Chapter 8 August
August swept across London's West End like a narcotic.The streets and alleys are bustling with foreign tourists, while locals who live and work in the city try to escape.For the executives at Darcy House, there are several destinations to choose from: a vacation home in Tuscany, Italy, a manor in the Dordogne, France, a chalet in Switzerland and a yacht in the Central American Caribbean.
Alan Leigh-Travers is an avid yachtsman.He had a ketch in the British Virgin Islands, moored in a dock behind Trellis Island when not out at sea.He intended to sail south for a three-week holiday, as far as the Grenadines.
Peregrine Slade might have thought he had made Darcy's computer system as impenetrable as Fort Knox, but he was wrong.One of the systems used by the IT specialist he brought in was developed by Susie's boss, whom Susie had assisted in perfecting some of the details of the system.The people who develop the system are smarter than the system itself.She beat the system.Benny needed a list of all August vacationers at Darcy Mansions, their destinations and emergency contact addresses.She downloaded all of these on her computer.
Benny knew that Leigh-Travers was going boating in the Caribbean, and he had two contact numbers: his GSM cell phone number and his radio frequency on the yacht.Susie changed both numbers by one digit.Although Mr. Leigh-Travers didn't know about it, he would have a truly peaceful vacation completely undisturbed by telephone calls.
On August 6th the Scot with the ginger beard stormed into Darcy's House in London and demanded his painting.His request was not denied.He reported the storage label of the oil painting.Ten minutes later a porter fetched it from downstairs and handed it to him.
After nightfall, Susie noticed that the computer records showed that the painting was delivered to Bury St Edmunds for appraisal on July 31, but was retrieved by its owner on August 6.
She revised the last part.New records show that, as arranged, the painting was picked up in a van sent by the Colbert Institute.On August 10th, Mr. Leigh-Travers, who had never heard of or seen "The Hunting Bag", left London Heathrow Airport for Miami, and then transferred to St. Thomas and Biff Island, where his brig was waiting for him.
Peregrine Slade is for those who don't want to travel in August.In his view, roads, airports and places of interest are overcrowded.But he didn't want to be in London either; he was back in the Hampshire capital.His wife Eleanor was away visiting a friend's villa in Porto Ercole, Italy, so he could live alone at home with a heated swimming pool, a large lawn and a small but adequate number of servants. Together.His contact number is also on the list, so Benny knows where he'll be going.
On August 8, Slade left London for Hampshire.On the 11th, he received a letter, handwritten, from London Heathrow Airport.He recognized the handwriting and signature immediately: the letter was from Alan Leigh-Travers.
Peregrine Slade read the letter twice as he lay on a deck chair by the pool, sipping his first pink gin of the day.He was also interested.British artists, even when they painted on wood panels, never used poplar wood that was centuries old.Nordics use oak, Italians use poplar.And generally speaking, the thicker the plank, the older it is, because it was almost impossible to saw the plank very thin with ancient sawing techniques.
It's actually quite common to use other people's old paintings to paint new ones on top of, and many people know that in the history of art, there have been some untalented idiots who painted on the early authentic works.
Modern technology can determine the age and date of a small piece of wood, canvas or paint, not only to identify its origin, but sometimes even to determine which painting school it came from, and to use X-rays to see what is underneath the surface painting.
Leigh-Travers was right to do that, just in case.Slade had planned to go to London the next day for an excruciating interview with Marina, and thought he might as well drop by the office and check the record.
The record confirms everything said in the letter sent from Heathrow.A man named Hamish McPhee broke into Bury's office and left behind a Victorian still life entitled The Hunting Bag.It has been marked with the storage number "F608".
Storage records show the painting arrived in London on August 1 and was sent to Colbert College on August 6.Slade turned off his computer, looking forward to the identification report of the legendary Stephen Carpenter, although he had never met him.
He glanced at his watch. It was six in the afternoon in London and one in the Caribbean.He spent an hour trying to reach Leigh-Travers on his cell phone or his ship's radio, but kept finding himself talking to someone else.In the end, he gives up and goes off on a tryst with Marina instead.
On August 18 a short porter in a Colbert College dust smock walked through the main entrance of Darcy Building and came to the front desk.He was carrying a small oil painting wrapped in bubble wrap.
"Good morning, dear, the Colbert College delivery is here as planned."
The young lady behind the counter was confused.The delivery man took a note from his pocket and looked at it.
"Darcy storage number 'F608'," he read.The lady suddenly realized, and she entered the number on the computer keyboard behind her.
"Wait a minute," she said.After checking the computer, she learned that the item had been removed from the storage warehouse and sent to Colbert College for appraisal. The order was given by the head of the British Contemporary and Victorian Art Department who was on vacation.Now, the item is sent back.She called the porter from her unit.
After she signed a return receipt from the Colbert Institute deliveryman, the painting returned to storage in protective packaging.
Trumpington Gore stepped out onto the hot sidewalk and thought, "If I stay in that building any longer, I'm going to pay them rent."
