Death of a Delft Blue

call him Gavin. By the way, I don’t know whether I’m sickening for something, but I’ve had another bright thought. Look here, when Florian came over here, he stayed with Binnen and the aunts while Albion finished the two spots of art — the bust and the hand. Right?’

‘Undoubtedly, unless Mrs Colwyn-Welch and her daughters are in a conspiracy to deceive us.’

‘I can imagine anything of Opal and Ruby, but I can’t see Binnen joining in a conspiracy, unless it might be the Resistance during the war.’

‘I agree. But, come! Your inspiration.’

‘Well, if Florian was staying with them in Amsterdam, wouldn’t he have been quite likely to apply to the Amsterdam V.V.V. for information about where to stay in Maastricht and Valkenburg? What’s more, I know where the Amsterdam offices are. We passed them more than once. They’re in more or less the city centre, Rodkin 5. I got a street-map from there, if you remember, when we were here before.’

Enquiries at the V.V.V. office in Amsterdam, made by Laura, elicited the information that a mijnheer answering to Laura’s graphic description had indeed called and had asked for advice upon where to stay in Valkenburg. He had been furnished with a list and had marked off three pensions — one in Kerkstraat, another in Oud Valkenburgerweg and the third in Dwingelweg.

‘All pensions?’

‘All pensions. The young man explained that he was a student and could not afford to stay in hotels.’

‘Did he also ask about Maastricht?’

‘About Maastricht? Valkenburg is more picturesque, to some minds, than Maastricht, but these are matters of personal preference.’

Armed with this limited amount of information, Laura conveyed it to Dame Beatrice.

‘Queer that he didn’t ask about accommodation in Maastricht, don’t you think?’ she enquired.

‘Not necessarily,’ Dame Beatrice replied. ‘The two towns are about seven and a half miles apart. He need only have visited Maastricht for the sake of exploring the grotto for the third time and then gone on to Valkenburg to stay.’

‘That third time seems a bit odd to me. I mean, I can understand doing it twice — I quite enjoyed our own second visit — but a third go at it seems to me excessive. What’s your opinion?’

‘It coincides with yours, child, but, of course, others may think differently and probably do. There is one point which we may bear in mind, however. Florian may have had reason to impress upon somebody’s consciousness that he had been in the neighbourhood at that particular time. This he appears to have done, for the custodian remembered him perfectly well. Moreover, he kept a watchful eye on him.’

‘So we press on to Valkenburg and dig out where he went from there — unless he’s still there, of course.’

‘I am not convinced that he went on to Valkenburg, child, but we shall see — or, rather, I shall see. You may amuse yourself as you will. There is no point in both of us making these enquiries.’

‘You mean they’re going to be tedious, don’t you? Well, let me do them while you go along and amuse yourself. It’s about time you did.’

‘I disagree. Apart from amusing yourself, you can be very useful, if you will.’

‘Oh?’

‘You can return here to Amsterdam tomorrow and find out more about the barrel-organ which has recorded The Flowers of the Forest.’

Laura looked at her suspiciously.

‘Oh, yes?’ she said. Dame Beatrice regarded her with deep solemnity.

‘I mean it seriously,’ she said. ‘Track it down. Obtain speech with its operators. Find out where Binnie first heard the barrel organ playing that particular tune.’

A room was booked for Laura in the hotel at which they had stayed previously.

‘Lucky to get in,’ commented Laura. ‘I thought the city was always full.’

‘Oh, I have had the rooms — both yours and mine — reserved indefinitely since our last visit. I felt certain that we should be coming here again.’

‘All that money! All these weeks!’ exclaimed the horrified Laura. ‘My Scottish blood cries out upon such extravagance!’

However, she remained, as directed, in Amsterdam, spent a restful night, and then set out to track down the barrel-organ — one of a number, she presumed. It might take some time, she thought.

Dame Beatrice, from Maastricht, made contact with Derde van Zestien before she went on to Valkenburg, indicating that Florian should be appealed to by the Netherlands broadcasting system to declare his whereabouts and return to Norfolk, where his great-uncle was ill. Not at all to her surprise, Derde declined to act upon this advice. Nothing would worry and upset his father more, he averred, then to hear a radio appeal to Florian to come forward.

Dame Beatrice asked whether Bernard was likely to listen to the Netherlands radio, and was told that, in any case, he was kept in touch with news by a correspondent in Amsterdam and that there were Dutch newspapers on sale in England. She replied that she had thought it might have been worth trying, and then she moved on to Valkenburg and visited the official tourist office in Stationstraat, near the centre of the town.

There was no information to be obtained there. No young man answering either to the name or the description of Florian had asked for advice and help, certainly not within the past four weeks or so. She went on to the Town Hall in Grotestraat but, in Laura’s expression, drew another blank. There remained the caves, with their well-known matters of interest. Here, again, there was no information to be obtained. The custodian asked whether he had not