections and took extensive legal advice on the subject before drafting his will.”
No one said anything, so Mr Gerrard began.
"I will skip the legal jargon at the start of the will suffice to say that this will is dated two weeks after the results of the DNA tests came back, and that will be six years ago next month. I will distribute notarized copies of the will to every beneficiary at the end of these proceedings.”
Again, there were no objections, but it was clear that both Phillip and Elizabeth were getting impatient.
“I'll keep this brief and attempt to keep the legalese to a minimum," said Mr Gerrard, who seemed to sense the impatience of some of those present.
"I leave the sum of £10,000 to my son Phillip, and £10,000 to my daughter Elizabeth. That money is to be held in trust for my grandchildren. When they come of age, it should be used for their education or training."
He continued.
"I leave the sum of £10 to my son Phillip and £10 to my daughter Elizabeth. Have a drink on me, and while you sup it, you should think over what you have done to get up my back so much that I even contemplated giving your both nothing. Your persistent attempts to get me to go into a home at my expense have pissed me off, no end."
“What? He could not have said that!” exclaimed Elizabeth.
“I am here today to read what is in front of me. You will be able to verify what I have said for yourself in a few minutes,” said Mr Gerrard.
"I bequeath the remainder of my estate to my daughter Jade. She has shown more respect to me than either of my other children, and importantly, she never asked me for money nor tried to get me to go into a home yet, she would drop everything to help me whenever I needed it. Half of my estate will be held in trust for Jade to complete her transition.”
“Hold on there… What do you mean ‘transition’?” said Elizabeth, her voice almost shrieking.
“I am transgendered. Dad knew this from the beginning and accepted me with open arms. He said that he would be there for me whatever I chose to do. He was certain that he did not want to repeat the same mistakes that he had done with Phillip and Elizabeth. I guess that Phillip neglected to tell you this? He has known for several years.”
Elizabeth started to say something to Phillip but thought better of it. Her eyes told me everything.
Mr Gerrard then said,
“I have a letter here from Ray addressed to you both. I was present when he dictated it so I can summarise the contents. Ray knew that he’d messed up by not being here for the two of you when you were growing up and didn't want to repeat that with Jade. The letter goes into a lot more detail, but essentially, both of you have forged your own lives without him and he wants you to carry on with that. He is proud of you both but wishes that you had not tried to run his life, especially the constant demands for money from Phillip. The interference started almost the moment he left the Services. I know that Ray made his wishes clear to you both. His letters to you of which I have copies, make it clear that he tried to make amends, but was rebuffed every time. Then… one or both of you decided that there was money to be obtained by cosying up to Ray. Again, I have copies of his letters that tell you in no uncertain terms, to take a hike. He uses those very words so please do not accuse me of making things up."
I could tell that Elizabeth was close to exploding.
“Ray was very… I think the modern term was OCD on documenting everything. His years spent in the stores while in the Army probably has a lot to do with that. He documented every penny he spent right up to when he was diagnosed the second time with cancer. He, as it is called, ‘put his affairs in order’ right after that diagnosis. He prepared a package of documentation for Phillip and Elizabeth to have. Every one of his decisions regarding the distribution of his estate is fully documented, and described. Should you decide to challenge his will, then he hoped that there would be no doubt about the intent of his wishes and that you would see that he was very clear about how he wanted his estate handled after his passing."
Mr Gerrard closed his file and reached down to the side of his chair. He picked up two large shopping bags and put them on the table.
"These are your copies of his correspondence and finances. On top, there are certified copies of his will. Please take them and consult with your legal representatives."
He smiled and looked at Phillip, Elizabeth and their lawyers.
Phillip tried to say something but failed.
Elizabeth stood up and said,
"I'm not staying here to be bamboozled like this. You will all be hearing from me, and I promise that it will not be good news!"
She stormed out, leaving her copy of the documents on the table. Phillip followed, carrying the documents. Their lawyers sat and looked at each other. One shook his head. The other nodded. Then they said their goodbyes and made what I thought was a hasty but dignified exit. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they met with their clients outside.
Mr Gerrard sat back smiling.
"I think Ray would be pleased with how that went," he remarked.
Jade had been silent all the time he’d been reading the will.
“What does all this mean for me?” she asked quietly.
[to be continued]
[1] Chanctonbury Ring is an ancient hill fort on the South Downs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanctonbury_Ring
“Young lady, it means that you are pretty well off,” said Mr Gerrard.
He'd been explaining in broad terms the provision that her father had made for her after his death.
Jade looked a bit puzzled.
