CHAPTER 7 #2
“Originals?”
“No.”
“Where are they now?”
“Sebastian took them.”
“Were they in the ARDEN folder?”
“I don’t know.”
Romy remembered sketches deeper in the file. She had not reviewed every page.
“What did Sebastian say when you gave them to him?”
“That they helped.”
“Anything else?”
“He barely looked at them.”
Romy frowned.
“Why?”
“He was distracted.”
“By what?”
“The Blue Study.”
Leo stopped pretending not to react.
Romy said, “Be precise.”
“He asked whether I had seen Celeste’s room.”
“You had?”
“Earlier in installation week.”
“The panel?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask about it?”
“Immediately.”
“What did he say?”
“He wanted to know where Celeste got it.”
Romy remembered Sebastian standing before the silk.
Who gave you the provenance?
Which dealer?
He had not been asking idle questions.
“He knew Marcus supplied it.”
“Not when I spoke to him.”
“You told him?”
“I told him Celeste had been boasting that Marcus found the finishing piece.”
“Finishing piece?”
“The panel. She said the room didn’t work until Marcus found it.”
Marcus had sourced it through one of his suppliers.
Celeste had said so.
Sebastian had doubted the story immediately.
“What else did he ask?”
“Whether I had ever seen it at Arden Studio.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
“Whether it came from one of your projects?”
“No.”
“Anything about the pattern?”
“Yes.”
Romy leaned forward.
“What?”
“He asked if the border had always been there.”
“What border?”
“The painted border around the main design.”
“The leaves and berries?”
“I suppose.”
“Why would he ask that?”
“I don’t know.”
Romy pictured the silk.
Birds. Curling leaves. Muted blue, ochre, faded red. Tiny holes along one side from an earlier mounting.
The textile itself had looked old.
Not merely decorative.
“Was Sebastian interested in the Celeste accusation during this conversation?”
Sophie gave a strange smile.
“Not really.”
“He was preparing an article that could wreck her career.”
“I know.”
“You had just handed him proof.”
“I know.”
“And he didn’t care?”
“He cared. Just not as much as before.”
“What changed?”
“He had seen the panel.”
The answer settled across the table.
Sebastian entering the Blue Study.
Stopping.
The cruelty leaving his face.
Where did you get this?
Then the public argument with Celeste.
That conflict had looked central because it was loud, ugly, and easy to understand.
Maybe that was the problem.
“What exactly did Sebastian say about the Celeste article?”
“He called it the noisy story.”
“Those words?”
“Yes.”
“And the panel?”
“He didn’t say exactly.”
“What did he say?”
Sophie rubbed one thumb against the other.
“He said the noisy story was useful because everybody would watch Celeste.”
Leo said, “While he looked at something else.”
Sophie nodded.
“Something valuable?” Romy asked.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I asked whether the article was still worth publishing.”
“And?”
“He said, ‘Of course. Noise sells. But this is valuable.’”
Romy sat very still.
“What was he looking at?”
“His phone.”
“What was on it?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Photograph?”
“Maybe.”
“Message?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he mention Marcus?”
“No.”
“A dealer?”
“No.”
“Vivian?”
“No.”
“Celeste?”
“Only to say she probably had no idea what she had put on the wall.”
That landed.
Romy looked at Leo.
If Celeste did not know what she had, then the plagiarism story and the panel story might be separate.
Not proven.
But separate enough to matter.
“Did Sebastian say who supplied it?”
“No. He asked me.”
“Repeatedly?”
“Three times.”
“Why would he think you knew?”
“Because I had worked for Celeste.”
“Did you tell him Marcus?”
“I told him Celeste said Marcus found it.”
Romy stopped.
“You just said you didn’t tell him.”
“I meant I didn’t know independently. I told Sebastian what Celeste had said.”
Important distinction.
Not contradiction.
“What happened after that?”
“He wrote Marcus’s name in his notebook.”
“Black notebook?” Leo asked.
“Yes.”
Romy remembered Sebastian checking that notebook at 6:57 before entering the Blue Study.
“Anything else?”
“He asked if I knew Fenn Found’s suppliers.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did he?”
“I think he knew something.”
“Why?”
“Because after I said Marcus’s name, Sebastian looked pleased.”
Romy remembered him earlier in the Blue Study.
Not pleased then.
Troubled.
By 6:40, perhaps he had begun forming a theory.
“What time did you separate?”
“About six forty-two.”
“Where did Sebastian go?”
“Toward the main landing.”
“Celeste?”
“I saw her downstairs before I went up. I don’t know after.”
Romy rebuilt the sequence.
6:40 to 6:42, Sophie and Sebastian meet.
6:44, Celeste enters the Blue Study alone.
6:48, Adrian accesses the service corridor.
6:52, Marcus approaches with the plate-warmer and felt.
6:57, Sebastian enters after checking his phone and notebook.
7:01, Sophie sees him alive.
7:03, he tells Vivian he has found the real story.
The timeline had not changed.
Its shape had.
“Why did you look into the Blue Study at seven oh-one?”
Sophie’s face tightened.
“I told you. I was crossing the hall.”
“You also knew Sebastian was interested in the panel.”
“Yes.”
“And you had just met him secretly.”
“Yes.”
“So were you checking on him?”
Sophie did not answer.
Romy waited.
“A little.”
Leo leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because he frightened me.”
“With the article?”
“No.”
That surprised Romy.
“With what?”
“With how excited he was.”
Sophie looked between them.
“Sebastian enjoyed having information other people didn’t. Usually it made him smug. That night it made him restless.”
“Restless how?”