I thought there were a whole lot of reasons why Alex might deny having been intimate with Pamela. But I hadn’t really considered the possibility that he was telling the truth.
Theodore answered, “You think she was using Alexander to get into the house?”
Sylvia spoke up now. “Oh, I think I see where you’re going with this.”
I was glad she could, because I had no idea.
Sylvia nodded. “The art collection owned by Hugo Percival Brown is famous. He and his wife are both collectors. Genevieve Percival Brown is said to have quite the eye.”
Rafe answered dryly, “And quite the budget.”
I wondered if she’d outbid him on something. I bet she had. But whatever her budget was, I suspected that Rafe’s pockets were deeper. If he stopped bidding, it was probably on principle.
I finally saw what he was getting to. “You think that she was planning to steal one of the priceless paintings?” She’d certainly spent enough time while we were there with her nose practically touching the artwork in the dining room. She’d definitely shown more interest in the art than she had in serving dinner.
Theodore said, “It’s an interesting possibility and certainly a trail worth following. I’ll find out more about this don she was allegedly hosting a party for.”
“Hang on,” I said. “Are you suggesting that an Oxford don could be somehow involved in art theft?”
“An open mind, that’s all I’m suggesting.”
Gran said, “I read about an art theft quite recently at one of the Oxford colleges. Three Masters were taken, I believe. One was a van Dyck.”
Rafe nodded. “That’s right. And there were some significant drawings by da Vinci.”
“But didn’t they get those back?” I was impressed that Gran kept up so well with current events, seeing that she herself wasn’t current anymore.
Rafe nodded. “The reality is that art heists of very famous paintings rarely turn out well.”
I could see his point. “I guess you can hardly steal van Gogh’s Sunflowers and then try and sell it on eBay.”
“I wouldn’t put it so crudely, but essentially you’re correct. Statistically about half of the great artworks that are stolen are eventually returned.” Half wasn’t the greatest odds.
“What about the other half?”
“Ah. Two possibilities. There are collectors. Very, very wealthy and secretive collectors who yearn for certain artworks for their collections. These people will pay an enormous amount of money for a painting they truly desire. But the reason is usually more prosaic. People steal paintings the way they’ll kidnap a family member.”
I was completely confused. “For ransom?”
“Essentially, yes. The insurance companies will usually pay a great deal to have a painting returned. It’s still cheaper than paying out on the claim.”
“Are you thinking that Pamela was somehow involved in something like that? That she was going to steal one of the Percival Browns’ Great Masters?”
It didn’t really sound like Pamela. Although the Pamela I knew would stop at nothing if it was of benefit to her. I wasn’t completely buying it, though. Theodore, however, was quite intrigued by the notion. As much as anything, I thought, he liked the idea of poking around in the world of secret art dealings. “I’ll get right on it. And report back at our next meeting.”
It was nice to have the extra help. As Rafe said, every lead was worth following.
Sylvia continued, “What happened after high school was finished? What happened to Pamela after that?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
“I think it would be well worth your while to find out a little bit more about your former friend. I could tell you stories of film stars and the kinds of people, both male and female, who would go to any lengths to have them. Your Pamela almost sounds like one of those. Always reaching for the stars.”
I thought back to my high school days. “Well, Sam wasn’t much of a star, but—”
“No. But you had him, so she wanted him. People like that are always reaching for the unattainable. The leopard doesn’t change its spots, Lucy. If that young woman was acting like that when she was a teenager, I’d be very interested in her career over the last ten years.”
“Do you think it would have anything to do with what happened to her? You think someone was getting revenge because she stole their man?”
“I don’t know. But I think it would be worth finding out.”
I agreed. And told them that I would do some digging. I hadn’t remained friendly with Pamela, but I was pretty sure that somewhere in my friends’ group, I could find someone who knew exactly what she’d been up to in the last ten years.
“Okay,” I said, “I’ll look into Pamela’s background in the last ten years, but I don’t have time to look into everyone who was at that dinner.” Not that I’d have any idea how to do it anyway. I was pretty sure some of the knitting club would have both the time and some ideas about the other people that had been at that dinner. I was not disappointed.
Theodore said, “Who of the eight young men at that dinner had the opportunity? Let’s start there and then eliminate our suspects and focus on the ones who could have done it. Then we can work on motive.”
I went through my timeline one more time. At the end of my recital, it was pretty clear that any of them could have killed Pamela. Between going out for smokes and the bathroom and down to the cellar to get wine, and I didn’t know what else, everybody had ended up disappearing at one point or another throughout the dinner.
“Right,” Theodore said. “We’ll have to share the suspects between us. I’ll take Randolph Chase.”
“Why him?” As the only professional investigator among us, I would have expected Theodore to choose someone who was most likely to be guilty.
“Because I investigated his grandfather.” He said it with such satisfaction that I had to know more. He obliged. “It was before social media, when everyone knew
