The Rembrandt Secret (21 page)

‘How?’

‘Owen couldn’t resist letting a little information slip, and word got out, rumours about Owen Zeigler’s theory. That stupid theory! His father – old Zeigler – had put the idea in Owen’s head a long time ago, but when he left the Rembrandt letters to his son, it wasn’t a theory anymore, it was fact. Before that, it had been just one more art theory, one more ludicrous hypothesis the dealers indulge in all the time. Their pet theories about their pet artists, always trying to prove a new artistic Eucharist. The art world everywhere – London, New York, Amsterdam – is populated with conjecture. But most theories are unproven.’ He held Marshall’s gaze. ‘But when Owen inherited the letters he had
proof
.’

Marshall took in a breath. ‘Did he tell anyone?’

‘He told me. And I imagine that he told Samuel Hemmings. Hemmings was his mentor, after all, they’d talked about the Rembrandt theory for years, on and off. I suspect Teddy Jack knew as well, and I
know
for certain that Charlotte Gorday knew.’ Nicolai glanced away from Marshall. ‘She was lying to you.’

‘What?’

‘When she said she’d no idea what your father was worried about, she was lying. Testing you, trying to discover whether you knew about them. Trying to find out if you had them.’ Nicolai paused, ill at ease, sweating. ‘Did you tell her you had them?’

Marshall paused, seeing the trap. ‘I never said I had them.’

‘I posted them to you! I know you have them,’ Nicolai replied, his voice rising, then falling into a monotone. ‘After your father died, I mailed them to you in Amsterdam. I used an old envelope your father had addressed to you, but never sent, so you would be sure to open it. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know what your father would have wanted. I just wanted to get them rid of them… I’m sorry,’ he said at last. ‘I panicked. I hadn’t the courage to burn them.’

Transfixed, Marshall stared at the frightened man.

‘Before you sent them to me, did you read them?’

Exasperated Nicolai threw up his hands. ‘How could I? I don’t speak Dutch. But I knew
you
could read them.’

‘What about Charlotte Gorday?’

‘She spoke the language, as does Samuel Hemmings. He speaks and reads it fluently, as your father did. Probably better than your father did. I know what was in the letters only because your father told me. I imagine he told Teddy Jack too. After all,
he
couldn’t read them.’ Nicolai sat up in his seat, perched uneasily. ‘You
can’t
suspect me, Marshall! Not now. I had those letters in my hand, I could have kept them, used them. Not told anyone
.
Think about it
. If I’d wanted them, I had them. There was nothing to stop me from keeping them, but I sent them to you. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, maybe I shouldn’t have involved you – but you’re Owen’s son, and there was no one else I could trust.’

‘What about Charlotte Gorday? She’d been in my father’s life for eighteen years. She loved him. Why didn’t you trust her?’

‘Why?’ Nicolai asked wearily.

‘Yes. Why didn’t you trust her?’

‘Because she was blackmailing your father, that’s why,’ Nicolai replied, turning to the window and looking out onto the London skyline. ‘And now she’s dead.’

Before Marshall could respond to Nicolai Kapinski’s revelations, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and turned to see Teddy Jack walking into the office. He didn’t seem surprised to see Marshall and nodded, glancing over to Nicolai. The difference between the two men was marked; the accountant small, nervy; Teddy Jack in a denim shirt and jeans, casual, relaxed. He seemed completely altered from the disturbed man Marshall had rescued; his physical size all the more impressive against the diminutive stature of the accountant.

‘How are you?’ Teddy asked Marshall. ‘I was hoping to see you.’

‘I’m good, thanks.’

Settling himself in one of the old armchairs, Teddy looked around him, seeming at ease as someone can be only when they know their surroundings well. For a moment Marshall was the one who felt out of place.

Waiting to hear what else Nicolai was going to tell him,
Marshall said, ‘Well, go on Nicolai. What were you saying about Charlotte Gorday?’

‘You know about her?’ Teddy asked.

‘Yes, and apparently you must have done too. You don’t look at all surprised.’

‘Your father wanted to be discreet—’

‘For eighteen years? That’s a lot of discretion.’ Marshall leant on the desk and looked from one man to the other. He felt uncomfortably cornered, as though they were accomplices in something from which he had been deliberately excluded – and he was unexpectedly angered. His father’s secrets seemed to be a link between the two men, and their complicity exacerbated Marshall’s growing guilt. To find himself cut out of his own father’s confidences had been hard – but he knew he had no right to expect otherwise. After all, they had not shared an intimate bond. But to find himself begging for crumbs of information was humiliating.