"Please let me explain. The final numbers are subject to probate and the agreement with the HMRC on Inheritance Tax. That said, there is more than enough cash in your father’s estate for you to finish your studies.”
“What about his house?”
Mr Gerrard smiled.
“How long ago did you come to this country?”
Once again, Jane looked puzzled.
"Almost eight years ago, why?"
“Within a few months of your arrival, your father gave you this house. By that, I mean he transferred ownership of his home to you in trust until you came of age. It is your name on the deeds, and as he survived more than seven years after the gift, it is 100% free of IHT."
“IHT?” asked Jade.
“Inheritance Tax.”
"Ok, you said 'cash'. How much? A guess will do?"
"My educated guess is that after all expenses and taxes, there will be close to £240,000 left."
"I still don't understand? Where did all the money for this come from? I was under the impression that he only had his pension as a source of income? He was always complaining about his pension not being enough to live on?”
I smiled at Jade.
“I might have an answer to that.”
She looked at me with those big doleful eyes. They went like daggers to my heart.
"The pleading poverty was all part of a carefully constructed plan on his part. He wanted to give everyone, myself included, the impression that he was only living on his pension. He confessed it all to me on my second visit to him when he was in St Georges Hospital.”
“Ok, but where did the money come from?”
“We all know that your father gave out racing tips when he came to my café?”
“Yeah. So?”
"When he went home, he would place his bets on horses other than the daily tip. He told me that he'd bet small amounts up to a maximum of £20 on a race and also spread the bets between several online bookies."
I opened my extra-size handbag and pulled out three ledgers.
“These contain the details of every bet he made in the past seven years.”
“How did you get them?”
"When he came home from St Georges, he made me take them for safekeeping. You know that he was afraid of either Phillip or Elizabeth entering the house and taking things. You now know why that was. Everything in the house belongs to you, if I am correct Mr Gerrard?"
“You are perfectly correct. The transfer document specifically includes the contents,” said the lawyer.
"Your father was very successful when it came to the horses. From the totals shown in those ledgers, he averaged over £150,000 a year in winnings. The mortgage that used to help buy the property, was paid off twenty-two years early.”
“So that’s how he was able to pay my tuition fees? All he said was that was something any father would be honoured to do," remarked Jade.
“It appears so,” said Mr Gerrard.
“Aren’t there all sorts of tax liabilities for all that money?” asked Jade.
“There used to be a tax on either your bet or on your winnings, but that was abolished a long time ago," said Mr Gerrard.
"I will declare all his winnings back over the last seven years when I apply for probate, but AFAIK, there will be nothing to pay on them.”
Jade sat motionless for several minutes.
Then she said,
“Dad! What did you do this for? I tried telling you that I could stand on my own two feet.”
"Jade, I got to know your father quite well since he started coming to my Café almost every day. I do know that everything he did in his life had a purpose. Since I found out that he had another daughter, the purpose in his life became clear to me. He doted on you, and wanted you to get the best start in life possible. The lovely young woman that is sitting here today, is in my eyes, clear evidence of that. Be proud of your father because he was proud of you once he told us about you.”
When we walked through the door, the place fell silent. That was to be expected. Jade went and sat at the same table that was her father’s favourite. I took the hint and began to prepare her father’s favourite drink.
I was about to serve it when Sylvia burst in. I wasn’t expecting to see her until I opened up in the morning.
“Come quick! Someone is robbing Ray’s house!”
After a moment of silence, I said,
“Sylvie, call the police right now. Jade, why don’t we go and see what is going on?”
“Are you sure? Won’t it be dangerous?”
"They are doing it in broad daylight, and his nosy neighbour will have been taking copious notes about the whole thing if I know her habits.”
Her expression told me that Jade wasn't convinced by my words .
“We can keep our distance while we wait for the Police to arrive. Ok?”
She nodded her head and stood up.
The forecast afternoon rain had arrived, so we took my car. It would also help us keep our distance and remain unobserved by the thieves.
“That’s Phillip. What is he doing?” asked Jade.
“What he is doing, is stealing your stuff.”
I put the car into gear and drove it right up to Phillip's car that was on the driveway. I parked in a way that trapped his car. Phillip, was going nowhere with any stolen booty.
Phillip came out of the house carrying a painting. I'd seen it hanging in the lounge. I knew that Ray liked it, so I guessed that it had some value even if it was mostly sentimental.
I got out of the car just as Phillip saw that he was blocked in.
“Get out of my way. This is nothing to do with you!” he snarled.
"It does have something to do with me!" said Jade who had just gotten out of the other side of the car.
