CHAPTER 21 #2
Green folder.
Romy said, “Do we have an image of him arriving at the courtyard?”
Ellis was already calling the event archive officer.
Leo searched locally.
“Seven four thirty-one.”
The image opened.
Marcus near the garden doors.
No warmer.
No felt.
No folder.
Next image.
7:04:46.
Marcus speaking to the councillor.
Empty hands.
7:05:08.
At the microphone.
Nothing.
Romy sat back.
“He leaves all three somewhere.”
“Not necessarily together,” Ellis said.
“The warmer ends up in the Blue Study.”
“Yes.”
“The felt ends up in the ventilation gap.”
“Yes.”
“The folder.”
“Unknown.”
“Not for long.”
Ellis called the station.
Scene-property review.
Blue Study papers.
Any green-folder contents or loose provenance material recovered near the desk.
Romy listened.
Then he ended the call.
“Three loose photocopied sheets were recovered from the writing desk.”
She stared.
“You knew that?”
“I knew papers were recovered. They were logged as unidentified object-history material.”
“You never told me.”
“They did not mean anything then.”
“They mean something now.”
“Yes.”
“Can we see them?”
“Station.”
Leo looked at the clock.
“Lunch?”
Romy and Ellis both stared.
“What?”
He pointed at Sophie’s untouched biscuit.
“We keep discovering major evidence at meal times.”
Ellis said, “Five minutes.”
Romy looked genuinely shocked.
“You’re allowing food?”
“I am learning from Nina.”
“Dangerous.”
They ate cheese crackers over the sink because that was what Pattern House had.
Leo found an apple.
Romy found two yogurts of uncertain ownership.
Ellis refused both.
For five minutes, nobody said Marcus’s name.
Leo complained about a client who had emailed asking whether Pattern House could remove “old-looking marks” from a seventeenth-century chair.
Romy said the client would have to be educated.
Ellis asked whether educated meant lectured.
Leo said yes.
Romy objected.
The small argument steadied her.
Then they went to the station.
The loose pages were already on a screen when they arrived.
Three photocopies.
Each had a small footer code.
FF-HALDEN-PROV-16.
FF-HALDEN-PROV-17.
FF-HALDEN-PROV-18.
Romy stared.
Page sixteen showed a storage inventory dated November 1998.
The panel was listed under a temporary family-hold number after the Halden dispersal.
Page seventeen showed a 2001 transport photograph.
The original backing remained visible.
A handwritten collection mark sat on the lower cloth.
Page eighteen was a 2003 transfer receipt naming a private intermediary.
Not Lionel Mercer.
Not Mercer’s aunt.
Not the family history Fenn Found later marketed.
Romy looked at Ellis.
“The chain.”
“Part of it.”
“Enough to prove the sales story was false.”
“Yes.”
“Sebastian found these.”
“Yes.”
“And stayed to read.”
“Very likely.”
There was the phrase.
This time Romy accepted it.
An officer entered with a digital-search report.
Ellis read it.
Then looked at Romy.
“Marcus’s office team found a green acquisition folder.”
Her pulse rose.
“Numbered?”
“Yes.”
Police had photographed it in place before removing it.
The file label read:
HALDEN / PRIVATE ACQUISITION / FULL.
Inside were numbered pages.
One through fifteen.
Then nineteen through thirty-two.
Pages sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen were missing.
Romy felt the final gap close.
A numbered sequence.
Three pages absent from Marcus’s office file.
The same three numbered pages recovered from Sebastian’s writing desk.
The green folder visible under Marcus’s felt at 6:52.
No green folder when Marcus reached the courtyard.
Sebastian’s message at 7:03.
Found it. Call after eight.
Ellis looked at the screen for a long time.
“That is enough to explain why he stayed.”
Romy nodded.
“Marcus gave him selected proof.”
“Or left it for him.”
“Yes.”
“Enough to convince Sebastian he had found the real chain.”
“Yes.”
“Enough to keep him reading.”
“Yes.”
“While the room became dangerous.”
Romy looked again at the pages.
Marcus had not needed to force Sebastian into the Blue Study.
He had baited him with the thing Sebastian wanted most.
Proof.
Not a threat.
Not a weapon.
Information.
Sebastian entered willingly because Marcus offered what he had been demanding.
He remained because the papers appeared to confirm everything.
Marcus could leave.
Move into public view.
Begin his sponsor remarks.
Let the room do the rest.
Delayed method.
Public alibi.
Romy felt cold despite the warm station office.
“He knew Sebastian would read.”
“That is a reasonable conclusion.”
“He knew Sebastian would stay with documents instead of walking straight back into the event.”
“Yes.”
“And Sebastian tells Vivian not to call until after eight because he thinks he has work to do.”
“Yes.”
Leo said quietly, “That’s awful.”
Nobody corrected him.
It was.
Not dramatic.
Not impulsive.
Patient.
Marcus had understood Sebastian well enough to know what could hold him in place.
Romy thought of the competing suspects.
Celeste lied because Sebastian threatened her career.
Sophie lied because she feared being professionally branded.
Adrian lied because his key access looked terrible.
Nell hid a structural report to save a sale.
Daniel concealed it to protect the event.
Hugo resented Sebastian because a review had damaged his business.