I'm sure at some stage we will need to look back on all this and compare notes so I'm going to ignore your cliff-hanger for now and simply put down the information I found whilst it is fresh in my mind.
I had decided to have a quick look-see at the bottom of the garden and that small building. From a distance it looked as if it may be a garage but I couldn't see any tracks going up to it so it seemed worthy of further investigation.
The keys to the house had a front and back door key and a third one. You thought it might be for a garage so I had taken the liberty of taking the keys with me.
Before I got as far as the trees a man's voice called out a greeting and when I turned around I could see a gentleman, possibly in his 80's, peeking over the fencing on the left side of the garden. He called me over and it seemed rude not to so I went over.
He introduced himself but let me call him Neighbour Chet. He had noticed us pull up and as there had been no-one at the house for many years was curious who we were. I tried to do that thing that you do where you give very little information out but seem to get an awful lot of information in return regardless. I'm not very good at it so I'm afraid I did mention that you had recently inherited the property.
Neighbour Chet had lived in his house for 50 years and more and remembered the last family who had lived in the house. Before he told me about them he wanted to know whether we (but actually more accurately you) were close to the family. I told him that you had not known about the house until the attorney had shown you the will so I was sure that anything he could tell us would be very welcome. We weren't even sure who had lived there since your family were from New York.
That opened a floodgate of information and opinion and speculation.
The last family that had lived at that house had not been the best of neighbours. Chet wasn't sure what they did for a living but he felt sure it wasn't legal. There would be comings and goings at all time of the day and night. The main residents were a young couple which, from the names he gave me, and from the press cuttings, I worked out was your gramps and your gran. They just had the one child; a boy (presumably your father). He didn't see much of him when he was small but as he got older he would often see him playing by himself in the garden.
Not long after they had moved in they were joined by a younger man. He thought it was a relative but not sure whose. On reflection he thought that it might be a relative of your gramps as he would often see them both together. Your gramps he thought looked after the younger man who he said was a bit simple and child-like.
Whilst they lived there there would be cars arriving at all times of the day and night. Slamming doors, loud voices, shouting, etc. He tried to stay out of their way and didn't want to know what was going on but he was concerned over the boy. He wasn't sure if he went to school or not. He would often see him at times of the day when you might expect a child to be in school but he wasn't going to tell the authorities. He didn't want any trouble with the parents. He had never seen any violence but he was sure that they were not the kind of people to be messed with. I asked about your gran as I had the impression of her being the weaker person in the relationship with your gramps.
I'm not sure I want to repeat exactly what he said about her but it was not good. In his view she definitely wore the trousers in that relationship. He would hear her ordering the men around, particularly your gramps, and he thought that she was not at all happy that the younger man was staying under their roof. As for your father, in his view she didn't seem to have any time for him at all.
The younger relative eventually left. At least Neighbour Chet didn't see him around the place any more. At that point the arguments between the couple got worse and it was getting to a point where he thought that he definitely should mention it to someone. The boy was now in his early teens and would often be seen with bruises though Chet did not want to speculate how and was certainly not suggesting that the parents abused him.
And then they were gone. A large van had come to remove furniture and that was that. No-one to his knowledge had been to the house until of course he had seen us arrive.
It is Neighbour Chet who has been cutting the lawns by the way. He thought that if the place started to look like a scruffy old house then it might attract the wrong kind of people. So he has been doing his best to keep the outside tidy at least.
Oh and one thing he did mention. The younger man, presumably your great-uncle, had a pronounced limp which Neighbour Chet said was as a result of him having a false leg.
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