CHAPTER 22 #2
Then Ellis said, “I’m arresting him.”
The room went quiet around her.
Nina looked at Romy.
Leo did too.
“For Sebastian?”
“Yes.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
Romy looked at the three loose provenance pages on the table.
“Good.”
“Stay at the station.”
“I will.”
“Anika may need your panel-mounting notes.”
“I’ll send them.”
“Thank you.”
The call ended.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Nina said, “Well.”
Leo sat down.
“Is that it?”
Romy looked at him.
“No.”
He blinked.
Nina sighed.
“Of course not.”
“I mean the evidence still has to be processed. Marcus has to be interviewed. Charging decisions.”
Leo nodded.
“But the theory.”
“Yes.”
“The theory is complete.”
Romy looked at the timeline.
It was.
By two, Ellis returned to the station.
He looked tired.
Not triumphant.
That was one of the things Romy had come to respect about him.
Arrests did not make him cheerful.
They made him quieter.
Marcus had been processed separately.
Romy did not see him.
She was glad.
Mostly.
Ellis joined Romy and Leo in a small conference room.
Nina had gone back to The Fig & Thistle after extracting a promise that Romy would eat dinner.
Ellis placed a folder on the table.
“Marcus has been arrested on suspicion of Sebastian Pryce’s murder.”
Leo exhaled.
Romy said, “What did he say in the Blue Study?”
“That he believed the panel was at risk after police mishandling.”
“Police had not mishandled it.”
“No.”
“He had a knife.”
“Yes.”
“Backing papers.”
“Yes.”
“Discard container.”
“Yes.”
“He was cutting away labels.”
“Yes.”
“Still says protection?”
“Yes.”
Romy leaned back.
“That is poor.”
“His solicitor may phrase it better.”
“I look forward to suffering through that.”
Ellis opened the case reconstruction.
“We need to make sure our sequence remains defensible.”
Romy understood.
Not story.
Proof.
Ellis began.
“At 6:51:27, the ventilation gap remains open.”
“Yes.”
“Celeste’s known visit and Adrian’s adjustment are therefore excluded as the obstruction event.”
“Yes.”
“At 6:52:11, Marcus is the first documented relevant person entering the service side after the intact photograph.”
“Yes.”
“He carries the plate-warmer.”
“Yes.”
“Felt physically matched to the obstruction material.”
“Yes.”
“And the green provenance folder.”
“Yes.”
“Recovered Blue Study documents match missing sequence pages from the remainder found in Marcus’s office.”
“Yes.”
“Sebastian expects Fenn at 6:55.”
“Yes.”
“Enters at 6:57.”
“Yes.”
“Sophie sees him alive around 7:01.”
“Yes.”
“At 7:03 he tells Vivian he has found the real story and then, seconds later, says he has found it and will call after eight.”
“Yes.”
“Which supports the conclusion that he was occupied with documentary material.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus is visible publicly by 7:04:31 and speaking by 7:05.”
“Yes.”
“The delayed method means he does not need to remain in the room while Sebastian’s exposure worsens.”
“Yes.”
Ellis looked at Anika’s reports.
“Room systems functioning.”
“Yes.”
“No accidental gas source.”
“Yes.”
“Fresh natural beech charcoal burned in the plate-warmer.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus had specialist natural beech charcoal in his van and falsely denied bringing fuel to Asterleigh.”
“Yes.”
“Vent deliberately packed with wool felt.”
“Yes.”
“That felt was physically torn from the Fenn Found roll Marcus carried toward the service corridor.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus knew before the preview that the panel provenance was materially false.”
“Yes.”
“Sebastian threatened publication unless the real documents were surrendered.”
“Yes.”
“Fenn Found’s financial position meant public exposure could jeopardize major commercial work and financing.”
“Yes.”
Ellis stopped.
The chain filled the room.
Not one clue.
Not one dramatic confession.
A sequence.
Romy could almost see Marcus constructing it.
He arrives with the warmer, felt, and folder.
Uses the service corridor.
Tears the felt.
Packs the airflow route.
Introduces beech charcoal to the plate-warmer.
Leaves selected provenance pages where Sebastian will find them.
Perhaps tells Sebastian privately, or through a deleted message, that the full history is in the Blue Study.
Then exits.
Sebastian enters.
Finds the documents.
Reads.
Texts Vivian.
Waits.
Marcus walks into public view.
The speech begins.
Everyone sees him.
That is the trick.
Not invisibility.
Witnesses.
The apparent time of death becomes his protection.