‘Did anyone else know about her?’

Teddy shook his head. ‘No. Only us.’

‘But you heard what happened to her?’

‘She’s dead.’

It was a statement of fact, without emotion, and seemed chilling to Marshall. How did Teddy Jack know about Charlotte Gorday’s death so quickly? And Nicolai?

‘She committed suicide.’

Marshall could hear Nicolai clear his throat, and a look passed between him and Teddy Jack. After a moment, the big man shrugged. ‘I don’t think it was suicide.’

‘You think she was killed?’

‘We both think she was killed,’ Teddy replied, glancing over to the accountant for confirmation.

‘Because she was blackmailing my father?’

This time it was Teddy Jack’s turn to look surprised. Leaning forward in his chair, he stared at Marshall.

‘Who told you that?’

‘Nicolai did. Just now.’

Slowly he turned to the accountant. He seemed almost hurt to have been excluded. ‘Why was she blackmailing him?’

‘I don’t know—’

‘Of course you know!’ Teddy snorted. ‘Unless you’ve just made it up – which wouldn’t surprise me. You were always trying to make out that the boss preferred you, that he confided in you more than he confided in me.’ He rubbed his big hands together sheepishly, moderating his tone. ‘He would have told me if Charlotte Gorday was blackmailing him.’

But Nicolai wasn’t going to back down. Instead he laid his hands flat on the desk in front of him, a smudge of triumph in his voice.

‘I wondered if you knew. Sorry to spring it on you,’ Nicolai said lightly.

‘I don’t believe it.’

‘It’s true.’

‘But
why
would she blackmail him?’

Marshall studied Teddy Jack as Teddy waited for his answer. His eyes closed for an instant then opened again, fixing on Nicolai. ‘I’m not playing fucking silly games.’

Nicolai coloured. ‘Neither am I! The only person who played games is dead. Charlotte Gorday blackmailed Owen because of the letters.’

The words were out, Marshall watching the interplay between the two men.

‘She’d known about the letters for a while,’ Teddy countered. ‘Why would she suddenly blackmail him now?’

‘Charlotte Gorday wanted him to sell them and use the money to clear his debts,’ Nicolai replied, his tone even. He seemed almost smug that he had been privy to the confidences of the dead man. ‘She badgered him about it, said they could find a buyer, raise a fortune, but Owen wouldn’t have any of it.’

‘How d’you know this?’ Marshall asked.

‘I overheard an argument they had,’ Nicolai replied. ‘I’d known about the letters for months. I advised your father not to tell her about them – I thought it would be dangerous.’

Angered, Teddy Jack lashed out. ‘
He trusted her!
’

‘And look where it got him!’ Nicolai retorted. He turned back to Marshall. ‘Charlotte loved your father, but she didn’t understand what the business meant to him, what his reputation meant. Your father would
never
have exposed those letters – and never ever for money. He’d been looking for them for years; it was like a pilgrimage, the Holy Grail. He would have protected those letters with his life.’

‘He did,’ Marshall replied coldly.

‘Yes … he did.’ The emotion suddenly drained from Nicolai’s voice. ‘I think Charlotte believed that she had
found someone to buy the letters. Maybe when Owen didn’t agree to sell them she had to disappoint the buyer and go back on her word.’

‘And was killed for it?’ Marshall said.

‘I don’t know for sure. Maybe.’

Shaking his head, Teddy smiled knowingly. ‘You’ve got it all wrong. Charlotte Gorday could have sold the letters any time she wanted to – because she had them.’

That certainly surprised Marshall who, out of the corner of his eye, saw Nicolai look over to him. Marshall had been hearing many things about his father’s intricate relationships, but now, finally, he was seeing the results of Owen Zeigler’s mendacity. His father had told everyone
part
of his story, never confiding fully in anyone, so that each person ended up with their own version of the truth. He thought back on Nicolai’s earlier words:
Your father kept all of us apart, without appearing to – left a little bit of suspicion between us – his way of making sure we would always be on our guard with each other.

Marshall stole a cautious glance at Nicolai. He could see he had been wrong-footed, and wondered which way he would jump; whether he would tell Teddy that the letters were now in Marshall’s possession or stay silent and keep the knowledge to himself.

‘So where are the letters now?’

