The plot THICKENS

One bright morning during the school holidays, a history teacher called Emma Travers received a rather unusual letter.

Mr Jason Jellicoe, junior partner of Jellicoe, Pratt, & Jellicoe, respectfully invited Miss Travers to call at his office, in a market town some 25 miles away. Here, the letter continued, you will receive some news regarding the estate of your late father, which will be to your advantage.

This letter was a surprise in two ways. First, Emma didn’t know that solicitors really wrote things like you will receive some news, which will be to your advantage. At least, not outside Agatha Christie novels. Second, she had no idea that her father had died.

To Emma, he was a distant childhood memory. He left home when she was three years old and, four years later, her mother remarried, rarely mentioning Emma’s father except to say he was a bit of a rogue and somewhat unreliable.

The solicitor’s office did not disappoint. Red brick and solid Georgian, it was exactly the sort of place that would contain news to somebody’s advantage.

Mr Jason, as the receptionist called him, was a ruddy-faced young man who looked more like the organiser of a Young Farmers’ annual dinner than a