Romy said, “His cleverest tool was the speech.”
Leo frowned.
“Not the charcoal?”
“No.”
“The delayed method?”
“Partly.”
She looked at Ellis.
“It was the assumption that whoever caused Sebastian’s death had to be with him when it happened.”
Ellis nodded.
“Time of action versus time of collapse.”
“Yes.”
Marcus had manipulated that difference.
He had not created an impossible alibi.
He had created a convincing one because everyone initially asked the wrong question.
Where was Marcus when Sebastian died?
Publicly visible.
Wrong question.
Where was Marcus when the room became lethal?
6:52 onward.
Private.
In the exact window the 6:51 photograph exposed.
Leo looked at the timeline.
“So the photograph broke the alibi.”
“It broke the assumption supporting it.”
Romy looked at him.
“And you found it.”
Leo smiled despite trying not to.
“Assistant.”
“Yes.”
No correction this time.
Ellis noticed.
Said nothing.
At three twenty, Anika arrived from Asterleigh carrying a sealed evidence case.
She looked tired and intensely awake at the same time.
“How bad?” Romy asked.
“Bad for Marcus.”
“What did he remove?”
“Several modern labels and part of a secondary backing layer.”
“Did he reach the original cloth?”
“Not fully.”
Romy’s pulse lifted.
“So it is still there.”
“Parts of it.”
“Collection mark?”
“Potentially.”
“Anything readable?”
“Not yet.”
Ellis said, “We have enough without it.”
Anika looked at him.
“That is not a reason to ignore it.”
Romy smiled.
“I really do like you.”
“You say that when I agree with you.”
“Frequently.”
Anika sat and accepted the tea Leo immediately made.
The room relaxed for a few minutes.
Not because the case was over.
Because everyone had been carrying tension since morning.
Leo described station tea as “an attack on leaves.”
Anika said the laboratory coffee could dissolve confidence.
Ellis admitted he had eaten half a cereal bar since breakfast.
Romy gave him the remaining packet of crackers from Nina’s lunch.
He took it.
No argument.
That might have been the strangest event of the day.
Then Anika opened her field photographs.
The panel had been partly removed from its mounting when police entered.
Marcus had loosened the upper fixings.
The modern backing cloth had been lifted at one corner.
Two labels had been cut away.
Fragments were recovered from the container beside him.
A third label remained partly attached.
Romy leaned closer.
“What does it say?”
“Too damaged to read fully on scene.”
“But old?”
“Older than the Fenn Found label.”
“Original?”
“Do not start.”
Romy sat back.
“Fine.”
Anika advanced to another image.
The reverse of the panel.
Modern cloth.
Paper labels.
Old stitching lines.
Romy remembered the 2001 photograph.
The earlier backing had carried a handwritten collection mark.
If part remained, it might identify exactly whose hands had held the panel during the missing years.
“Marcus was destroying the old history,” Leo said.
Anika looked at him.
“He was removing material from the backing.”
Leo nodded.
“Correctly stated.”
Romy smiled.
Training everywhere.
Ellis’s phone rang.
He stepped outside to answer.
Anika enlarged one of the scene photographs.
Something near the lower left corner caught the light.
Not cloth.
Paper.
Anika frowned.
“What?” Romy asked.
She zoomed.
A white modern Fenn Found inventory label sat partly lifted from the backing. Its corner had curled where Marcus had cut adhesive around it.
At first Romy saw only the label.
Then Anika shifted the exposure.
Another sheet lay under it.
Not the old cloth backing.
A thin paper layer.
Cream.
Larger than the Fenn Found label.
Only one edge showed.
“What is that?”
Anika did not answer.
She zoomed again.
A line of old ink appeared where the top label no longer covered it.
Not enough to read.
Leo leaned forward.
“Was that visible before?”
“No.”
“Could Marcus have known it was there?”
“Possibly.”
Romy did not complain about the word.
Ellis returned.
“What?”
Anika turned the screen toward him.
“We need the panel secured exactly as it is. No more label removal until controlled examination.”
“It already is.”
“Good.”
Romy stared at the cream paper.
Sebastian had asked why the backing was changed.
Marcus had come back to cut away labels and papers.
Perhaps he had not only been trying to remove evidence of the old backing.
Perhaps another document was attached directly to the panel.
One never entered into Fenn Found’s polished acquisition file.
One Marcus had hidden instead of destroyed.
Until now.
Anika pointed at the lower corner of the photograph.
“Look.”
Romy did.
Under Marcus’s modern false label, a second backing sheet remained partially visible.