Ring of Guilt (20 page)

Harvey booked us into the Silent Woman, another Bredeham restaurant. It was less formal than the Two Bays, and the menu less pretentious.

With no vase sharing the table with us, conversation rattled along. In fact, although we'd arrived pretty early in the evening, by the time we got round to leaving, we were amongst the last there. We walked back slowly, hand in hand. All that developed was a pretty nice snog. After a while, Harvey said goodnight, and nipped off to the Two Bays, where he was booked in. But he'd made an interesting suggestion, which got those dratted antennae (see! I could still remember the word!) working again. There was an upmarket auction at a minor stately home the next day, and he thought it might be nice for us to combine business and pleasure and go together.

It would, now I came to think of it. I suppose. Actually, at a sale like that, there wouldn't be much that Tripp and Townend would want, which is why it wasn't in our diary. The booze I'd sunk told me it'd be really pleasant to spend a day with a guy who was nothing to do with bones. Lovely.

And then I wondered how long it would be before he asked me to pull my divvying trick. If he did, it would be curtains for him. If he didn't – well, we would see.

I didn't scream but I only just stopped myself. I was trapped in my van by a fully grown lion, which kept prowling round, trying the doors and shaking the whole thing and its load of valuable china. I don't know whether I was more scared of the lion or by the insurance claim. I knew it was a dream and that you didn't get lions in Bredeham, but when its huge paw changed before my eyes into a skeletal hand, I thought it was time to wake up properly. Eventually Tim the Bear told me it was quite safe for me to drop off again; after all, he said, I needed my beauty sleep to look good for my trip.

Since our van held more than his car, we went in that, with me at the wheel. Having come to Kent specially for the sale, he'd already cased the joint and knew what he wanted to bid for. As you'd expect, he'd also got a top limit for each item. Unlike the house sales we go to, all the bidders were well turned out, as if it was a social event, not a matter of hard business. People were also bidding online and via phone links. All very impressive. Possibly intimidating.

I always have a chip ready to pop on to my shoulder. But if I'd let it out this time, it would have spoiled the day, and I might have missed things I ought to be bidding for – within a tighter budget than Harvey's, of course. So I told myself that Bossingham Hall was altogether more impressive as a building than this, and the contents of the main part of the building were decidedly superior to many of the objets d'art here. But for a piece of paper I might be Lady Evelina, or at least an honourable. I'd never asked my father to explain about titles, for some reason. Anyway, I held my head up high.

I wasn't even on the starting blocks for most of the items but didn't mind watching other people push prices far too high – Harvey included. But my antennae gave a dreadful twitch as he plunged in after a perfect Chelsea gold anchor piece, two mythological characters sharing a plinth, guide price twenty thousand pounds. I gripped his hand tightly and, as he looked at me in alarm, wrote NO on my catalogue.

Up and up the bids went.

He pressed his mouth to my ear. ‘Why not?'

I returned the compliment. ‘I don't know. But I wouldn't touch it at half the price. And certainly not – my goodness, twenty-five thousand pounds! And still rising!'

Since it would be a couple of hours before the next items he wanted came up, he guided me on to the terrace.

‘What was all that about? I had a buyer ready!' I wasn't sure if he was amused or angry. Perhaps he wasn't either. He looked at me closely. ‘Do you know something I don't?'

‘I don't know anything. I just . . .'

Could he have been about to get angry? No, he reached out a finger and stroked my cheek, much as he'd stroked the étui's, come to think of it. ‘Are you sure? I felt you tremble – for a moment I was afraid memories of yesterday had recurred.'

Recurred.
Griff would have liked that. He always gets so worked up when someone says
reoccurred.
He did explain once, but I still don't quite get it.

I hadn't wanted to do this, but perhaps I must.

I looked him straight in the eye. ‘Harvey, did you know I'm a divvy?'

He took a step back. ‘You're what? You mean, you can—?' He dropped his voice, looking around him.

‘You're sure you didn't know? Because I can think of any number of dealers who'd give their teeth to take me to an auction like this.'

