CHAPTER 22
SHOW HOUSE
“Stay where you are.”
For once, Romy had promised Ellis she would.
Twenty-three minutes later, she was still at Merewick station.
Leo sat across from her with the three recovered provenance pages arranged between them.
Marcus’s phone remained off.
His hotel room was empty.
His private car was gone.
Police teams were checking his home, Fenn Found’s office, and other business addresses.
Romy should have felt relieved that none of those places included Pattern House.
Instead, she felt the itch of a missing answer.
Running made sense if Marcus believed arrest was coming.
It did not explain what he thought he could still save.
Leo tapped page seventeen.
“You’re doing the face again.”
“What face?”
“The one where you stop blinking.”
“I blink.”
“Not when you’re trying to solve something.”
Romy looked at him.
He was holding up well.
Three weeks ago, she would have sent him home because a dangerous suspect was somewhere outside police control.
Now she knew excluding him from every difficult moment would teach him nothing useful.
She also knew there was a line.
Leo could help think.
He was not going anywhere near Marcus.
Neither was she.
Romy looked back at the provenance pages.
Page sixteen.
1998 storage inventory.
Page seventeen.
2001 transport photograph.
Page eighteen.
2003 transfer receipt.
Copies.
Police had them.
Sebastian’s extracted messages.
Police had them.
Ruth’s deleted warnings recovered from Fenn Found’s server.
Police had them.
The 1997 Halden photograph existed in an independent archive.
Marcus could not erase it.
The felt roll had been seized.
The torn boundary matched.
The charcoal cartridges were in evidence.
The van records were preserved.
The 6:51 photograph existed across devices and archives.
Marcus could not destroy the case by deleting one file.
So why leave before seven?
Leo said, “Maybe he’s just running.”
“Possible.”
“You hate that word.”
“I do.”
“People run when they’re scared.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe there is no cleverer reason.”
Romy looked at the transport photograph.
The panel’s reverse side was visible.
Original cloth backing.
Old collection mark.
One corner repaired.
Then she remembered Sebastian’s note.
Ask Fenn why the backing was changed.
Not why the panel was sold.
Not why the dates failed.
Why the backing was changed.
Romy stood so quickly the chair rolled backward.
Leo flinched.
“What?”
“The panel.”
“What about it?”
“He cannot destroy the photograph.”
“No.”
“Or Ruth’s emails.”
“No.”
“Or the felt.”
“No.”
“But the panel is still at Asterleigh.”
Leo’s expression changed.
“The backing.”
Romy grabbed her phone.
Ellis answered immediately.
“Tell me you stayed put.”
“I stayed put.”
A pause.
“Good.”
“Marcus may not be running away.”
“What?”
“He may be going back.”
“Where?”
“Asterleigh.”
Silence.
Romy continued.
“The one piece of provenance evidence he may still be able to alter is the physical panel.”
“We have photographs.”
“Of the front.”
“And police condition images.”
“Of the current backing, yes. But Sebastian specifically asked why the backing was changed.”
Ellis said nothing.
“The original transport photograph shows an older backing with a collection mark.”
“We know.”
“What if part of that original backing remains under the replacement?”
Another pause.
“If Marcus changed it badly or only covered it.”
“Yes.”
“He may think the panel still contains the thing that proves where it came from.”
“Yes.”
Ellis’s voice changed.
Romy heard the decision before the words.
“I’m sending a team.”
“Good.”
“You are staying there.”
“I said I would.”
“Romy.”
“I am.”
Leo pointed at himself.
Romy added, “Leo too.”
“Good.”
The call ended.
Leo looked toward the station exit.
“We could go to Asterleigh and stay outside.”
“No.”
He blinked.
“That was fast.”
“We are staying here.”
“Because Ellis told you?”
“Partly.”
“What is the other part?”
“Because Marcus may have killed a man by building a room that did the dangerous part after he left.”
Leo waited.
“And that makes you what?”
“Less interested in demonstrating how predictable I am.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
The next half hour was unbearable.
Police work did not move at Romy’s preferred speed.
A team had to be sent.
Access confirmed.
Asterleigh secured.
Routes covered.
No one could rush into a heritage property because Romy had a theory.
She understood that.
Understanding did not make waiting easier.
At eleven forty, an officer brought them tea.
Leo accepted both mugs.
Romy stared at hers.
“It looks criminal.”
“That seems inappropriate here.”
She tasted it.
“It is criminal.”
Leo drank his anyway.
For five minutes, they discussed whether station tea was designed to discourage repeat visits.
The conversation lowered the pressure enough to make room for thought.
Romy looked again at Marcus’s timeline.
6:51:27.
Vent open.
6:52:11.
Marcus toward service corridor with plate-warmer, felt, and green folder.
6:55.
Sebastian expects Fenn.
6:57.
Sebastian enters.
7:01.
Sophie sees Sebastian alive.
7:03:12.
Found the real story.
7:03:41.
Found it. Call after eight.
7:04:31.
Marcus reaches courtyard.
7:05.
Sponsor remarks.
