A Study in Gold

by Annie Dalton

  She shook her head. ‘I somehow can’t imagine an art restorer stuffing a precious Vermeer up a sooty chimney.’

  ‘Even if she feared for her life?’

  ‘Even if she feared for her life.’

  ‘I’m going to rename our mix-tape.’ Tim sounded comically dejected. ‘I shall call it Tim and Anna’s Lost Cause. I suggest we take Bonnie for a walk around the grounds, then I’ll buy you a nice lunch somewhere to make it up to you.’

  ‘Tim, it could have worked,’ she said. ‘It’s this house. It kills hope!’

  ‘It must have been a seriously creepy school.’ Tim shuddered. ‘Those poor kids.’

  They let themselves out, leaving the oppressive atmosphere behind with mutual relief.

  ‘Before we leave, let’s go and find the maze,’ Tim told her as they set off with Bonnie trotting at their heels.

  ‘I’d forgotten the maze. Anjali put it in her brochure. It was off limits for the weekend for some reason.’

  They were descending the steps passing the koi pond.

  ‘Health and safety,’ Tim said with a grin. ‘Lots of drunk people running around a maze at night! A catastrophe just waiting to happen.’

  Trying not to picture Lili’s lifeless body floating amongst the water-plants that shared her name, Anna didn’t say that the catastrophe had happened regardless. Tim led her to a solid green wall at least seven feet high formed from densely planted box.

  ‘It’s a bit overgrown but Anjali says you can still get through.’

  ‘Get through?’ Anna hoped Tim was joking. ‘You don’t really want us to go into the maze?’

  ‘Yes, I do! I’ll race you to the centre. It’ll be fun!’ Tim had apparently thrown off his disappointment at not finding the Vermeer.

  Anna firmly shook her head. ‘Have you never watched any horror movies? The worst thing you can do is to split up. It always goes hideously wrong.’

  ‘What can go wrong? I told you Anjali went in with her team and they came out just fine. It’s got some bizarre Brothers Grimm folly at the centre. Look, I’ll call “Marco”, and you call “Polo” and then we can’t get lost.’

  ‘Ok,’ Anna said resigned. Tim seemed determined that they were going to have some big sibling bonding experience. She clipped on Bonnie’s lead.

  ‘I’ll be right back,’ Tim told her in a villainous voice and sprinted ahead through the narrow gap between the hedges.

  Anna disliked mazes. She’d never seen the fun in deliberately scaring yourself or playing at being lost, but after last night’s ritual banishing she felt she should give it a try. The maze turned out to be both larger than she’d thought and more complex.

  A couple of minutes elapsed before she heard Tim laughingly calling ‘Marco!’

  ‘Polo!’ she yelled back, feeling slightly less lonely for hearing his voice.

  ‘Marco!’ he yelled again.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re the father of a child. This is an extremely silly game!’ Anna shouted. ‘Also, Polo!’ she added.

  The evergreen bushes gave off a pungent but pleasant smell. The sun came out, turning the overgrown box tunnels a brilliant green. Anna was acquiring painful scratches from pushing in amongst the spiky densely growing twigs. The backs of her hands were covered in dirty green smudges. Bonnie trotted at her side, politely perplexed by this new experience but willing to do whatever her owner required.

  Tim didn’t say Marco, Anna thought suddenly.

  ‘Marco!’ she shouted.

  He didn’t answer.

  She felt a flicker of foreboding. Stupid, because, outside of a Greek myth, what harm could come to someone in a maze?

  ‘Tim, don’t mess around!’ she warned. ‘Tim?’

  No answer.

  ‘Tim! This is not funny! I’m going back to the car!’

  ‘Anna. Get out!’

  She heard a sharp crack. Birds flew up shrieking their alarm.

  ‘Anna run!’ Tim’s voice was an anguished bellow.

  ‘Oh, God,’ Anna whispered. She fumbled for her phone. No reception. She began to run, not back to the car but deeper into the maze, in the direction of Tim’s voice.

  As she ran it seemed to Anna that she was also running through her own nightmares, flying from room to room in their old house in North Oxford, screaming out their names but always, always arriving too late. The Anna who was in the maze ran faster than she’d have thought possible and Bonnie, her fairy-tale wolf, loyally matched her pace. Old scar tissue on Anna’s belly, pain-free for years, started to throb; her body was warning her not to make the same mistakes.

