This is going to be a long post! But it’s a true story
When we were looking to buy a house in Bulgaria, we decided to look for a rental over the summer of 2001 to give us a base to do the house hunting. We couldn’t find anything in our Budget but as we were looking at one house for sale (which wasn’t for us) the owner said she might know somebody willing to rent a house in Shumen. Our interest peaked we gave the owner a call. she said she had inherited a house from somebody who had died recently and we could stay there over the summer if we did some maintenance, got the pool cleaned out and garden sorted.
Next day we met the “owner” who immediately seemed very odd. Talking (in perfect English) at a thousand miles an hour about weird stuff to do with her and the English owner who had died.
Anyway, she took us to the house which we thought would be a run-down shack, fuck me it was a beautiful Villa set in its own grounds with an indoor heated pool 7 bedrooms security system etc. We were gobsmacked! It turned out that Olga (not her real name) was Brian’s “fixer”. Which means glorified translator and assistant. She dealt with all his admin stuff including his bank accounts and Legal stuff. She had unlimited access to his personal paperwork and crucially had a key to his safe.
She then proceeded to tell us the history of “Brian” , the owner and the house.
Brian, it turned out was a bit of a “lad”. Early 70s but fit as a butcher’s dog, Ex-Military Officer in the RAF and an ex Concord test pilot Well travelled, well read and a published Author but absolutely no Family. Avid cook and always hosting dinner parties for the Locals Brian had dropped dead out of the Blue a week before Christmas the day after he had hosted a dinner party for about 12 guests,including Olga and her husband, one week after he had returned from Indonesia after a 3-week holiday (more of this later)
Olga then proceeded to tell us that Brian was in love with her and would have done anything for her, she isn’t really a looker, not at all stunning a bit podgy but large breasts and low-cut blouses short skirts, very flirty oh and a husband connected to the local Bulgarian Mafia. She proceeded to bring out photo albums that belonged to Brian, filled with photos of her. Bizarrely ONLY of her in various poses but none of her together with Brian. “he loved me and he left everything to me, i was a bit embarrassed as I’m married, But I’m waiting for the will it’s in probate in England, Some trollop from Asia is contesting the will. She’s a goal digger who Brian met on Holiday. She is trying fucking take everything from me!”
I then mentioned that coincidently I am waiting for my inheritance from my late father, but its straight forward, me and my brother got left a house.
Her ears pricked up at this and she started to ask REALLY awkward questions, like how much was the house worth, how long since the will was read, when will we get the money, is anybody contesting it. Could we give her the name of our lawyer etc. We started to think not was all as it seemed.
Now it was apparent that Brian had Ultra OCD everything had its place, Even the cans of food in the Cupboards were arranged alphabetically, clocks in every room, a huge board with about 50 colour coded keys on (copies for every lock in the house) I was working remotely at the time and Olga kindly let me use Brian’s office and his computer.
His office was meticulous, files for everything, bills, pension shit saved invoices for everything. All filed away either chronologically or alphabetically. I reckon you could have asked him for a petrol bill from the 3rd April 2015 and he would find it in under 5 seconds.
Olga told us the Story of when Brian died, He had come back from Indonesia looking a bit pale the week before and Olga suspected he had food poisoning. He wasn’t well but decided to go ahead with the Christmas party anyway. Olga went early to help Brian with the food. He seemed a little better and the party was a success. Everybody left around 2 am. The following Day Olga and her friend (A Scottish woman called Chris who was the cleaner) Went round to clean up after the party. They found Brian dead in his bed. Ambulance was called but it was too late. No cause of death was given, just natural causes.
Olga then told us she was convinced that the mysterious ting tong had poisoned Brian while he was in Indonesia to get his money, and was contesting his will saying Brian had left HER everything
Olga then said something really weird, she said she knew Brian had a will and it was in his safe, but when she went to look for it on the day he died, it was missing. All of his important documents, passport, Birth certificate etc was there but no will. Chris the cleaner then told us “But then when I was cleaning his office a week later and throwing out his rubbish, I found the will hidden among some old receipts in a drawer in his desk”. He had left everything to Olga. His house, his money, his car everything. Worth about half a million at least. What a stroke of luck for Olga!
I asked Olga what she was going to do with the house as we might be interested in buying. “Oh no I could never sell it; Brian would not approve and it’s his legacy it’s something for me to remember him by”
Me and the missus then started to suspect the story had more holes than Swiss cheese, there was no way in a million years that Brian had “misplaced” his will. None nada not a chance. So, I started to dig. I had access to his computer and his office, Olga thought she had cleaned the computer of everything important, but she had forgotten his chrome search history and one of his email accounts. plus I’m a bit handy at retrieving “deleted” files its not difficult with the right tools.
It turns out the mysterious ting tong was a long-term Girlfriend who he had met over 15 years previously. She had visited Brian multiple times and he went over there at least 3 times a year. They were 100% in a genuine relationship and were planning to get married. Brian had even written a novel about it, how an ex RAF officer had met a beautiful mysterious dark skinned woman on a cruise ship and fell haplessly in love, it was an erotic novel and was plainly about their relationship, I read it as there were boxes of the books piled up in his garage.
According to his search history from November just before he died, he was planning on selling up and buying a place in Indonesia after numerous failed attempts (“aided” by Olga) to get residency for his girlfriend in Bulgaria. In fact, he had listed the house for sale just before his trip before Christmas. We found the advert by coincidence while we were looking for our own house. The trip was actually a house hunting trip with him and his Fiancé (yes, they were also in the middle of planning a wedding for the following year)
We were now feeling a little uncomfortable to say the least. The final straw was we went out for a meal with Olga, we told her that we had mice in the house, they were getting in from a log shed next door. Without batting an eyelid, she just said “oh there is some rat poison in the garage just use that” Fuck me.
There are so many things which just didn’t add up, From the will, to the house being up for sale to the poor woman in Indonesia who was being cheated out of her rightful inheritance.
We stayed at the house over the summer and debated whether to inform the police, but she had so many contacts not only in the police but the local Mayor was her best friend and her husband knew some very unsavoury people. I recking we would be swimming with the fishes if she thought we suspected anything.
This was 3 years ago and I still feel terrible guilt about not confronting “Olga” about Brian. But what good would it do now? Brian was cremated, he had no blood family and I think it would be very difficult to prove anything?
Bonkers.