That was all the items the safe contained.
The desk drawers had items of stationery and a pack of sweeteners.
They moved on to the filing cabinet.
The bottom drawer was empty. The top drawer contained invoices and receipts and accounts details of items sold.
The middle drawer contained three A4-size black hard back notebooks, each one covering a different year since 2016. Inside each notebook they found detailed receipts and corresponding notes.
On each double page spread the right-hand page had a receipt signed and dated by the seller of items purchased. Stapled to the top right corner of each receipt was a small five by three-inch white record card with handwritten notes. These listed the amount paid for the items and the amount they had been sold for.
On the corresponding left-hand page was the name of town or city and below an A5-size full-colour leaflet, with the headline reading:
'Renowned Top London Dealer will be in your area this week only – and wishes to purchase original paintings and antiques. Free valuation and best prices paid.'
It also had photos of two paintings and the wording 'recent prices paid and the amount of £12,000 under the left painting and £27,500 underneath the other.
There was also a photo of a set of crockery and the amount of £8,200 under it. And then under them the words ‘What are your items worth?’
Contact: Peter Winston-Moore on 07219 274 590
Some of the pages had handwritten letters people had posted to Peter after seeing his leaflet and enclosing photographs of the items they were offering to sell to him.
As the two detectives went through the items and catalogued them, they realised this was the method Peter had used to find so many unique items of stock. This was his secret way of buying items his competitors had been so keen to discover. Simple and it appeared, extremely effective.
Many elderly people, especially those in their seventies and eighties tend to read and believe everything posted through their letterboxes. And many of them live in their own and are lonely, so the thought of someone coming to visit and spending time talking to them was enough for them to pick up the phone and call to make an appointment. A reputable London dealer calling at your convenience and according to what the leaflet stated, giving you the best price for your valuable items.
The notebooks showed a different story. In reality Peter was a dishonest con-man who preyed on these old people. Once he was in their house, he used his charm and persuasion and they were hooked. So if he told them a painting or antique was worth £4,000 when he knew its true value was £40,000 they would believe his every word. This was why his method had been so successful.
It was all there in black and white. The reference numbers on the white cards next to each leaflet referred to receipts he had got the sellers to sign saying they had been paid and acknowledging the item now belonged to Peter Winston-Moore. Buried in the small print was a warning that he gave no assurance the valuation he had given was true or accurate and he could not be held liable for any variations. In other words, he could pay them a fraction of the true value and legally they couldn't do a thing about it.
As they went through each piece of the paperwork, it emerged exactly what Peter had done.
“Look at this Carla.”
Carla walked over and looked at the notebook.
“According to his records he struck it lucky from the start. From what I can make out the fourth item he ever purchased with the leaflets turned out to be an original Picasso with a handwritten note attached to the back of the painting written by Pablo Picasso. According to his notes he paid the lady £4,000 and then sold it in New York for $5.3 million.”
“This guy really is a piece of work. A real shit,” said Eden Gold.
And it shows some of the other items he has purchased. Several of the paintings that he paid between £500 and £3,500 he sold them for between £28,000 and £65,000.”
Eden noted it was a similar story for the notebooks marked 2017 and the one for 2018 with items listed as purchased up until a few days before his murder.
Eden didn't think all antique dealers were like this but the way his associates had been trying to find out how Winston-Moore had been able to buy such items he thought they only wanted to discover the secret so they could do the same.
They also found receipts for a large number of paintings that had been purchased from an artist studio based in Hong Kong.
Everything needed to be photographed, catalogued and bagged. A long process but as detectives Eden and Carla knew exactly what was required to ensure anything that might be used as evidence in a court must follow the strict procedures laid down. Otherwise Norman’s defence lawyers would have a field day.
The satnav in the second vehicle was telling DS Tracy Archer and fellow officer Will Redgrave they were close to their London destination. Norman had given details of the code to open the entrance to the secure underground parking spaces where Peter always parked the Bentley. Even in a nice area like Pimlico you couldn’t park a car like that on the street overnight and expect to come back and find the wheels, or even find the car still there.
The apartment they had come to search was situated on the second floor of a five-storey stucco-fronted building. In the days of its construction and early life, it would have been the home of an extremely wealthy family.
The entrance jutted out to the pavement with four magnificent columns and three stone steps to the front door. The first floor windows had moon shape arches above them and a veranda in front stretching out over the