Teddy’s expression gave nothing away. ‘Whoever killed Charlotte Gorday must have them.’

‘And who killed her?’ Nicolai asked him.

Teddy Jack didn’t answer immediately. Marshall stared
at him, registering the huge hands, the thick shoulders, the muscled forearms. A powerful, dominant man. A man capable of violence, indeed once imprisoned for it. But murder? Marshall, less certain of that, recalled how he had found Teddy Jack almost suffocated in the packing case. Was it a real attempt on his life, or a set-up? Something he had organised to throw suspicion off himself?

‘How would I know who killed Charlotte Gorday?’ Teddy asked, staring at the accountant. ‘You think
I
did?’

‘I never said that, I—’

‘Jesus, you fucking prat!’ Teddy shouted. ‘You pen-pushing, shiny-arsed bookkeeper. You think that you knew what went on in Owen Zeigler’s life? You knew what he
wanted
you to know—’

‘I knew more than you did!’

Teddy laughed. ‘Owen didn’t trust you, Nicolai. He told me that many times. He liked you, felt sorry for you, but he didn’t trust you.’ Teddy paused, deftly positioning the final blow. ‘He thought you were crazy, did you know that? He used to send me to Poland to find that brother of yours, and sometimes laugh about it behind your back –
there’s no brother
, he’d say.
Poor Nicolai, not right in the head. But we have to be seen to be doing the right thing.
He pitied you.’

His eyes bulging, Nicolai stared at the big man. Marshall stepped between them. ‘Stop it. Let it drop.’

But Teddy Jack ignored him. ‘He thought you were a good accountant though,’ he continued. ‘A creepy little shit, but good with the books—’

‘Shut up!’ Marshall shouted, as Nicolai looked away, clearly shaken, breathing heavily. He stared out over the rooftops, hardly moving, and Marshall expected him to turn back to Teddy Jack at any moment. To tell him he was wrong. That Charlotte Gorday didn’t have the letters, that
he
had sent them to Marshall. He could feel the shudder of injury come from the Pole, but – to his impressed surprise – Nicolai kept his counsel.

‘I have to go,’ he said finally, getting to his feet. He picked up his briefcase and swiftly made for the stairs.

Marshall ran after him, finding Nicolai already out in the street when he caught up with him.

‘Wait!’ he called out, catching the little man’s arm. He could see that Nicolai was close to tears, fighting emotion, desperate not to make a fool of himself. ‘I don’t believe my father said any of those things. I know he relied on you, Nicolai, and I know for certain he liked you.’

Dumbly, the Pole nodded.

‘Why didn’t you tell Teddy Jack that I have the letters?’

‘Because I wanted him to think the letters had been taken. Because I wanted to keep you safe,’ Nicolai said finally, his voice wavering. ‘You see, there’s something you have to understand. It wasn’t me your father didn’t trust – it was Teddy Jack.’

Waking early, Samuel Hemmings reached for his glasses on the bedside table, put them on and watched the bedroom come back into focus. Outside the window, he could hear a blackbird, the spare branches of a winter tree just visible from where he lay. He seemed surprised at first that he had not been disturbed, then amused, pleased that no one could see his embarrassment. Slowly, Samuel sat up, struggling to move his legs over the side of the bed and get himself into his wheelchair. He still had some little use of his lower limbs, but preserved it as much as he could, preferring to be out of the wheelchair only when necessary – or when he needed to seem younger. People, he knew only too well, could be bigoted. Look, sound and act like an old man, and no one listened to you anymore.

And Samuel liked to be listened to. It tickled his vanity that people admired him; appealed to his personal ego that he could still command respect or incite an argument. Wheeling himself into the hall, he turned off the alarm, hardly believing how nervous he had been the previous
night. But then that was what the dark did to everyone. When the light faded, no man was completely brave. At the front door, he unbolted the main locks, leaving only the Chubb on so that Mrs McKendrick could let herself in. Reaching into the wire letter tray, he took out the papers and two letters, wheeled himself into his study and shut the door behind him.

His gaze moved over to the dog bed and then back to his post. Nothing of any importance caught his attention, so he turned his thoughts to what had been occupying them the previous night – his solicitor’s visit. Never before had he thought of making preparations for his death: his funeral, the partitioning of his assets. But since Owen’s murder, Samuel had been determined to put his affairs in order as soon as possible, hence the visit from his so-licitor that afternoon.