  Panting, she pushed and shoved her way between the hedges and abruptly found herself at the centre of the maze, where someone had built a disturbing, Victorian Gothic interpretation of the witch’s cottage in Hansel and Gretel. Instead of sweets and gingerbread the folly was made from wood that had rotted and sprouted lurid coloured fungi. It was both desolate and faintly obscene. The hairs along Bonnie’s spine were suddenly standing up in stiff bristles. She let out a low feral growl.

  ‘It’s Ok,’ Anna soothed her, knowing it was anything but Ok.

  Bars had been fitted to all the windows. The door, visibly swollen from damp, stood slightly ajar. Anna grasped the doorknob. In her nightmare, she was opening the door of her little sister’s bedroom. Inside she’d see Lottie’s night-light casting fairy-tale shadows: a castle, a unicorn and a princess, the dim light shining on the little bed. Her little sister’s body bloodied and still.

  Anna’s scar throbbed. Her breath caught. She threw her whole weight against the door. It grated briefly against some unseen obstacle then gave way, so that she almost fell inside. The last residue of her nightmare fled, as she saw Tim slumped against the wall, clutching his shoulder, blood pooling beside him. He frantically shook his head but she rushed to him, dropping to her knees, almost sobbing with relief. She’d got here in time. He was still alive.

  The interior of the folly smelled of rot, mushrooms and dank earth. Cobwebs, furry with dirt, hung in filthy swags from the ceiling and the bars of the windows. A slight noise behind her made Anna turn, as she knelt beside her brother.

  ‘You do have the world’s worst timing, Anna,’ Alice Jinks said coolly. She was in fact dressed like a ninja in tight black trousers, short black boots and a black hoodie. In her right hand, she grasped a gun which she was pointing straight at Anna. Under her left arm, she held a cardboard envelope wrapped in plastic. Anna was reluctant to take her eyes off the gun but she was absolutely hypnotised by the envelope. She heard Clara Brunner say: ‘You’d think that painting was under a curse.’

  Alice was watching Anna’s face. ‘Since you’re here, you’ve obviously got it all figured out,’ she said in a bored voice.

  ‘Some of it,’ Anna said. ‘Hush,’ she told Bonnie who was continuing to growl.

  ‘If that dog moves any closer I’ll shoot it,’ Alice warned.

  ‘She won’t,’ Anna promised. ‘She was trained by a marine.’ She couldn’t vouch for what Bonnie would do if Alice tried to harm her, but it seemed smarter to keep this to herself.

  ‘I’d been watching Lili, you see.’ Alice sounded almost chatty, as if she and Anna were resuming a normal, friendly conversation. ‘That night, I saw her leaving her house all done up like Greta Garbo and she was carrying this identical package. Obviously, I knew where she was going.’ She laughed.

  ‘Because you’d been emailing her as Dominic,’ Anna said.

  Alice gave a little huff of surprise. ‘Oh, you figured that out too. You’re one step ahead of the police in that case. But when I caught up with Lili by the pond, she didn’t have it, so I knew she’d hidden it somewhere in Mortmead Hall. I didn’t look in the folly, not then, because it’s such a bloody cliché.’ Alice looked contemptuous. ‘Ralph Scott-Neville had kept it hidden behind his wife’s painting of their folly for years. Or I assume that was the association? Who knows? Everyone at Hempels thought Lili Rossetti was such a genius, but seriously?
I might not have an Oxbridge degree, but I had everyone at Hempels fooled for years!’

  Anna stole a look at Tim who seemed on the verge of passing out. ‘You certainly fooled me,’ she told Alice, faking calm. ‘But I don’t really see how you can get away with it.’

  ‘Very easily!’ Alice seemed suddenly elated. ‘The people I work for are world-class fixers. There’s a plane standing by, right now, waiting to get me and my little girl out of the country. By this time tomorrow, we’ll be starting a new life and Dominic Scott-Neville’s golden life will be let’s say – less golden!’ Her expression was suddenly vicious. ‘He never should have told Lili the Vermeer was hidden behind his mother’s watercolour.’

  ‘Really?’ Anna said. ‘You decided to destroy him just because of that?’

  ‘Of course, not just because of that!’ Alice looked almost offended. ‘I’m not that petty.’ She shot Anna a sly look. ‘You won’t know this, but Dominic and I have a lot in common.’ She gave a cold little laugh. ‘Not too much in common hopefully! Though you never know with Ralph.’

  Anna took a moment to process this disturbing new information.

