Page 4 of Blood Ties

I pulled on a cream jumper, black trousers and boots, then carried my laptop to the small dining table. Edith’s metal box sat beside it. I’d kept the old key inside my handbag during the journey home, wrapped in her letter and as far from my skin as the bag allowed.

It had stayed quiet.

That didn’t make the movement in Arthur’s office less real.

I opened the first attachment.

The property records were exactly as Arthur had described. Edith had owned Harrowmere outright for more than fifty years. The title showed no mortgage, lease or registered occupant. A separate account covered insurance, utilities, security and maintenance. Nothing had been transferred to me before her death, and nothing connected my name to the house until the new will was filed.

The clean paperwork bothered me more than a mess would have.

People hid things by making records disappear. Edith had preserved every payment while making the property itself disappear from our lives.

I sorted the files by date and opened the maintenance reports.

The same company had looked after Harrowmere for fourteen years. Its staff cut the grass, cleared gutters, inspected the roof and tested the alarm from the entrance hall. Each report included photographs of the grounds and the front of the house. The exterior barely changed between seasons. Ivy was trimmed before it reached the windows. Loose tiles were replaced within days. Gravel on the drive was levelled twice a year.

The house might have been empty, but Edith had never allowed it to look abandoned.

Interior inspection restricted by owner instruction appeared on every report.

I opened the most recent one. The contractor had entered the front hall eleven days ago, tested the alarm and confirmed that the heating was working. The attached photograph showed a polished floor, a narrow table and a vase without flowers. Every internal door visible in the picture was closed.

Edith’s signed declaration followed it. She confirmed that she had inspected the rest of the house herself and found no damage requiring repair.

The date was six months ago.

I read her signature twice. Her hand had shaken badly by then, but it was hers. I’d watched her sign enough hospital forms to recognise the way the final stroke cut through the bottom of the name.

She couldn’t have crossed my flat without stopping to rest. Harrowmere had two main floors, an attic and enough corridors to require a floor plan. She hadn’t inspected it alone.

That left help she’d hidden from me or a declaration she’d signed without checking.

Neither fitted comfortably.

I moved to the utility statements. The water use was low and steady. Electricity rose every winter, along with payments for heating oil. The figures were reasonable for protecting a large building from damp, although the house used more power than the alarm and a few timed lamps required.

Someone had wanted it warm.

The alarm records gave me less. Contractors used their own code during scheduled visits. Edith’s code hadn’t been entered for almost three years. No other authorised user appeared on the list.

I checked the system notes. The alarm covered external doors, ground-floor windows and the estate office. Most of the interior wasn’t monitored.

That was a useful arrangement if someone wanted to live inside a supposedly empty house.

I called the maintenance company.

The woman who answered transferred me to the supervisor responsible for Harrowmere. I gave him the reference number from the report and explained that I was Edith’s granddaughter. His voice softened when I told him she’d died, but he answered my questions without making me fight for them.

“When your staff went inside eleven days ago, did they see any evidence that someone had been living there?”

“No. We only use the entrance hall and the estate office when there’s paperwork to collect. We don’t have keys for the other rooms.”

“The report says the heating was working. How did they check it without going farther?”

“There’s a radiator in the hall, and the boiler sends a status report to our office. Mrs Ellison wanted the temperature kept stable.”

“Did she ever meet your staff at the property?”