'It wasn't bad,' said this connoisseur of crime. 'They've left some police inside. I think they're being kept in because they didn't do things right. Like detention, see?'
'How many?'
'They come with seven, and four come out. Four from seven leaves three.'
'So it does.' Three police still in Antiques Antics across the road. Sandy owns it. Well, well. Spies have their uses.
'They sent for a lot of televisions. And,' she added, 'wires and things. And long guns.
Why've you no marmalade?'
Long guns to Polly might well be some kind of telescopes. What Polly saw as TV sets might be CCTV consoles for closed circuitry cameras. Were they harking to me and little Polly even as we spoke?
'Good idea. Miss, could I please have some marmalade?' I asked. Such is our game.
'Yes, sir.' She fetched it by climbing onto a stool. We resumed our meal. She has three sugars in one cup, hardly room for the tea.
'The police motors followed a horrible American woman. I hated her teeth. She came in for some Gentleman's Relish yesterday and said Granma charged too much. She has terrible hair.'
'Where is Peter now, love?'
'He's poorly. He went in an ambulance. My kitten went in one once for its ears. They grew pus and one nearly fell off.' I stopped eating. 'Gangrene,' said this little angel. 'It rots cats' heads.'
I left soon after, smiling and waving to Polly at the door and shouting ta to Bea. I didn't even glance at Peter's double-fronted antiques shop, nor did I look at the other three on the steep slope. It leads down to the old North Gate of Roman times, long since crumbled and now encrusted with terraced houses and small shops. Quite pleasant old pubs by the river. But why had Peter been done over, and the police called, to lurk behind the curtains? Almost as if they expected somebody to come burgling.
Which raised the question what did he have that somebody needed so badly, that the police also were interested in?
I was halfway through the shopping precinct when a motor drew up alongside me and a lady's voice told me to get in. I obeyed, because that's what I do.
'Your money, Lovejoy. And for your divvies.'
'Ta.'
She still hadn't learned to smile. I decided I wouldn't, either. Take that, oh wicked one.
I didn't count the gelt, just said to drop me anywhere.
'Stay.' She wasn't driving. Her husband Taylor was at the wheel. He did enough beaming for the pair of them, like it was his part of an understood bargain. 'You'll work for me. It'll take one week. You get a share of the take.'
'None of the others any good?'
'I've rerun the home movie, Lovejoy. The sofa table, the earthenware coin box, the marble faun, the pewter. Taylor had three cameras. It took him quite a while to spot your signs. Any noise – cough, clearing your throat – was a warning to say false, right?
Silence was approval.'
'What gave us away?' I asked hoarsely. Besides Tina's betrayal, I thought.
'The silence of the rest. They stood looking from you to the antiques, learning what was good and what bad.'
'Who blemished the marble?'
'That old thing? Me, of course. Don't worry, Lovejoy. There's much, much more at stake than those bits and pieces.'
'When?'
'Soon. Out.'
Out? 'Oh, right.' I stood on the pavement, worrying whether to say thank you or not.
The motor revved, shrank into the middle distance.
For a while I looked down North Hill. Sandy and Mel actually owned Antique Antics.
They lease it to Peter Myer for a peppercorn rent. Don't ask for reasons. Now, I thought as I went for the bus, Peter Myer and Sandy might be colluding with the plod, or Peter was under arrest. But what was worth setting up a police surveillance unit for? The plod never stir far from the TVs in their social clubs, unless forced. Besides Bea's teashop the only thing directly opposite was an insurance agency – 'Registered Speciality at Lloyd's of London!' – belonging to Timothy Giverell. I vaguely knew him, and his wife Florence.
Dull as you'd ever get.
Then I thought oh what the hell, and decided to call on the Countess. Then the forger.
Then I'd do the burglary. Keep things in order. My mind was getting so cluttered I was starting to lose the plot. Actors say that a lot.
16
THE COUNTESS is the antique dealer to top all dealers.