  ‘You mean, you and Ralph Scott-Neville were—?’ She remembered the photo of two-year-old Poppy and Alice’s protests that she looked nothing at all like her father. Poppy didn’t look like Ralph, in fact, but she did have a striking resemblance to Dominic.

  ‘Ralph always wanted me,’ Alice said flatly. ‘He said there had to be something majorly wrong with me, that made him want me so badly when I was still so young.’ Knowing Alice would angrily reject her pity, Anna tried hard not to react.

  ‘Is Poppy—?’

  ‘Poppy’s one of Ralph’s bastard mistakes, to borrow Ralph’s charming phrase,’ Alice said coolly. ‘He’s got them all over. It’s not like my story is unique or anything.’ She gave another chilly little laugh. ‘Poppy’s the best thing in my life; Ralph Scott-Neville was the worst. I think that’s what you call a paradox.’

  ‘You couldn’t tell your family?’ Anna said. This time Alice’s laugh had an edge of hysteria.

  ‘My family? They thought I was the luckiest girl alive! Ralph was like their golden goose. He had it all: money, status etc. They wanted to keep him sweet, in the hope he’d be useful later and kids like me were disposable.’ For a moment, Alice seemed to be looking somewhere far away. ‘That’s never going to happen to Poppy,’ she said. ‘I’ll do anything it takes to keep that little girl safe. Poppy’s going to have a chance in life. Nothing and nobody’s going to get in my way.’

  ‘Including Dominic,’ Anna said softly. And me and Tim.

  ‘That was a stroke of luck, when Dominic turned up out of the blue,’ Alice said. ‘Hempels was auctioning Mortmead Hall and Dominic – and his stick insect wife – bought it. Naturally I made copies of the keys.’

  Anna noticed her very slightly flexing her shoulders and suspected that Alice’s right arm was cramping. It was an unnatural position to hold for so long. Anna was supple thanks to her martial arts, but she could feel her legs starting to seize up as she continued to crouch protectively beside Tim. Her mind was racing. She suspected that she was dealing with at least two Alices: the ambitious super-bright PA she’d met at Hempels and a deeply damaged, young woman, who appeared to be unravelling before her eyes. Reasoning with her didn’t seem to be an option. Anna could make a grab for Alice’s gun or pull one of her old martial arts moves, maybe knock her out. But, if she screwed-up, if the gun went off in this confined space, Tim could get shot for a second time, possibly fatally. Or Bonnie, she thought.

  Heavy footsteps outside the folly put a stop to all thoughts of heroics.

  A male voice yelled. ‘Did you get it, Alice?’

  ‘Of course, I got it!’ Alice sang out. ‘Just tidying up.’

  ‘Yeah, we heard,’ said another deeper voice. ‘Well, don’t take all day.’

  The footsteps retreated a little way.

  ‘What was I saying?’ Alice asked Anna. ‘Oh, yeah, bloody meddling Dominic and Lili! They dropped me right in it! It’s lucky I’d installed a hidden camera in my office, or I’d never have known for sure who took the painting.’

  ‘Whatever happened to the “Hempels girls”?’ Anna asked her. ‘And: “You and I are both in the family business, Anna”?’ She wasn’t trying to prick Alice’s conscience. It was unlikely Alice could afford one, given her upbringing. She just needed to keep Alice talking, anything to delay that ominous ‘tidying up’.

  ‘Well, as you can see, our family businesses are rather different!’ Alice gave her an amused little smirk. ‘Though, once the dementia kicked in, my granddad kind of rewrote the script.’ She laughed. ‘He ended up thinking he was one of the good guys, even thought he should help David Fischer, bless him! Me, my dad and my uncles let him go right on believing it, when really it was Lionel who inducted me into this life you might say.’ She mimicked her grandfather’s voice. ‘“You watch these people, Alice. You watch and you listen and you learn, my girl. But you don’t never let them know you’re watching and learning, right? You learn everything there is to know about the art world, until you’re able to beat them at their own game …”’ Alice seemed to lose her thread. ‘Poppy’s unusually beautiful, isn’t she?’ she asked abruptly. Her eyes became soft. ‘And sweet, just the sweetest, kindest little kid. Ralph thought Alice was beautiful at first, but there was something badly wrong with her.’

  Anna was aware of Tim shifting position.

  ‘Not a good sign when people start referring to themselves in the third person,’ he muttered under his breath.

  Anna didn’t dare take her eyes off Alice.

  ‘I just don’t see why you had to kill Lili,’ Anna said. ‘What did she ever do to you?’

