'Do they now.' So much for love's loyalty. Sourly, I guessed that Alicia had been trying to warn me before that mad show.
'And Maud is well. Quaker is waiting outside, Lovejoy. I came to warn you.'
'Warn? Frighten me to death more like, stupid little sod.'
'Consul Sommon will escape all penalties of the law, Lovejoy.' Mortimer sometimes sounds seventy years old. 'He caused your friend Bernicka's demise. And poor Mr Vestry, using Vestry's sister Susanne Eggers as his contact.'
'And Timothy Giverill? Sandy caused that. I was listening in the car.'
'You didn't listen closely enough.' Mortimer spoke like to a child. I was narked. I mean, who was the father here, him or me? I caught myself guiltily. Nobody suspected that, except everybody.
'Wotcher mean?'
'Accidentally, I overheard Mrs Thomasina Quayle discussing the issues with her staff,'
Mortimer said with disarming candour. Accidentally? He'd probably hung from the eaves like a bloody bat, I'd bet.
'Which are?'
'The antiques the consul claimed from the imported consignment are already bonded for shipment to New York. He already has dealers bidding for them on the Internet. He will make a fortune.'
'Where are my portraits?'
Mortimer looked at Tinker, at the floor.
'Tell him, lad,' Tinker said.
'Lady Hypatia's portraits all have my mother's face, Lovejoy. It's she you keep painting.'
I said, 'I guessed. But—'
'Consul Sommon used to ... see her on visits. He never came to the manor. He wanted them because he thought he could find her again. She's the reason Susanne Eggers divorced him. And why Mrs Eggers insisted on leasing Saffron Fields, and wanted the portraits herself, to destroy.'
Poor Susanne Eggers, loving a twerp like him. Poor Sommon, still loving Colette Goldhorn. Poor all of us, always wanting something we haven't got.
'And he'll make a fortune, Lovejoy,' Tinker said, reproachful.
I thought a bit. 'Will he?'
'Mortimer's right, son. The bastard did for Vestry, Bernicka. Don't seem right, Lovejoy.'
'And Timothy Giverill,' Mortimer added quietly. 'Who was going to expose the illegal arrangement the Lloyd's syndicate had made with London auctioneers via Mr Langley-Willes. Sandy didn't know it would mean Mr Giverill's death. He thought Sep Verner would cause a minor traffic infringement, a warning. Instead . . .' I already knew instead.
'See, Lovejoy,' Quaker said, entering slowly. I stared. He wasn't in his wheelchair.
'Somebody has to make sure that Consul Sommon catches it. Like,' he continued, looking round for somewhere to sit, finally opting to stand, 'like his schemes to sell fast to any dealer, crooked or otherwise. They're bidding high sums. I checked.'
'After murdering your friend Bernicka,' Tinker said. More reproach. He felt such deep sorrow that he had to open another two tins of ale.
'And Vestry,' Quaker reminded me. Everybody was reminding me, telling me I had to do something. Always me.
We all thought a bit, some more deeply than others. I couldn't help gaping at Quaker.
I'd never seen him stand.
'Why aren't you dead in the bulrushes, Quake?'
'Sep Verner came ostensibly to wheel me to the Quay. He shoved me into the river.
Thought I'd drown. Then went to blame my death on you. I kept quiet, gurgled and splashed a bit.' Quaker smiled sheepishly. 'I'm no athlete. I was climbing out when Tinker happened by. Sep was crazy for Maud, always was.'
'Good old brigadier. He came armed. Ready to kill.' I can't manage reproach as well as other folk. Maybe they have the best target, in me.
'He says that. The plod thought his actions completely justified, protecting his daughter from attack by a deranged police officer.'
'The plod saw sense?' The world spun.
'That'll be the party line, Lovejoy. Right.' Quaker rubbed his hands, paused before leaving. 'Will you do it, then?'
'Do what?' As if I didn't know.
'One last job. Divvy the consul's antiques shipment.'
We all paused. I thought hard. The one thing that would make Consul Sommon pay any penalty at all would be ...
'Are they at Ferd's? I've no motor.'
'I'll send my new driver.' Quaker smiled. 'My assistant can be trusted. He turned Queen's Evidence. Go now,