The clever part was not that Marcus had made himself invisible.
He had done the opposite.
He had made himself visible.
Everyone instinctively connected murder with the moment a victim died.
Marcus had separated action from result.
Prepare the room.
Leave the documents.
Move into a public crowd.
Let Sebastian keep reading.
Let the door close normally.
Let the blocked transfer route slow the room’s recovery.
Let gas accumulation do the work after Marcus was already standing under lights with a microphone.
The alibi existed because everyone expected the killer to still be with the victim.
Marcus had understood timing better than anyone first gave him credit for.
Leo said, “You’re staring again.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“His alibi.”
“What about it?”
“It was the murder weapon as much as the charcoal.”
Leo frowned.
“Explain.”
“He built the method around being seen.”
“Because he knew the poison would work later.”
“Yes.”
“So the speech was planned as protection.”
“Not necessarily planned from the beginning. The sponsor speech already existed.”
“He used it.”
“Yes.”
Romy looked at the 7:05 image.
Marcus smiling.
Microphone in hand.
Courtyard crowd around him.
Impossible-looking suspect.
Perfect.
Until the room’s material timeline moved the murder backward.
Her phone rang.
Ellis.
“We’re at Asterleigh.”
“And?”
“Side service door was unlocked.”
“Normally?”
“No.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Marcus?”
“Possible.”
There was that word again.
“What are you doing?”
“Clearing the building.”
“Ellis.”
“Stay where you are.”
“I am.”
“I will call.”
He ended it.
Leo put down his tea.
“He’s there.”
“Probably.”
“Marcus knows the service layout.”
“Yes.”
“Could he reach the Blue Study without using the front?”
“Yes.”
“He supplied things during installation.”
“Yes.”
“He would know where cameras are.”
“Likely.”
Leo sat back.
“That is not comforting.”
“No.”
At twelve fifteen, Nina appeared in the station corridor carrying a paper bag.
Romy stared.
“How?”
“Leo told me where you were.”
Romy looked at him.
He shrugged.
“You were getting intense.”
Nina set down the bag.
“I brought sandwiches.”
“You cannot keep invading police buildings with lunch.”
“I signed in.”
“That is not the same.”
“It worked.”
She handed Leo a sandwich.
Then Romy.
Cheddar.
Chutney.
Thick bread.
Exactly right.
“You are manipulative.”
“Yes.”
“What do you know?”
“Only that Marcus is missing and you are apparently capable of obeying a police instruction now.”
Leo said, “It’s new.”
Romy glared.
Nina sat.
“Are they searching Asterleigh?”
Romy hesitated.
Nina read the answer anyway.
“They are.”
“Yes.”
“Because?”
“The panel.”
Nina’s expression sharpened.
“What about it?”
“Sebastian thought the backing mattered. Marcus may think something physically attached to the object still proves its real history.”
“So he went back to destroy it.”
“We don’t know.”
Nina looked at Romy.
“You think so.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going there?”
“No.”
Nina stopped opening her sandwich.
“No?”
“No.”
“You feeling well?”
“I am making excellent decisions under pressure.”
Leo nodded solemnly.
“It is unsettling.”
Romy took a bite.
Food.
Friends.
A locked station door between her and a man police believed had already killed once.
She could live with that.
At twelve thirty-two, Ellis called.
His first words were, “We found him.”
Romy stood.
“Where?”
“Blue Study.”
Leo was on his feet too.
Nina stopped chewing.
“What was he doing?”
“Removing the panel.”
Romy closed her eyes.
There.
Not running.
Recovering.
“What happened?”
“He is contained.”
“Contained as in?”
“Officers have him.”
“Arrested?”
“Not yet. I am speaking to him now.”
“Is he armed?”
A pause.
“We recovered a knife.”
Nina’s expression changed.
Leo went still.
“From him?”
“From the floor beside the panel.”
“What kind?”
“Utility knife.”
“For backing cloth.”
“That would be one use.”
“What else?”
“Loose backing papers.”
Her pulse jumped.
“And?”
“A lidded plastic container.”
“For what?”
“He says packing waste.”
“Empty?”
“Partly.”
“What was inside?”
“Removed paper fragments and adhesive labels.”
Romy sat again.
Marcus had gone back to erase the object’s body.
The documents already in police hands could prove the chain was false.
The physical backing might prove what the true chain was.
“Do not let anyone throw anything away.”
Ellis said, “Thank you for the procedural advice.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“Anika?”
“On her way.”
“Good.”
“Romy.”
“Yes?”
“You were right.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
Not because she needed to be right.
Because the prediction had kept her out of the room.
Once, she might have gone herself.
Today, she had given the thought to Ellis.
Police had acted.
Marcus had been found.
That was how it was supposed to work.
“What is Marcus saying?”
“That the panel is Fenn Found property and he returned to protect it from mishandling.”
“With a knife and rubbish container.”
“Yes.”
“Does he think that sounds plausible?”
“I have not asked.”
“Please do.”
“I’ll put it on the list.”
Romy almost smiled.