Page 46 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘I wasn’t chatting him up, I was finding out information, if you must know.’

‘Well, either way, Leonard is a bit drunk and he’s in the music room and because of his knee and his head, he’s not in a position to come chasing us up the stairs, so we need to hunt in his sitting room and the attic.’

‘Now?’ I asked. ‘I was just going to bed.’

‘Did you listen to anything I just said? We might not get another easy opportunity.’

Juliet was already up and to the door. She pushed past me and stood out on the landing with her arms folded.

‘Come on!’

I hesitated because hadn’t Peter told me that the stolen items might not even be in the house? They could be anywhere on his land. I really needed to speak to Harry before more fruitless searching. But I didn’t want to tell Juliet what I’d learned from Peter. She already knew too much and she was just a young girl after all.

‘Look, Juliet, this could all go horribly wrong,’ I said. ‘There would be serious consequences to being found snooping. It’s one thing me doing it, but a whole other thing for you. I don’t want to let your grandmother down, but I’m not happy about any of this,’ I said and watched as she tilted her head onto one side and drew her lips into a thin line.

‘I’m always snooping. I’m well known for it, so it would come as no surprise to anyone. If you’re really not comfortable then go back to your room and I’ll search on my own,’ she said with a look of resignation.

‘You are not looking on your own,’ I said.

‘They’re all downstairs, a bit drunk and not remotely bothered about what we’re doing.’

I supposed it couldn’t be worse than being found in Leonard’s bedroom and that didn’t happen, luckily. I couldn’t have her looking on her own; I’d have to go with her.

‘All right then,’ I said with huge reluctance. ‘Let’s go.’

I slid my phone into the back pocket of my trousers and we made our way along the landing, across the staircase gallery and up into the tight staircase that led up to the rooms above. I paused with my hand on the banister and took a breath.

‘Let’s be quick and quiet. No talking unless there is great need,’ I said and Juliet nodded in response before sprinting up the staircase. I followed at a more sedate pace.

The attic space was not what I expected it to be. It wasn’t a dark and dusty place, but rather a perfectly ordered area. Round skylights in the roof meant that in daytime it would be bathed in light, but for now, as I looked up, I could only see stars in the cloudless, ink-coloured sky. It was also quite a big space, but there wasn’t much in it. It was surprisingly sparse.

There were shelves in the eaves with books that were ordered alphabetically as you’d expect in a library or a bookshop. I was surprised to see as I bent down to scan the spines that they were mostly commercial fiction paperbacks and had titles I’d seen published in the last few years. They weren’t first editions, classics, collectors’ copies or expensive hardbacks. There were also crates and boxes stacked neatly in the middle of the space where there was more headroom and I lifted the lid on one to see what was inside. It was full of vintage china teacups and saucers, the kind you’d use for afternoon tea. Nothing matched. It was a mix of designs as eclectic as the rest of Leonard’s things. Juliet raised her eyebrows in surprise and opened another box. This time it contained vases, all chintzy and similar to the cups. Another had styled candleholders with the same designs, and another had trinket dishes.

‘Does he just steal from old ladies?’ Juliet whispered and I gave her a look. ‘Yeah, but where’s all the silver, the gold and diamonds? Why is he stealing stuff from car-boot sales?’

In one corner there were maybe twenty rugs rolled up and stacked one on top of another. I pulled an edge back on one and was surprised to see it was a decent Persian, although a little threadbare.

‘Gina!’ Juliet hissed, and I turned to see her in the far corner, under one of the windows with the full moon casting a perfect circle of muted light onto her head like a halo.

It looked like she’d found a stack of paintings leaning against the wall. She was already pulling them back and letting them lean against her legs by the time it took me to get there. We worked through all of them, but they were mostly portraits. There were no coastal scenes and I could feel my natural tendency to calm slip a little.

‘Absolute bloody waste of time,’ I said, pushing the paintings back and crouching down on my haunches. I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. ‘It’s like Del-Boy’s flat in here.’

‘I don’t know what that means,’ Juliet said.

‘Like it’s all fallen off the back of a lorry.’

‘Well, we’re not giving up now! Sitting room,’ Juliet whispered impatiently, tugging on my arm and then helping me to my feet. I stood up, grateful for the assistance.

I took one last look around the room in case we’d missed something, but it remained a huge disappointment. We left the attic as we’d found it and walked quietly down the stairs, round to the main staircase and on to Leonard’s wing of the house. His bedroom door was open and he wasn’t in it, neither the sitting room, and I had to assume he was still downstairs. I looked at my watch and could see it was nearly eleven. I doubted they’d all be down there for much longer, but I could just about still hear the faint strains of the piano and some distant laughter.

‘Do you want to wait outside and call if someone comes?’ I asked Juliet.

‘What would be the point of that? By the time someone was up here, it would be too late, and what would I say about me being here anyway? Let’s just both get in there and look.’

Juliet was determined even though I was dithering, but really at this point there was nothing else we could do other than forget the whole idea.

‘Come on then,’ I said and we stepped into Leonard’s sitting room.