CHAPTER 12 #2
“Sebastian wrote that phrase down,” Romy said. “Full provenance, not sales story.”
Marcus gave nothing away.
“I cannot help what Sebastian wrote.”
“Could he have heard the phrase from you?”
“No.”
“Did he ask for the full file?”
“No.”
“Did he contact Ruth?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you?”
“Not after the purchase.”
Ellis stepped in.
“That will do.”
Marcus leaned back.
“Gladly.”
Ruth Mallory arrived after lunch.
She came without a solicitor, which surprised Romy. Everything else looked careful: neat grey suit, low shoes, short silver-blond hair, a leather document case without a visible logo.
She shook Ellis’s hand, nodded to Romy, and sat.
“You reviewed the Mercer estate panel,” Ellis said.
“Yes.”
“What exactly were you hired to determine?”
“Whether the object was consistent with the seller’s description and whether the supplied documentation contained obvious internal problems.”
“Did it?”
“Not obvious ones.”
Romy opened Ruth’s report.
“You wrote there was no independent chain prior to the estate.”
Ruth looked at her.
“That is not an internal problem. It is an absence.”
“Large absence.”
“Many privately owned decorative objects have incomplete histories.”
“Did Marcus ask you to fill it?”
“No.”
“Did you try?”
“My brief was limited.”
“To what?”
“Reviewing the supplied documents and object photographs.”
“Not title research.”
“No.”
“Not Halden House.”
“I had never heard a Halden connection mentioned.”
“Not auction databases?”
“I checked the obvious commercial references.”
“Did you search architectural photography?”
Ruth’s expression tightened slightly.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because nobody asked me to prove where the object had not been.”
“That is a strange way to phrase it.”
“It is the practical one.”
Ellis watched them.
Ruth continued.
“My report was not a full provenance investigation. I made that clear.”
Romy tapped the last page.
“You also wrote that the new backing prevented assessment of older labels or mounts.”
“Yes.”
“Did that concern you?”
“It interested me.”
“Difference?”
“A new backing can be completely innocent.”
“So can missing paperwork.”
“Yes.”
“Together?”
“Still not proof of misconduct.”
Romy liked the answer despite herself. It sounded like Anika.
Material before theory.
But Ruth’s defensiveness had arrived before accusation.
“Did you ask who replaced the backing?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It fell outside my instruction.”
“Convenient.”
Ruth’s eyes sharpened.
“No. Limited.”
Ellis said, “Ms. Mallory, who paid you?”
“Fenn Found.”
“Directly?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Ruth named an ordinary fee.
“Did Marcus pressure you to give a particular conclusion?”
“No.”
“Ask you to remove anything?”
“No.”
“Ask you to describe the ownership as long-held?”
“No.”
“Did you approve that phrase?”
Ruth paused.
“No.”
Romy looked at Marcus’s file.
“The catalogue wording was not Ruth’s.”
Marcus, seated at the far end of the room, said, “Nobody claimed it was.”
Ruth turned toward him.
“You told the Show House committee I had reviewed the history.”
“I said you reviewed the documentation.”
“That distinction appears to have become blurry in public.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Not comfortable allies, then.
Ruth looked back at Ellis.
“If I had seen the 1997 photograph, my report would have been different.”
“How?”
“I would have flagged the stated history as incompatible with documented prior ownership.”
“Would you have advised against purchase?”
“Not necessarily.”
Romy frowned.
“Why?”
“Because an object can pass legitimately through undocumented private hands.”
“Even after Halden?”
“Yes.”
“But you would have demanded the missing link.”
“I would have asked for it.”
“From whom?”
“The estate intermediary.”
“Name?”
Ruth glanced at Marcus.
He answered.
“Peter Vale.”
Ellis wrote it down.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Current address?”
“In the file.”
The panel had accumulated owners the way old houses accumulated repairs. Each layer made the original structure harder to see.
By three, Romy’s head hurt.
Leo brought tea without interrupting and set it beside her.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Ruth watched them.
“Your assistant?”
“Placement.”
Leo said, “Assistant.”
Romy nearly smiled.
Ruth looked at his archive index.
“You have neat notes.”
“Thank you,” Leo said.
“Rare quality.”
“Do not encourage him,” Romy said.
The room softened for thirty seconds.
Then Nell Ashby arrived and asked to speak privately.
Ellis refused the privacy but allowed her to move into the adjoining site office.
Romy followed.
Nell closed the door as far as the officer permitted.
“This is getting worse.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus says the catalogue description is being treated like deliberate fraud.”
“It is being tested against a documented 1997 history that contradicts it.”
Nell sat.
“I didn’t know.”
“About Halden?”
“About any of it.”
“Did you ask where the panel came from?”
“Marcus told us.”
“Did you verify?”
Nell looked pained.
“Romy.”
“That means no.”
“We had dozens of objects.”
“This one was a headline piece.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it photographed beautifully.”
“That is not enough.”
Nell looked toward the door.
“Because Marcus was paying for half the opening weekend.”
Romy stopped.
There it was.
Not murder. Money. Simple and ugly.
“How much?”
Nell named a sponsorship figure large enough to explain several committee decisions.
“Fenn Found was essential.”
“Yes.”
“So when Marcus offered the panel as a centerpiece, nobody wanted to irritate him.”
“That is unfair.”
“Is it?”
“We had no reason to doubt him.”
“You had Ruth Mallory’s report saying there was no independent ownership chain.”
“I never saw Ruth’s report.”
Romy stared.
“Who did?”
“Daniel may have.”
“Vivian?”
“Possibly the short summary.”
“And the catalogue?”
“Marcus’s team supplied the wording.”
“You accepted it.”
“Yes.”
“Because of sponsorship.”
Nell’s composure cracked.
“Because if Marcus withdrew, we might have had to cancel two rooms and cut the education programme.”
Romy looked at her.
Nell was not lying.
That was almost worse.
The compromise had felt practical, not corrupt. A polished sponsor. A beautiful object. A respectable consultant. No obvious reason to demand more.
People rarely called decisions dangerous at the time. They called them necessary.
“I did not knowingly put stolen property on display,” Nell said quietly.
“I know.”