“Dad left the house and contents to me. You are taking things that don’t belong to you.”
“These are mine by rights. He had no right giving you everything!”
“Phillip!” I said,
“The Police have been called. Just stop this madness.”
Jade had begun taking pictures of what was going on.
Just then, Elizabeth appeared saying,
“What is the problem?”
Then she saw Jade and me.
“You fool!” she shouted at Phillip.
“I told you that we should have done this earlier, but you didn't listen. Now, what are you going to do!"
I tried to stop myself from smiling but failed.
“You can wipe that smirk off your face bitch!”
“Your time will come. Siding with this… this thing over his real flesh and blood,” shouted Elizabeth.
“Jade is his real flesh and blood just as much as you are. DNA does not lie.”
“I don’t give a toss about DN fucking A. Phil and I are Ray’s legitimate heirs not that pretend woman.”
"Keep digging that hole, and you will end up in Australia. I know more about the law than you will ever do. One more comment like that, and I'll make sure that you are charged with a hate crime. Just for your information, I have recorded this whole conversation."
I’d heard the sound of a Police Siren.
“The Police will be here in a minute or two. Time to get your excuses in order because you are going to need them.”
Elizabeth went back into the house with a dark look on her face. Phillip followed her not looking very happy with life in general. It was clear to me who wore the trousers in that relationship.
I went over to where Jade was standing as the Police arrived.
The facts of the case were pretty clear, and Jade with my help made it clear to the Police that she wanted them charged, despite their pleas of 'the window was already broken and that Ray had promised them almost all of the contents.
One of the officers who had attended the scene confirmed that a pane of glass in the back door had been broken, and that was the way they'd gained entry. The photos of the house that I’d taken the previous day were also used to prove the story about the window already being broken was a lie.
Elizabeth and Phillip were likely to be charged with several offences and were spending the night in custody because they had broken a court order that banned them from coming within 100m of Ray’s home.
I pulled up outside Ray's former home so that I could drop Jade off. She didn't get out of the car right away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel like staying there tonight. Can I stay with you?” she said quietly.
Those words caught me by surprise.
“Jade?”
“Alex… Please. I need some company.”
“Of course, you can stay.”
I started the car and reversed it out of the driveway and onto the road. As I engaged first gear, I saw the curtains in Mrs McNeil’s front room twitch. The village gossip machine would be working overtime in the morning.
I chuckled at her pun.
“Jade…” I muttered.
“I know. Dad told me the day before he died,” she replied smiling.
“What, do you know?”
"He said and to quote, ‘Alex has a soft spot for you’. He went on to say that I'd do a lot worse than you, but that you would never make the first move."
“Jade, it has been a long and eventful day. Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”
She laughed.
"I thought that Dad was mad when he said that we should get together , but seeing you today I think I understand what he was hinting at.”
"Jade, please, not here, not now."
“Alex…”
“Thanks for being on my side today.”
Without warning, she came over and gave me a brief kiss on the cheek.
Dawn was breaking when I gave up thrashing myself and got up. I could hear Jade breathing gently in the next room so I got dressed and went out for a run in the hope that it would enable me to think more clearly.
It didn't, and after almost 5 miles, I called it quits and went to the Café. It was still two hours until opening time, so after making myself a cup of tea, I started making some bread. Beating the life out of some dough worked a lot better than pounding the pavements or avoiding the potholes on the Horsham Road.
Two wholemeal loaves were on their second rise when I heard the door to the café open.
“It’s only me!” came a voice.
It was Sylvie. I breathed easier. I’d thought that it might have been Jade.
“You look like death warmed up?” said Sylvie when she came into the kitchen.
I managed a little smile.
“Long day with the Police yesterday?”
“Long night more like. We didn’t get back until past midnight.”
“Well? What happened? Did they nab the thieves?”
“The thieves were Rays' son and daughter, Phillip and Elizabeth. They broke in and were helping themselves. They are going to be charged with theft and B&E plus contempt of court. They might just think differently after a night in the cells.”
“Not good. Not good at all.”
“Yeah, especially when Ray left the house and all the contents to Jade. It is all fully documented and legal. You know how anal he was about things like that.”
"I bet that went down well, but why are you here so early, and by the look of you, you have been out running."
"Yes, mama!"
Sylvie laughed.
“Jade problems?”
I nodded.
“Ray told her that I had some feelings for her and that I’d never make the first move…”
“So, she did?”
“What do you think?”
"Oh, dear. I guess I'll be running the shop today then?"
“If you don’t mind. I need to sort this out.”
Sylvie shook her head.
