Alice was silent as she led Gerda back the way she’d come from the attic, before pulling her through the door behind the coat rack near the kitchen. Then she opened the back door.
Outside, the driver was no longer by the car, but was a little way off, standing by the kitchen garden, smoking a cigarette, looking out through the gate to the stunted Christmas trees. Gesturing for Gerda to keep low, and remembering the many childhood summers she’d played here, Alice scooted under the level of the kitchen window, along the back flowerbed across the rickety terracotta-coloured stone tiles – an original Elizabethan feature that Sassy wanted to raze for an ugly extension.
She hurried down the coal hole steps to the cupboard door at the bottom and slid her finger along the top of it, until she connected with the old crowbar that had been there since Pop-Pop’s day. She wrapped it around the edge of the ancient wooden door opposite the coal cupboard and eased it open an inch, wondering why nobody had ever thought to put an actual handle on it.
She passed the crowbar back to Gerda, but somehow, she dropped it, and it clattered loudly on the stone floor and they both froze. Above them, they heard footsteps and the static of a walkie-talkie and someone talking in what sounded to Alice like Russian.
Alice squeezed back against the coal cupboard door, pulling Gerda into the shadow beside her. They both waited, breath held, until the footsteps receded above them. Gerda looked at Alice with wide eyes, then nodded and Alice sprang into action, pulling the door opposite just wide enough for them both to squeeze through.
The air was cool, and damp and it was dark as Alice closed the door behind them. This had once been used as a wine cellar and dusty wooden racks still lined the walls, with a curved brick ceiling above. She took her phone from her pocket, turning on the torch and shone it at the ground, crouching as she started moving stealthily along the low, cobbled corridor.
Soon, they came to a narrower section of the secret passage and Alice peeked through the grate on the wall. Behind it was the walk-in larder in the kitchen, the door of which was open onto the kitchen beyond. Jacques was still bent over the central island, carefully adding the finishing touches to another round of canapés. Helly took another tray from the counter and Alice saw them smile at each other and exchange a few words.
The corridor bore right and it was a tight squeeze between the brick pillars.
‘Wait. We can’t fit,’ Gerda hissed.
‘Sideways. Follow me. We’re nearly there.’
Alice thought of how she’d shown the boys this corridor at Christmas but hadn’t come down this final stretch herself. It was a lot narrower than she remembered, and Gerda had a considerably portlier frame than Alice, but her face was set in grim determination.
A faint light beckoned them further along and a murmur of voices confirmed they were getting closer. Breathing in, Alice squeezed herself between the cold stone walls, trying not to shudder at their damp stickiness. And then she was out, into the hidden chamber behind the library fireplace.
The tiny priest-hole cell housed an ancient wooden bench along one wall and a crucifix opposite, the date AD 1588 carved into the white plaster.
‘There,’ Alice whispered, pointing to the tiny hole on the wall, and Gerda squeezed her eye against it, then pulled back and gasped. Then she looked again for a long moment.
She clamped her hands over her mouth then, clearly overcome. Alice moved past her to look through the hole herself.
The library had been spruced up. Jasper’s drinks trolley was no longer there, and the dilapidated old chairs had been removed. The rug had been rolled back, the floor polished and there was a wooden lectern by the fireplace. In the middle of the room was a large easel in an ornate gold frame nearly two metres wide and almost as high. Displayed on it was a striking oil painting of a ship on a stormy sea.
‘That’s it?’ Alice whispered. ‘You can be sure? Even from here?’
Gerda nodded, her eyes misty. ‘Yes. We’ll have to have it authenticated but I’m sure that’s it. At last. We’ve got him.’
Back up in the attic, Gerda took a deep, excited breath, as on the monitors, she now saw the guests going into the library.
‘The auction must be starting,’ Barney said. ‘Look, they’re all going in.’
‘Then this is it,’ Gerda said. ‘I’ll give the order.’
‘Her guys are in the barn,’ Barney said.
‘And I think Detective Rigby is on his way. For backup. At least, I hope he is.’ Gerda frowned. ‘I know you didn’t want me to involve the police, but there was a development you see and—’
Gerda nodded. ‘There’s no time. Tell him to get here now.’
Alice pulled her phone out of her pocket. ‘But there’s no reception,’ she said, panicking.
‘Try on the roof,’ Barney said.
‘Can you help me?’ she asked Barney, pointing to the hatch.
He slid across the bolts and pushed the hatch outwards. She put her foot into his cupped palms and he boosted her up.
Jasper used to dare Alice to come up here on the roof when they were kids, but her fear of heights had always stopped her. And now she felt sick as she crawled out onto the tiny ledge and looked down the sloping, slippery tiles. But she still had no signal. Holding her breath, she shuffled up higher towards the terracotta-coloured ornate brickwork of the Elizabethan chimney stack. As she pressed her back against the bricks, a pigeon squawked and took flight behind her. But it worked. Her phone signal bar flicked up. Thank goodness.
‘Don’t look down. Don’t look down,’ she muttered to herself as she rang the detective’s number.
‘Alice?’ Detective Rigby answered.
‘Thank, God.’
‘Are you at Hawthorn?’ he asked.
‘Yes. You got my latest message?’ She checked.
‘Absolutely I did. We’re nearly there.’
She could have kissed him then. Really? Yes, she really had just thought that. Only, of course, he wasn’t here.
‘You’re not alone then?’ she said. ‘Only there are guards everywhere – some of them are with the Messents, some of them are ours – so don’t use the main gates. There’s a security guard there too. But you’ll find a farm gate back near the main road. Use that. Then they won’t see you coming.’
‘Where are you?’
‘On the roof. The auction is taking place in the library right now. Just come quickly.’
She put her phone back in the bag, then saw the phone Massoud had given her. She flipped it open and saw the home screen. There were no contacts on the phone or messages, just a few photographs. Alice stared at the latest one, holding her breath. The photograph was blurred, but good enough. Alice looked at the timestamp, but she suspected she already knew when it was taken: 9.04 on New Year’s Eve.
‘Now it all makes sense.’
And as if reading her thoughts, Thérèse’s phone now buzzed and she saw an incoming call and Alice wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of having three phones.
‘Hello?’ she answered, taking advantage of the reception on the roof.
‘Thérèse?’ the voice was unmistakeable. It was Laars.
‘No, it’s Alice.’
After he’d got over the shock, Alice explained that she’d read his text.
‘Were you blackmailing Thérèse?’
‘Not really. I just wanted my phone back.’
‘The one you left in the bathroom, you mean? The one with the picture of you and her in a delicate position on New Year’s Eve?’
‘She wanted a picture. She said she just wanted to make some dude jealous. And, you know when a chick comes on that strong …’
Alice shook her head, thinking of poor Thérèse. ‘So, you were in the cloakroom during Camille’s speech on New Year’s Eve. With Thérèse?’
‘I guess. Why does it matter?’
Alice shook her head and rang off, then turned off the phone. She had no time for Laars’ explanation. She sat for a moment, like a child, her legs stretched out on the tiled roof, everything shuffling into place in her mind.
She stared out across the woods and fields, forcing herself to appreciate the view from this great height for the first time. In the distance, a mile or so away, she thought she could see a line of cars approaching on the main road. Police cars? She could only pray. Her scruffy detective might not exactly be riding a horse, but hopefully he might still prove to be her knight in shining armour before the day was through.
Then she nodded, steeling herself. It was time to reveal the truth, and although there was a certain satisfaction in having worked it all out, it gave her no pleasure.