Still digesting everything that James’s grandfather had told them, Stephanie and James drove back into Carlswick, stopping at the café. Stephanie scanned the room, her eyes resting on Michael sitting at one end of a sofa talking with Anna, who was perched on Andy’s knee at the other end.
“Steph,” Anna squealed and jumped up. Stephanie grinned and tentatively returned Anna’s hug.
“Ribs,” she mumbled, reminding Anna of her injuries.
Michael eased himself up slowly.
“Hi,” he said shyly.
“Michael – I’m so glad you are alright. I feel so bad that I got you involved with this,” Stephanie said.
“S’okay,” he mumbled, embarrassed. She put her arm around him and hugged him to her carefully. He blushed bright red.
“Steady on there, Michael. You know what I’m like where Steph is concerned,” James called from the counter, where he was ordering coffee.
They all laughed as Stephanie and Michael helped each other to sit on the sofa.
“I think we should just sit back and enjoy letting the ‘rock god’ wait on us,” she stage whispered to him.
“Heard that,” James called.
Stephanie looked around the café. Dave, Liam and Jack were setting up in the corner. Groups of teenagers were beginning to congregate. It was a typical summer’s night. She sighed contentedly at the normality of it all.
Max’s involvement had finally become clear. A Jewish group had engaged his firm to prosecute a European businessman who was trying to sell stolen art on the black market, several years earlier. Their success had drawn the attention of Scotland Yard’s art theft division, who, after realising that Max Cooper’s family home was in Carlswick, had shared a long-held suspicion regarding the legitimacy of Alex Knox’s business dealings.
Stephanie’s photo was the only tangible evidence of the painting.
“This painting was believed to have been destroyed when the Allies bombed Berlin in 1944,” DI Marks had explained to her. “This is such an important piece with historical significance that you have rediscovered. I am hugely impressed with your research skills.”
Ellie Cooper had spent the week pronouncing to anyone who would listen that she had been right about that family all along.
Peter and Sam were still being questioned by Scotland Yard, with various charges pending, although it was clear that neither of them had anything to do with Stephanie’s kidnapping. That appeared to be solely the work of Alex and his unknown accomplices. Peter’s motive, it seemed, was greed.
Alex had disappeared off the face of the earth with a number of extremely valuable items in his possession, including the van Gogh, whose frame was found smashed in the cellar. James and his grandfather had catalogued what they believed was missing from the house, including more paintings, some rare books, small sculptures and jewellery.
Grace came forward with her mother’s wartime diary, which detailed the sad story of the Jewish family who made it out of Germany only to die in the cellars of Knox Manor, despite her and Charles’s best efforts to nurse them. Unsure what to do with bodies, amidst the continued fallout from the collaboration investigation, they had sealed them in one of the old storage rooms off the wine cellars.
James placed Stephanie’s coffee on the low table beside the sofa. She smiled warmly at him. “Thanks. Hey, I was just thinking. Has anyone seen Victoria? She might know something of Alex’s whereabouts,” she said.
“No one has seen her for several days,” said Andy. “Although according to her mother, she will be back in the village on Friday.”
“That’s great – because she might let something slip about Alex. She doesn’t know we saw them together, James,” said Stephanie, sitting forward on the sofa.
James hesitated for a moment. “Actually, she does know,” he said.
Stephanie raised her eyebrows.
James looked uncomfortable and studied his feet for a moment. “Um, that night that we saw them, I went back to the house and confronted them both,” he said.
“Oh.” Stephanie nodded slowly.
Anna glanced between them in the uneasy silence that followed. “Okay,” she said brightly to Andy, jumping up from his knee and pulling him to his feet. “Get up there and play for me.”
James looked into Stephanie’s eyes with raised eyebrows, concern etched into his features. We okay? he seemed to be asking silently. She held his gaze and smiled at him. The intimacy was too much for Michael, who cleared his throat and shuffled uncomfortably. James leaned down and kissed Stephanie on the lips. “I’m watching you,” he teased Michael, before sauntering over to where the rest of the band was waiting for him.
Stephanie sat back in her seat and let the music wash over her, stolen art and runaway thieves far from her mind.
Halfway through the second song, her mobile phone chimed with an incoming message. She picked it up off the coffee table and flicked it open. The sender was unknown, but the message very clear;
Don’t get too cosy with my little brother – this isn’t over.
The End