"That's where you are wrong. Take your time. She is very young and all alone. Be her friend until she decides what she wants to do with her life. If that happens to include running a café in deepest Sussex, then you are all set, aren’t you?”
She laughed.
“I seem to recall you telling me that you didn't know what you wanted to do until a few years after you'd become a Barrister. While some might see that as a mistake, you experienced a part of life that us mere mortals would never see unless we killed someone. To have appeared at the Old Bailey, and not be in the dock is something that many of us would have given our right arms for. You gave that all up for many reasons and came here. You have enriched this community, and for that, we have to be thankful. Why not be her big sister for a while,? Let her make her mistakes but be there for her now that Ray isn’t.”
Sylvie gave me a huge hug.
“Here endeth the sermon for this week. Next week, it is the feeding of the five thousand."
It took me a few seconds to grasp what she was saying.
I looked at the clock.
“We should have opened up ages ago.”
"Are there hordes beating the door down? No, there aren't. I'll open up the stop, and you, my girl, should get off home and talk to the lass. She needs a friend more than anything now."
"Yes, Doctor. There are three loaves in the warming oven that will need putting into the big boy oven in half an hour."
She waved me away with a smile.
Sylvie was right. She usually was in that respect. She'd become the mother I'd never had. Oh, my real one had been there but wasn't. most of the time, she was stoned out of her mind, until a bad batch of coke took her from me.
“Alex,
Thanks for the bed. I need to get the door fixed at home. You know where I am. If I don’t see you today, I’ll be in the café at ‘Rays time’ tomorrow.
Jade
“
I sat down at the kitchen table and wanted to bang my head against the wall. It seemed that Jade had brushed off what had happened less than 12 hours before as if it never happened.
After some more self-flagellation, I went for a shower. That made me feel a lot better.
Much against my normal behaviour, I made some effort with my makeup and even put on a skirt. As I did so, I wondered what Sylvie would say as the song goes, ‘If she could see me now!’. I even eschewed my normal flats and put on a pair of heels. Right away, I knew that I’d pay for it. My feet had once been able to spend all day in 3 or 4inch heels, but since leaving London, I'd hardly worn them at all.
“Sod it!” I muttered out loud as I contemplated reverting to type and putting on some flats but didn’t.
After a final brush of my hair, I left home and began the five-minute walk to Ray's, now Jade's home. A glazier's van was parked in the driveway, so I knew that she was at home.
“Jade,” I called out.
“I’m in the kitchen. Come on through,” came her reply.
I went into the kitchen and saw the glazier at work. He was finishing off smoothing the putty on the new pane of glass. He’d be gone soon.
"Hi, Alex. This is Brian, the Police gave me his name as a reputable glazier.”
Brian smiled at me as he wiped his putty knife on a paper towel.
“That’s me done. I’ll drop a bill in the post. You’ll need it for the insurance claim.”
I could see a brief expression of panic on Jade’s face.
"Thanks, Brian. It was great that you could come out so quickly," said Jade.
“That’s what us emergency glaziers do.”
When Brian had gone, Jade closed the door.
Jade put the kettle on. As she did so, she said,
“I’m sorry for last night. I didn’t quite know what I was doing.”
I smiled.
“I think that both of us were running on fumes.”
"It was quite a day, wasn't it? The Police called a little while ago. Phillip and Elizabeth are going before the magistrate tomorrow. Detective Sergeant Rice said that there is every indication that they will plead guilty to the theft charges but are maintaining their ignorance of any restraining order banning them from coming here.”
“I think Mr Gerrard might have some evidence of them being served with the order.”
“That’s good? Isn’t it?”
I shook my head.
“I get the feeling that neither of them will rest until they get something. To be honest Jade, I think Ray treated them far too badly. It might be worth getting Mr Gerrard to sound out via their solicitors what sort of settlement they’d accept. If there are some particular items that they want, and you don't then it might be good to let them have them as long as they stay away for good.”
“To pay them off?”
"Sort of. A lot of the things that happen behind the scenes in law are give and take and bluffing. If they want everything, then I'd take them to court and put an order on them banning them from interfering with you or taking any other action The existence of a restraining order will make it very hard for them to challenge a broader order.”
“What do you mean by other action?”
“Telling the world via social media that you are trans.”
“I get you. I’ll wait and see what happens tomorrow in court.”
“Good idea,” I replied.
There was a silence between us.
“Jade. About last night at my place. Ray was right I do have feelings for you, but now is not the time or the place to go any farther. I hope you can accept that?"
“Yeah. Sorry about kissing you.”
