After Simpson had done some architectural measuring with a tape I knew that beyond that door was not merely a safe but a sizeable room, big enough to swing a kitten in, if not a cat. Now, any man who would put a door like that as entrance to a room would be sure to take other precautions. The walls, floor and ceiling would be very thick concrete, well reinforced with toughened steel, and the whole package would weigh a lot even when empty. It was on the second floor which meant that a special underpinning structure must have been built to support it. I made a note to look up Ashton's architect. When the vault door was shown to Penny she was as surprised as anyone. She had never suspected its existence. All this doesn't mean that I was prowling about the house personally knocking on walls. I left that to the boys and only inspected the results when they came in. I supervised the search of Ashton's study in Penny's presence, then settled down to talk to her because I assumed she would know more about her father than anyone else. 'Benson,' I said. 'How long have you known Benson?' She looked surprised. 'He's always been around.'
'That's a long time. How long is always?' 'Always is always, Malcolm.
I can't remember a time when there wasn't Benson.' 'As long as that?
Twenty-five or twenty-six years?' Penny smiled. 'Longer than that. He was with Daddy before I was born.' 'Always is a long time,' I agreed.
'He does the faithful family retainer bit very well, I must say. But he's more than that, isn't he?' She crinkled her brow. 'I don't know.
That's difficult to assess. When a man had been with a family as long as Benson he tends to become regarded as more of a friend than a servant.' 'To the extent that your father would share a bottle of whisky with him?' 'I don't think he ever did that.' 'He did on Sunday night,' I observed. 'Has Benson always been a personal servant to your father?' She thought for a moment. 'We moved into the house in 1961-I was twelve then. It was then Benson moved in here as Daddy's valet and dogsbody. Before that we had a house in Slough; just a little one, nothing as grand as this. Benson worked in one of Daddy's factories, but he visited the house quite often-at least once a week.' She smiled. 'He was one of our favourites. He used to bring us sweets-forbidden fruit because Daddy didn't like us to eat too many sweets. Benson used to smuggle them to us.' 'What was Benson doing in the factory?' 'I don't know. I was only a little girl.' 'When did your mother die, Penny?' 'When I was four.' I thought that was bad luck on Ashton, having to bring up two small daughters. S till, he hadn't made a bad job of it. It seemed he didn't make a bad job of anything. I said, 'Do you know how your father got started? I mean, how did he start in business? Did he have inherited money, for instance?' She shook her head vigorously. 'Daddy never talked much about his early life but I know he didn't inherit anything because he was an orphan brought up in a foundling home. He was in the army during the war and when he came out he met my grandfather and they set up in business together. They didn't have much money at the time, so my grandfather said before he died. He said Daddy's brains made it a success.' 'What was he in the army?' I asked idly. 'Just a private.' That surprised me. Ashton would have been twenty-six or twenty-seven when he was demobbed and it was strange that a man of his drive and character should still have been a private soldier. Perhaps his army record would bear looking into. 'Did your father ever carry a gun?' She misunderstood me. 'He did rough shooting at times, but not often.' 'I don't mean a shotgun. I mean a revolver or automatic pistol.' 'Lord, no! He hasn't got such a thing.' 'Would you know?' 'Of course I would.' 'You didn't know about that strong room upstairs.' She was silent and bit her lip, then said, 'You think he's armed?' I was saved from answering that because Larry popped his head around the door.
'Can I have a word, Malcolm?' I nodded and joined him in the hall. He said, 'Gillian Ashton's rooms are clean, nothing there of' consequence. I read her diaries; she seems to live a quiet, upper-middle-class life-theatre, ballet, opera and so on. She reads a lot, too.' 'Not any more. Any liaisons?' 'Nothing very strong; a string of men who appeared one at a time and then petered out after a while.' He grinned. 'No mysterious assignations with people referred to by only their initials, nothing like that.' 'What about Penny's rooms? Have you checked there?' Larry looked at me a bit queerly. 'But I thought…' 'I don't care what you thought,' I said evenly. 'Do it.' 'Okay.' He went downstairs again, and I thought that young Larry still had a lot to learn. I was about to return to the study when Michaelis came through the hall. I said, 'Found anything?' 'Nothing for us. But in an attic there's the damnedest thing-the biggest model railway set-up I've seen in my life.' 'Model railway!' I said incredulously. 'It's a real enthusiast's job,' he said. 'I'm a bit keen, myself, but I've never seen anything like this. There must be over a mile of HO-gauge track up there-it's like a bloody spider web.
You'd have to do some smart scheduling to keep that lot running smoothly.' It was a facet of Ashton I wouldn't have dreamed of, but it didn't have a thing to do with the matter at hand. I dismissed it.
'Where's Jack Brent?' 'Giving the out buildings a going over-the garages and stables.' 'Tell him I want to see him when he's finished.'
I went back into the study and thought it was time to try to find Ogilvie again. I'd been ringing every hour on the hour but each time he'd been out of the office so I'd passed my stuff on to Harrison. I put my hand out to dial again but the telephone shrilled before I got there. It was Ogilvie. 'What have you got?' he said abruptly. 'I've passed it all to Harrison. Have you spoken to him?' 'No. As you may have gathered the balloon went up on schedule and I've been busy the last few hours. Give me the gist of it.' 'We've got a bloody big vault here,' I said. 'Not a safe, but a professional bank vault. We'll need experts to open it, and it'll probably take them a week.' 'It had better not,' said Ogilvie. 'You'll have them within the hour. What else?' 'I'd like some boffins-electronic and chemical. There's a cellar full of scientific stuff to look at. And you'd better send someone competent in computers.' I grinned. 'And maybe a model railway expert.' 'What's that?' he barked. 'Ashton has a model railway layout in his attic. I haven't seen it but I'm told it's quite something.'
'This is no time to be funny,' said Ogilvie acidly. 'What else?' 'Damn all. Nothing of use to us.' 'Keep looking,' he said sharply. 'A man can't live fifteen years in a house and not leave something of his personality lying around. There'll be some indication of where he's gone.' He thought for a moment. 'But I want you back here. Put someone else in charge.' 'That'll be Gregory,' I said. 'I still have a few things to wrap up-I'll be back in two hours.' I rang off and said to Penny, 'Well, that's it, love. The boss wants me back.' She said, 'Just before you went out you said something about Daddy having a gun.
What did you mean?' 'He's armed,' I said. She shook her head disbelievingly but, since so many strange things had occurred that day, she could not combat my statement. 'And will you find him?' 'Oh, we'll find him. What's worrying me is that perhaps someone else is looking for him who will find him first. And the hell of it is we aren't sure, one way or another.' Brent came in. 'You want me?' I waved him out and joined him in the hall. As I stripped off my jacket I said, 'Find anything?' 'Nothing.' I unhitched the shoulder-holster from under my left armpit. 'Take this; you might need it.' I waited until he'd put it on, then took him into the study. 'Penny, this is Jack Brent;, he's your guardian angel from now on. He sticks with you everywhere you go, excepting the loo and the bedroom-and he inspects those first.' Penny looked at me as though she suspected me of joking.