‘I genuinely didn't. I promise you.' He grinned. ‘But if you are, I'd like to join that list of possible escorts! Lina, you're full of surprises and I love you more every instant. Let's forget all this and go and have a nice lunch somewhere.'

A man like Harvey use the L word! And throw up a chance to get some really nice pieces with astonishingly low guide prices. I must keep my head. I made a little rocking gesture. ‘A nice lunch and then back here? There's something you haven't marked in your catalogue but I think you might want to bid for after all. And there are a few things at the fag end that might just suit Tripp and Townend.'

‘All sorts of things fetch up in kitchens and attics,' I said, as we paid for our purchases at the end of the day. ‘Things that in less grand houses would be in display cabinets. Those Coalport plates I bought, for instance. I suppose one got chipped and Her Ladyship decided it was time for a nice new set. And that so-called sauce boat – why are folk so mealy mouthed?'

‘Because ladies aren't supposed to want to pee, Lina. Oh, what a delight today has been.'

I thought he was going to kiss me there and then, but he didn't. The man who'd paid twenty-eight thousand pounds for the Chelsea group had come up behind us, and was mocking him for having dropped out of the running so early.

Harvey responded with the sort of Mona Lisa smile that always irritates people.

He waited till we'd taken our purchases to the van. ‘What exactly was wrong with the Chelsea, by the way? The provenance looked good enough.'

‘I don't know. Not exactly. But . . .' I closed my eyes to see it again. ‘One of the arms was the wrong colour. Not by much. But enough to make me think someone like me had been at work.'

A sudden frown. ‘Not you?'

‘You know my policy. And if it had been my work I'd have leapt up and protested – like someone saying a wedding shouldn't take place.' I pulled a face. ‘Wouldn't I have been popular!'

‘In both situations, actually. So it wasn't just your divining instinct?'

‘I honestly don't know how much is that and how much common or garden observation,' I said. ‘I only know I have to go with it. And I also know it never works to order. So I'm not going to make a million on Lotto. And it doesn't work with people.' Perhaps my voice was more sombre than I meant it to be.

He didn't say anything, but took me in his arms, and gave me a wonderful, Hollywood kiss.

As if it were comedy, not romance, my mobile rang. He set me upright and waited while I scanned the display. Will. I despatched him straight to voicemail.

I checked what he'd said a few minutes later as we got into the van: ‘Lina, there's a bit of a problem. Could you pop over and I'll explain?'

Harvey raised an eyebrow. ‘Important?'

‘Could be. Would you mind if I returned the call? It's the policeman I was with when I found the skeleton.'

But it wasn't that that Will wanted to talk about. ‘I'd rather talk face to face, Lina, if you don't mind. Any chance you could come round? Now?'

‘That sounds serious,' I fished.

‘I'll explain when I see you,' he said, and cut the call.

‘Problem?' asked Harvey, who'd been kissing each finger of my spare hand.

‘Will – that's the sergeant who admired your vase – wants me to pop into police headquarters to discuss something,' I said. That sounded as if I might be snubbing him. ‘I don't know what.' That was better. ‘It's pretty well on the way home, so I'd really like to drop in. If you don't mind. Won't take long.'

‘So long as I can take you out to supper tonight. To celebrate not buying the Chelsea piece.'

‘You're on. I'll tell you what I suspect it's about as I drive . . .'

‘You're prepared to give something to the nation, Lina? That's very laudable of you.'

‘I didn't say
give
the rings, Harvey. I said
offer on permanent loan
. Or sell. Once I can get my hands on them, of course. But I have a funny twitch about my antennae. The sort I get when I'm about to divvy something.'

‘You don't sound very happy about it.' He squeezed my hand as I changed gear, but let it go the moment I needed to return it to the wheel.

‘I'm not. It's a very bad vibe. Very bad indeed. Harvey, I have this terrible feeling that something's happened to those rings.'