"I made a lot of mistakes in my life before ending up here and running a café. I think that you need to find your way a bit before even thinking about a relationship with an old hag like me."
Jade chuckled.
“You aren’t an old hag. To be honest, you look pretty good standing here right now.”
“Thanks. I did make a bit of an effort for the first time in months.”
Jade laughed.
“I know. Dad spent hours giving me your innermost secrets and habits.”
“And you weren’t turned off?”
She shook her head.
“No. The opposite. I admire you for giving up the law.”
“What are you going to do now? Are you going back to University?”
"Yeah. I will go back in September. I have my final year to complete, but I don't know what to do then."
“Why not come back here? You have friends here despite Mrs Twitchy curtains.”
Jade chuckled.
"She came around earlier. She wanted to apologize for telling Phillip everything that happened. Seeing him get taken away in handcuffs ... Well it made her change her opinion of me."
“That’s good for you.”
Then I said,
“Fancy going out for lunch? There are a few things that I want to talk to you about?”
Jade hesitated for a few seconds before saying,
“Why not… If you don’t mind waiting while I pretty myself up a bit? After all, I don't want to be outdone by the former old hag, now do I?”
I laughed. There was so much of Ray in her to admire. He’d done well with his second chance at raising a child.
“They both got a one hundred quid fine, doubled for breaking the restraining order, two years probation and costs. I’m not sure what ‘costs’ mean?”
“They pay the costs of the court. I’d guess another couple of hundred.”
“Mr Gerrard has applied to the court for another restraining order under some law or other.”
"Section 5 of the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act I'd expect. If they break that, then they’ll go to jail, not collecting £200, and they are done for. That is to reinforce your wishes to live your life without their interference.”
“I guess that it is over then?”
“It probably does. Spending two nights in a police cell was not what they expected when they broke into your home. I’ve seen that experience sober a lot of people up. All we can hope is that it does the same to them.”
Jade appeared to be a lot happier when we adjourned to a local Pub for lunch. She thanked us for coming to say goodbye to Ray's ashes.
Jade smiled at me as she waited in line to be presented with her degree. She’d come out top of the class as well. I felt so happy for her. She’d worked so hard after resuming her studies the previous September. I was sitting where Ray should have been but wasn’t to be. As Ray had wanted, I’d become a surrogate parent to Jade. I felt so proud to see her decked out in a gown and mortar board. I felt the presence of Ray looking down at his daughter and seeing him smile. Jade had been his second chance at bringing up a child as he would have wanted to. Serving his country had interfered in a big way with his first go. It had been clear that Ray had instilled a lot of self-resilience in her. That was a big plus in my eyes.
I waited for Jade to say her goodbyes to her classmates I thought back to my graduation when I had no one waiting for me. I didn’t even get a ‘well done’ card from my aunt who’d taken me in after my mother had died. She loved the money but had shown me no love at all. I’d been shown the door a week after my 18th birthday. She’d told me by saying, ‘I can’t afford to keep you now. I have let your room to a lodger for £150 a week’. I walked out and never went back.
“You looked so happy there. Ray would have been so proud of you.” I said when she joined me.
"Thanks, Alex. I did this for him. There were times when I nearly didn't come back but… It is what he would have wanted."
“Is everything packed at your digs?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go then and pick everything up. There is a top hotel on Princes Street waiting for us tonight.”
“Really?”
"Yes. If we don't get held up in traffic, there will be time to get dolled up before dinner. I booked us into the hair salon for four thirty.”
Jade looked at me. Slowly a smile spread across her face.
“Thank you.”
“What are your plans now?” I asked Jade between courses.
“Sleep, sleep and more sleep.”
“Then what?”
“I’m going to finish sorting out the house. Maybe even do a bit of decorating.”
“But no job?”
Jade shook her head.
"Only two of the class have jobs to go to, and those are because they have family connections. I’m going to take my time and think about what I want to do.”
“You do know that today marks the end of my promise to Ray?”
She nodded her head.
"I do, and thank you for being there for me since dad died."
I took a deep breath before saying,
“Now that we are agreed on the matter, would you care to dance?”
Jade smiled at me.
"I'd love to, but who is going to lead?"
“I guess that will be me then…” I said as I took her hand.
As we danced, Jade said to me,
“Thank you for being my family.”
"That sounds very past tense?"
“Sorry. Would you like to try being a different sort of family with me?”
It took me a second to grasp what she was asking.
“I think I would. I’m sure we can be a better one than your other relatives.”
As the music changed to a slow number, we came together, and after a few steps, we kissed. This time it was a proper kiss.
[the end]