‘I understand. The choice will be yours.’
‘At about 2 a.m. on Friday night, Sebastian shook me awake. This is what happened…’
* * *
‘What is it?’ Bhaskar asked Sebastian, waking up with a start. ‘Some problem?’
‘Jacob Lopez is here,’ Sebastian said. His face was suffused with alarm and anger. ‘The swine has found the Balsano landscapes.’
Sebastian held up the four rolled canvases to support his claim.
‘Jacob?’ Bhaskar sat up in shock. ‘How do you know? Neither of us know how he looks. We’ve never seen him.’
‘We do now,’ Sebastian growled. ‘We know him by a different name.’
‘What name?’
‘Phillip.’
‘Can’t be, there must be some mistake, Sebastian. Phillip is a good man.’
‘Remember how much interest he has been showing in your wheelchair lately? Especially the console. Your wheelchair is missing. It’s been taken from the charging point to the chapel.’
‘Good Lord!’ Bhaskar struggled out of his bed and stood up unsteadily. He tottered to a nearby chair and lowered himself into it. ‘Tell me from the beginning. What happened?’
‘After settling you in, I was in my room, reading. I heard a click that sounded like the back door, but I didn’t give it much thought. There were so many people about; any one of them could be going out. Or Murugan could be coming in. I dismissed it from my mind and continued reading.
‘A minute later, I heard the whir of the wheelchair. That is a distinct sound, one which I can’t mistake for anything else. The funny thing was that it seemed to be coming from the window, and not the corridor. It was as if you were on the walkway outside.
‘I went to my window and peered out. It was murky and dark, and I could see nothing. But the whirring continued, although softly. It seemed to be fading away towards the chapel.
‘I came out of my room and went to the charging point. The wheelchair was missing and the back door was open a crack. I opened the door to your room and peered in. I was shocked to see that you were in bed, sleeping. I came in and peered at you closely. You were snoring softly.
‘So, someone else was using the wheelchair. I stood there undecided for a long while. Could it have been Manu or Dora who had borrowed the wheelchair? Perhaps they were pulling a prank on someone. If that was so, I didn’t want to spoil their fun.
‘Slowly, another thought dawned on me. Whoever had taken the wheelchair had taken it to the chapel. If it was not Manu or Dora, and if the intent was more serious than playing a prank, the consequences could be profound. As I thought about it, the combination of the wheelchair and the chapel set off alarm bells in my mind. I hurried back to my room and pulled on a pair of pants and a t-shirt. I went to the back door and made my way to the chapel.
‘When I reached the chapel, I saw a faint glow inside. I pushed open the door and stepped in. Near the altar was a dim glow from some kind of a torch. What I saw made my blood run cold. There was Phillip, at the altar with the slab raised and rotated. On the first row of pews were two canvases. He was pulling out the third from its tube in the altar.
‘I crept up slowly, making no noise. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn’t hear me. He put the third canvas beside the first two and began pulling out the fourth. By now, I was within a couple of yards from him. I crouched, trying to decide my course of action.
‘The only person who could have known that the Balsano landscapes were with you was Jacob Lopez. The agent who had bought the paintings on Fessler’s behalf wouldn’t have known that you had them.
‘As I thought about it, I realized that Phillip had turned up in the valley seven years ago. Where he had come from, nobody knew. He had shown tremendous interest in your painting collection and subsequently in your wheelchair. Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
‘Phillip was Jacob Lopez. That was the only possible answer. He had tracked you down to Greybrooke Manor, and had bid his time. Eventually, he had figured out where the paintings were and how to reach them.’
‘How?’ Bhaskar asked, his face set in grim lines. ‘How did he figure it out?’
‘Remember the deluge we had two months ago?’ Sebastian asked, his gaze fiery. ‘When the chapel was in danger of getting flooded from the water flowing down into the vale from the hills?’
‘Yes,’ said Bhaskar, nodding. ‘The water was rising, and we had to bring the paintings into the mansion for a few days.’
‘Phillip was staying here then,’ Sebastian hissed. ‘He must have seen us go to the chapel in the pouring rain. He must have wondered why. And he must have seen me transporting the tubes containing the paintings to the mansion.’
‘Yes…yes. I fell ill after that drenching and was confined to bed. After the water receded a few days later, you put the paintings back in the chapel. Phillip must have wondered why you were wheeling the empty wheelchair to the chapel and back. That too in such bad weather.’
‘Not just an empty wheelchair,’ Sebastian corrected him. ‘Four aluminium tubes too. He must have scrutinized the chapel and the altar thereafter. He must have figured out that the paintings were hidden in the altar, and that the wheelchair unlocked the altar.’
‘He then inveigled himself into your confidence, and found out how to operate the wheelchair and its console. He must have obtained your access code by pinching the pocket notebook in which you had written it. He then pretended to find it and returned it—all within ten minutes of your missing it.’
‘The snake!’ Bhaskar hissed. ‘Continue with what happened tonight, Sebastian. You were telling me