  ‘Haven’t you been listening?’ Alice demanded. ‘The outfit I work for, it’s massive! My dad, my uncles and me we’re just their foot soldiers. Our bosses aren’t social workers, they’re not forgiving. They don’t hand out second chances! If you screw up, you pay the price! You and everyone you care about.’ Alice stopped, took a shuddering breath, then quickly regained control. ‘When Lili helped herself to that painting, she put my little girl in danger. I couldn’t let her get away with that.’

  ‘That’s why you murdered her?’ Alice’s almost clinical breakdown of her motives left Anna reeling.

  ‘Too right that’s why!’ Alice sounded infuriated. ‘It took us months to set this up. Lili could have ruined everything! Luckily, everyone in the business’ – she gave Anna a twisted little smile – ‘everyone in our business, I should say, knows I always deliver. So I was able to buy myself a few weeks’ grace. No thanks to Lili!’ She added with venom. ‘I don’t think you have the slightest idea how dangerous the people I work for are.’

  Anna remembered Clara Brunner limping out of her house between two expressionless Polizei; the man in the leather jacket watching with cold satisfaction.

  ‘Oh, I think I have,’ Anna said. ‘You read my email to Herr Kirchmann saying we were going to Innsbruck and your people had us followed.’

  Alice shrugged. ‘What did I tell you? World-class fixers.’

  ‘What about David Fischer?’ Anna risked a lightning glance at Tim, who had turned a deathly shade of grey.

  ‘What about him?’ Alice said irritably.

  ‘The fire. Was that you?’

  Alice smiled. ‘Oh, that was down to you. Remember you told me Fischer had compelling evidence in that pathetic little safe? Well, my bosses couldn’t have that getting into the public domain, could they?’

  Anna thought she might be sick. She had led Alice straight to David. Don’t think about it now, she told herself fiercely. Concentrate on saving Tim.

  ‘It’s so funny that you turned up here today,’ Alice said conversationally. ‘This was the first opportunity I’ve had to get back to Mortmead, what with waiting for the heat to die down after, you know, Lili, plus waiting for the police to pick up on our trail about Dominic. Not to menti
on Alexei watching me like a hawk. I knew they were on to me at Hempels, even before they fired me. It’s just bad timing, like I said, that you guys happened along on the same morning.’

  Anna had a sudden chilling epiphany. ‘Your bosses,’ she said, struggling to keep her voice even. ‘Are they the same people who murdered my—’

  Alice’s mood darkened again in a flash. ‘Oh, for pity’s sake!’ she almost spat. ‘You and your fucking, middle-class problems, seriously! You have no clue, do you? That bloody boohoo story of yours is getting so stale! That had absolutely nothing to do with my people. Things happen, Anna! Haven’t you realized that yet! Totally disgusting things happen every day. People get murdered and nobody knows why. It’s a disgusting world. Life is disgusting and death is never deep and meaningful. Just get over it, why don’t you!’

  Anna heard returning footsteps.

  ‘You do know time’s ticking, don’t you?’ Someone yelled from outside.

  ‘Almost done!’ Alice called cheerfully. Either Alice’s thugs were unusually nervous around firearms, or, more likely, they were nervous of Alice.

  ‘Hey, Baz! Hold this for me, will you?’ Keeping the gun trained on Anna, Alice passed the package out through the door. She gave a careless glance around the dismal, cob-webbed interior of the folly. ‘I was hoping to do those battered wives a favour by burning down the whole of Mortmead Hall. Oh, well, whatever.’ She gave an enigmatic shrug and backed out through the door. With some difficulty, Alice managed to force the rain-swollen door to close and then Anna heard the unmistakable sound of a key turning in the lock: Naturally I made copies.

  Anna dropped Bonnie’s lead and rushed to Tim. She tore off her scarf and made a clumsy attempt to bind his wound. Why had she wasted all those years practising martial arts instead of learning first aid?

  ‘Anna and Tim’s awfully big adventure,’ Tim tried to joke through white lips. ‘Who knew it would be our last!’

  ‘Don’t be stupid. I’m not losing you now,’ Anna told him fiercely. ‘We’re getting out of this. Alice could have shot us but, bizarrely, she didn’t.’ Then she smelled the sharp tang of petrol, followed by the noxious reek of scorching, chemically-treated wood, and belatedly understood Alice’s enigmatic farewell: ‘Oh, well, whatever.’ Denied the drama of setting fire to Mortmead Hall, Alice had opted for the smaller satisfaction of burning down the folly, with Tim and Anna inside.