Daily Casefile · Detective
The Altered Appraisal at Fenwick & Holt
≈ 4 min
The Harcastle estate's contents are being valued today at Fenwick & Holt, a narrow shopfront on Bramble Lane stuffed with porcelain, silverware, and oil paintings on temporary loan. At closing time, estate solicitor Ruth Harcastle discovers that the official valuation worksheet — a handwritten carbon-copy form, ink still fresh — shows the 1887 Meissen porcelain tea service appraised at £480, not the £4,800 the lead appraiser says he recorded. Someone has scratched out a zero on the carbon copy kept in the shop's valuation folder, quietly deflating the price before the estate settlement is signed.
Subject
Ruth Harcastle
Solicitor managing the Harcastle estate, meticulous about paperwork, holding the original top-sheet valuation that still reads £4,800 — making the altered carbon copy immediately obvious when the two are compared.
The suspects
- Geoffrey Pell — Junior appraiser, Fenwick & Holt
- Miriam Osei — Estate inventory agent hired by the Harcastle family
- Neville Croft — Antique dealer, prospective buyer of the Meissen service
- Leonard Ashby — Lead appraiser and shop co-owner, Fenwick & Holt
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This case first aired on July 19, 2026. A fresh detective runs every morning — same rules, five minutes, one solution.