I
was surprised when Harvey suggested he should stay in the car, but didn't argue when he explained. ‘From what I saw of him last time, young Will is so full of testosterone he might arrest me simply for looking at you.' That was news to me. So was the next sentence. ‘And I have to say, I couldn't be in the same room as you without looking at you. If I stay here, I can keep an eye on our purchases.'

How should I react? Perhaps the sun had got to us both. But being on the receiving end of a bit of adoration didn't seem a big thing. So although Will wasn't there to greet me – he sent a silent underling – I could have sung and danced my way through the security checks. I was arriving at a time when far more people were going home than going into the building, so I saw a lot of faces coming towards me, atop a variety of clothes, from garments that looked like rejects from a charity shop to really snappy suits. If I glanced sideways, I got a lot of profiles. Obvious really.

It might to a stranger seem that the only people I knew were policemen. And I did know three or four pretty well. But apart from Will I didn't know anyone working in Kent Police HQ. So why did I do a double take on one of those faces, whose owner might have been dressed by my father's expensive tailor, heading quickly for the front door? I must have stopped in my tracks, because my escort sighed quite loudly – maybe he was due to leave too and resented every minute wasted guarding me – and nearly grabbed my arm to move me on. He remembered his manners in time, and soon I was in not an anonymous interview room but Will's office, which was as untidy as some of the rooms in Bossingham Hall, complete with tottering piles of cardboard boxes gathering dust. I was surprised he could find anything on that desk.

Will was in mid phone call when I arrived. I shrugged. Why not finish what he needed to say? Meanwhile, I could peer at the photos on the right hand wall; that seemed a lot more tactful than looking at the maps on the others, with pins and arrows suggesting sites subject to Will's scrutiny.

I was looking at a snap of a lovely torc, similar to some I'd seen in the British Museum the day Sir Douggie started all this off, when Will finally cut his call.

‘If anything should be in a museum for everyone to see, this should.' I touched the photo. ‘Did someone really steal this?'

‘They did. And tried to have it melted down for bullion.'

I sat down hard. ‘Something as lovely as that?'

‘Not just lovely, but unique. But there was a happy ending.' After a cheerful smile, he face slipped into something much more sober.

‘But you didn't invite me here to talk about happy endings,' I prompted him, sitting down hard. ‘That skeleton?'

‘Funnily enough, it wasn't to talk about that. It's not my bag. I'm just a witness, like you. But I gather it's still awaiting the attentions of the pathologist. By the way, you won't talk to the press or anyone else about it, will you?'

Was he being furtive or official?

‘It's a bit late to tell me that,' I said, truthfully. ‘Griff knows, and so does another friend of mine. I was a bit upset all round, and they both wanted to know why. But I never mentioned it to the press when I saw it first time round, and I don't suppose I will now. So why am I here?'

He got up and looked out of the window. ‘The problem is . . . well, I can't pretend it's not serious.' He turned to face me but had trouble meeting my eye. ‘Lina, I'm very much afraid we've lost the rings.'

It took me moments to manage to say, ‘
My
rings?' I wanted to say lots of other things, more, but I managed to sit on my hands and take a few breaths. That was what the therapist had said. Well, it didn't take long to work out that I was angry. Disbelief was in there somewhere too. And for some reason I actually wanted to laugh. But I think that might have been to do with anger, too. I said slowly, ‘The rings that are so important to our heritage that Sir Douggie tried to have me arrested for having them. The ones that made Winters hysterical – yes, he was, you know. The ones I was prepared to give to the nation if they were important enough. They fetch up in police headquarters – and they get lost?' I managed not to squeak; I also managed not to swear.

‘That's just about it,' he said. ‘An investigation is under way. And of course, our insurance—'

‘Don't even start about insurance. Investigate. And find the person who stole them. Nail him.' I got to my feet. ‘For God's sake, it shouldn't need me to tell you that.'

‘It didn't . . . I just thought . . . you know, the value . . .'

‘Can't be measured in money. In any case, I don't want the money value. I want those rings. The exact ones. Is that clear?'

‘Absolutely. Look, would you like to talk to the person in charge of the investigation?'