On August 20, Professor Stephen Carpenter's appraisal report arrived at Peregrine Slade's manor in Hampshire in record speed.Peregrine Slade received the letter over breakfast after a dip in the pool.As he read the letter, his plate of eggs cooled and his coffee was coated with a film.The letter said:
, Duccio or Giotto's works at that time and place.
Peregrine Slade sat dumbfounded, the letters spread out on the little table in front of him.Cimabue... oh my gosh.Duccio... Jesus wept.Giotto... bad.
The part near his left eye was throbbing again with a nervous spasm.He pressed there with one finger.He didn't know what to do.
He was reminded of two recent discoveries by Sotheby's (both shocking to him).At an estate on the Suffolk coast, their appraiser found a board in an old wardrobe and recognized it as the work of a famous artist.That turned out to be a Cimabue, the rarest of them all, which ended up selling for millions of pounds.
Just recently, another Sotheby's employee assessed the interior of Castle Howard.In a folder full of low-grade paintings that he had passed through, he found a painting of a grieving woman with her head in her hands and asked for a more professional appraisal.This unnoticed work was completed three hundred years ago and was originally created by Michelangelo.Ask for a price?Eight million pounds.And now, beneath a painting disguised as two dead partridges, he too appears to possess a priceless treasure.
Apparently, another con with Reggie Fanshawe isn't going to work.It's one thing to ditch junior tech Benny Evans; it's another thing entirely for Alan Leigh-Travers.The letter sent by the airport, even if Alan didn't leave a copy, the board of directors would still listen to him.In any case, Fanshaw can no longer be used.The art world is not so gullible.
But he wanted to make and be able to make himself famous and establish credibility, and restore the Darcy Mansion to its former glory.If that's not worth a six-figure Christmas reward, there's nothing like it.In less than an hour, he had washed and dressed, and sat in a Bentley sports car and drove towards London.
There was no one in the painting storage room, so he was able to calm down and search slowly until he found the item labeled "F608".Through the bubble wrap, he could vaguely make out the shapes of two dead partridges hanging from a hook.He took the painting to his office for further examination.
Looking at it in his office, he thought to himself: My God, this is so ugly.But underneath it... Apparently, it can't be taken up the hall to be auctioned off, it should have been bought by Darcy Building before it was 'stumbled upon'.
The problem is that Professor Carpenter, who is a man of integrity, will surely keep a copy of his report on file for future reference.If an unfortunate commoner—that is, the original owner of the graffiti—was cheated by a Peregrine Slade, the Professor would be outraged.
On the other hand, the professor didn't say that the painting hidden in the inner layer was definitely a masterpiece, just maybe.There are no rules against an auction house taking the plunge.Gambling is risky and there are no permanent winners.So, given the uncertainty, if he offered a fair price to the owner of the painting... He checked the seller's records on his computer and tracked him down to Hamish McPhee in Sudbury, Suffolk, There is also an address.Slade wrote, stamped and posted a letter, offering to pay the miserable McPhee £50,000 for his grandfather's "most interesting" painting.In order to keep the matter confidential, he also attached his mobile phone number as contact information.He was sure the fool would agree, and he would send the check to Sudbury himself.
Two days later, his phone rang.It was a man with a thick Scottish accent, and he sounded deeply offended.
"My grandfather was a great artist, Mr. Slade. He was not taken seriously when he was alive, but neither was Van Gogh. I believe now that the world, when it sees his work, will recognize it. A true genius. I can't take your offer, I'm going to quote my own. My grandfather's work should be in your Victorian Masterpieces auction early next month, or I'll withdraw it, get Christie's."
Slade shuddered as he put the phone down.Van Gogh?Is there something wrong with that person?But he has no choice.A sale of Victorian masterpieces has been scheduled for September 8.The catalog has already been printed, and it will be printed in two days, and it is too late to modify it.It's also not unusual for the poor partridge painting to be added later.He did, however, keep copies of his letters, his offer to McPhee, and a videotape of the most recent phone call.An offer of £50,000 would not be enough to make Professor Carpenter back down, but Darcy's board of directors would support him to the fullest against any accusations that might arise in the future.
He had to buy the painting "for Darcy's Mansion", which meant having a bidder in the hall who would do exactly what was ordered without looking like one of Darcy's senior staff .He intended to use Bertram, the chief porter, who was retiring soon.For forty years in the job, he was absolutely loyal, a bit sycophant, but good enough to obey orders.
On the other end of the line, Trupington Gore had put down the receiver and turned to Benny.
"My dear boy, do you really understand what you are doing? Fifty thousand pounds is a lot of money."
"Trust me," Benny said.He sounds confident enough, but he's praying every moment to the cynical god of the early masters that Slade will be too greedy to hide his intentions from the upright and honest Professor Carpenter.
By the end of the month, all of Darcy's senior staff had returned to work.Preparations are in full swing for the autumn's main auction: Victorian Masterpieces on 8 September.
Notes:
Notes: