The Judas Pair

'Are you trying to warn me?'

'Just listen.' I tried to stop myself, but like a fool I talked on. 'We dealers are pretty slick. Some are all right, but some are not. We're good and bad, mixed. There are grafters, crooks, conners, lifters, zangers, edgers, pullers, professional dummy-ers, clippers—every variety of bloke on the make. Some pretty boys, smart, handsome, looking wealthy. Cleverer than any artists, better than any actor. They'll pick your house clean any way they can and brag about it in the pub afterwards.'

'Are you warning me, Lovejoy?' Womanlike she stuck to her question. I felt like shaking her.

'Never mind what I'm doing,' I cried, exasperated. 'Just be careful, that's all. Be suspicious and sharp, and don't let in everybody who comes knocking.'

'I let you in, Lovejoy,' she reminded, smiling.

I sat down and took her by the shoulders. 'Can't you see the obvious?'

'What do you mean?'

I drew breath and tried to glare into her innocent eyes. 'You're too damned trusting, Muriel. You should never have let. me in the other day. It's too risky. Look,' I said, maddened by her smile. 'Look. In that house, that great mansion you live in, your husband Eric lost his life.'

'I don't need reminding.'

'You do.' I was almost shouting, not knowing why I was so worked up. 'Has it not dawned on you?'

'What?'

'Who killed him?'

She paled instantly. I could see the skin over her cheeks tauten. 'Why… why are you asking me?' she said.

'Because somebody must have,' I said. 'Do the police know who? No. Does anyone else know? No. And not only that. Does anyone know why he was killed? Do you? No. The police? No.'

'They… they said it must have been an attempted robbery,' she said faintly.

'So they think,' I said. 'But is that reasonable? What was stolen?'

'Why, nothing,' she faltered.

'Not even one or two of your husband's antiques?'

'No. At least, I don't think so.'

'Did the police think so?'

'Practically everything was there, according to Eric's lists. They weren't complete, of course. He never did keep very tidy records.'

'Think,' I urged. 'Was nothing at all missing?'

'The only thing is that my brother-in-law said a pair of pistols were gone. The ones you asked about. The police did go over the inventory when all Eric's antiques went to Seddon's afterwards, though. George had rather an argument with them about it, I recall. He seemed to blame them for not being concerned enough.'

'That doesn't alter the fact,' I put in, 'that you're in this house, rich and with plenty of valuable stuff about, I guess.'

She nodded. 'There's the—' God help me if she wasn't going to give me a rundown of her valuables.

I clamped my hands over my ears. 'Don't,' I begged. 'For heaven's sake, you're doing what I told you not to. Keep quiet about your things. Chain everything down. Change the locks. Treble the burglar alarms. Quadruple the dogs.'

'I'll be all right, Lovejoy,' she said, smiling. She pulled down my hands and kissed me. 'I think you're sweet.'

'How can I be sweet when I'm a hard nut?' I said angrily, pulling away. 'You don't realize how versatile dealers, collectors can be. We'll do anything—any thing—to get what we want. It may only be a couple of old matchboxes, but if we collect matchboxes we'll do anything to get them.'

Her face was back in its previous solemn, worried expression. 'But that can't be true.'

'It is true.'

'It can't be,' she said doggedly.

'It is.'

'But, Lovejoy,' she said, almost pleading, 'that's so unreasonable.'

'Of course it's unreasonable. All collecting's unreasonable. But it's real.' I shrugged and beckoned her to her feet. We strolled on. 'You're not really taking notice of me, are you?'

I could see I had upset her.

'You aren't telling me all collectors are like that, are you?' she said, hesitating beside a white-flowered bush set between large rocks.

'I am.'

'All?'

'All,' I said firmly. 'That's what makes a collector special. Unique. Your husband must have been like that