Page 26 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘Exactly! Keep hold of that thought.’

‘Keep hold of that thought while I’m going through his bedroom?’

‘Yes,’ Dorothy said uncertainly as they made their way to the drawing room.

‘I do know this is a lot to ask,’ she said as she settled herself into the window seat. She could see out across the kitchen gardens, along the sheds and greenhouses, where they’d not long ago walked.

‘As I said before, I’ll do this as long as I feel comfortable, but if that changes then I’ll have to stop.’

‘Absolutely,’ Dorothy said and watched as Gina took a long breath in and then left the room. She took her phone out of her handbag, checked it was on and that it had some life in it and then left it on the seat next to her where she took furtive glances at it before settling to her post as lookout. She crossed her fingers that Gina would be successful.

12

GINA

I made my way up the second flight of stairs to the third floor. I knew I was on thin ice here. I could easily have said I was lost on the lower floors, but up here, in Leonard’s very private territory, his bedroom and possibly his office, I could have nothing to offer in the way of an excuse. There was absolutely no reason for me to be here. If I was caught, the police would be called. In pursuit of doing the right thing and finding the culprit to a serious crime, I could well be the one in trouble.

Unwittingly, I found my thoughts drifting back all those years to the court case after the fire and remembered how hard it was to do the right thing and make sure that justice was served, whatever the repercussions. Talking about it with Dorothy had brought it to the forefront of my mind and it would hang around there until I could get rid of it again for a while.

The oak staircase was just as beautifully carved as it was in the entrance vestibule. No expense had been spared for this private part of the house. I ran my hand along the turned spindles as I went quietly and carefully up, but each step came with the horrible knowledge that I was closer to doing something I really shouldn’t, and instead of rushing to get it over and done with, I found myself slowing down.

‘Come on, Gina,’ I said to myself. ‘You’re either doing this, or you’re not, but if you are, you need to get your backside moving.’

At the top I had two options: straight ahead or a turn round to the right and along a dark corridor. There were curtains pulled closed on high windows, I assumed to stop the sunlight from bleaching the artwork hung along the walls, but could it be something else? Could Philip’s painting be hanging here in plain sight as Dorothy suggested? Surely it couldn’t be that easy. Not wanting to turn on the light and draw attention to my presence, I pulled out my phone and switched on the torch instead, shielding the majority of the light with my hand.

There were several paintings along this part of the landing and all were landscapes, but none were of the coastal scene and I couldn’t help feel a stab of disappointment that it wasn’t going to be an easy find. The light from my phone cast shadows across the works and made them appear Gothic and atmospheric. There were windswept moors and bleak mountainsides, lonely stretches of river and one was a field of corn, but because the sky was a threatening mass of dark clouds it had a sombre quality. Maybe that was why Leonard had them here, for exactly that reason. With a thrumming heart I turned the handle on the only door and opened it onto Leonard’s bedroom.

What I was expecting to find, I wasn’t entirely sure, but the bright, hotel-like modern decor of the room was a surprise. Leonard’s drapes at the windows were swathes of sheer, silver silk in perfect folds and the carpet was almost the same shade. His furniture was mostly white, but inlaid with silver leaf, which gleamed in the light coming from the four windows. His bed was like a huge silver marshmallow, the kind that, as a child, I would have liked to have taken a running jump at before face-planting on the covers. I had no such urge now.

There was a Chinese cabinet at the end of his bed and, unusually, it wasn’t facing out into the room, but instead was facing the bed itself. Almost as if it could be a TV cabinet. Again, it was mostly white with marquetry in the palest of wood. I leaned across the covers and tried the door, thinking it was big enough to house a small painting if not a television, but it was locked.

The only splash of colour in the room, although muted, was from the beautiful crewel embroidery work hanging behind the bed. Flowers and leaves with birds decorated the fabric and, on closer inspection, I could see it was old. Exactly how old I couldn’t guess at first glance and I really didn’t have time to dwell on it. Instead, I carefully pulled the corner away from the wall, to see if there was anything hiding behind, but the wall was blank.

I took out my phone to check it and that was when I saw a missed message from Dorothy. I’d forgotten to take my phone off silent. My heart was in my mouth and my feet were already on their way to the bedroom door as I opened the message.

All quiet here.

I let out a long breath and walked towards the window to make sure that Dorothy was right about the coast being clear. From here, I could see across to the lake and further towards the woods. The other window had a perfect view of the parterre garden and across to the folly where Dorothy had first told me of the plan. It made me uneasy to think that if Leonard had been up here he would easily have seen the two of us sitting and talking inside the building. But, obviously, he would never have heard us and it should have looked quite innocent. Well, apart from the two of us popping our heads out to make sure no one was watching.

Keen to leave Leonard’s bedroom, I opened my camera app and began snapping every aspect of the room. I hoped that all these pictures I was taking would enlighten me somehow, but it felt like a fruitless search at the moment. I couldn’t bring myself to open any drawers, but I did glance into his bathroom and was unsurprised to see a continuation of the white and silver theme.

Back on the landing I hesitated before opening one of the two doors at the far end. It was a sitting room, dark and gloomy with blinds pulled closed on both windows. I closed the door and tried the other and, as I suspected, it was Leonard’s office: a huge room with bookcases, a desk, a fireplace with a perfectly placed chair, a side table with his current read and no obvious sign of the missing painting. It was a lot to take in and I snapped a couple of images. Really, though this was not enough and I thought briefly about what I was about to do and then stepped inside, because after all, by being in his bedroom I’d already crossed the line of no return and it was time to dig a bit deeper.

I turned my phone to record my voice exactly the same way that I used to do when investigating a new piece, or indeed an old piece, for a collection. Of course that had been with an old-fashioned Dictaphone, and what felt like a million years ago. I began to whisper and was surprised to realise how natural it felt to me.

‘I’m standing in the middle of the study and there is a mild smell of tobacco in the air. I haven’t noticed Leonard smoking, but that means nothing, of course. Perhaps he comes up here to fill his lungs. His desk is cluttered and unfortunately the drawers are all locked. The tall, free-standing cupboard by the window is not locked and I can see as I open it that it is stuffed full of papers.’

I stopped to take a photograph and then began to record again.

‘Not much of interest. Old bank statements and documents – nothing for me here.’

I closed the cupboard and turned my attention to the shelves on the far wall. His collection of books here was as eclectic as his art and I skimmed my eyes over the spines feeling both the trepidation of being here and also the anticipation of finding something ebbing away from me.

‘This is pointless. The painting is clearly not here,’ I said into the phone, knowing that I was very much wasting my time.

I was about to click off the recording when my eyes fell on a small booklet sticking out between his other books. It had a grainy image of a painting on the thin spine and if I wasn’t mistaken it was the coastal scene. I carefully took a photo before pulling it out. It was important to make sure I put it back exactly where I’d found it.

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