I’m walking all over your case, he said to himself. And when it’s done and dusted, I’ll be right and you’ll be wrong… and I’ll be the one staring promotion in the face.
The three unlocked vaults were still open, or had been reopened this morning to allow the forensic team further access. There were plenty of paintings left inside. The ones the gang had taken would be allowed home only after their examination was complete. They’d already been declared unharmed and genuine – verifications made by Professor Robert Gissing – but they would still be checked for fingerprints and fibres. The journalist on TV last night had talked of the ‘relief felt by the arts community here in Scotland, and doubtless further afield as well’. Fine, but why abandon the van? Media speculation had been brief – the gang had been disturbed and had panicked. They’d been unloading the paintings, probably transferring them to another vehicle. A member of the public had become suspicious and had called it in. (Ransome had already asked his pal at Hendricks’ station for news of the caller’s identity – seemed no name had been given, and the caller’s number had yet to be traced.) The alarm, of course, had already been raised by the guard at the gatehouse – he’d provided a description of the van along with its licence number. (Stolen a couple of days previously from a street in Broxburn.) The licence plate was fake but the owner, a painter-and-decorator, had ID’d the van, annoyed to find that the tools of his trade had been ditched somewhere along the way.
So: a successful heist, followed by a botched transfer and the abandonment of the treasure. To Hendricks, this all made sense… but not to Ransome. Abandoning the van? Yes, maybe. But why not take at least a few of the paintings? The reckoning was that between six and ten men must have been involved, and only eight paintings recovered, the largest measuring five feet by four, even framed. Why leave them? After all that meticulous planning and the perfect execution… Were these the sorts of men likely to be spooked by a passing motorist or dog-walker? They were toting guns, for Christ’s sake – what could they possibly have had to fear?
The more Ransome thought about it – and he didn’t think he’d managed much more sleep than Alasdair Noone over the past twenty-odd hours – the less sense it made. His conclusions were simple: maybe it was an inside job and maybe not, but there’d been no cause for panic on the part of the thieves.
So here he was, giving up his Sunday morning to examine the scene and possibly ask a few questions and glean a few more facts of his own. He looked into all three unlocked vaults. The paintings were stored in racks, sideways on, with brown cardboard tags, which identified them only by numbers. Another reason for the inside job theory – if the art had been stolen to order, someone had known what they were getting. Who would have access to the numbering system, besides the staff? His pal back at Hendricks’ station hadn’t been able to answer that. The same SOCO Ransome had spoken to at Marine Drive yesterday had just finished running some sort of torch over the floor in one of the vaults.
‘Anything?’ Ransome asked.
‘A few fibres… half a footprint. Probably won’t mean much.’
‘They’ll have dumped the clothing?’ Ransome speculated.
The SOCO nodded. ‘So far, the only strands of hair we’ve found are synthetic.’
‘Wigs?’ Ransome reasoned, receiving another dispirited nod.
‘I’ve got a caseload piling up while I waste my time here.’
‘Haven’t we all?’ Ransome turned away and headed back towards the guardroom. During the heist, the guards and visitors had been herded inside and made to crouch on the floor. They hadn’t seen anything useful, so far as Ransome was aware. Nor had they heard anything. Their captors had communicated by means of grunts. One thing the curator in charge of the tour had pointed out – the men who’d held them had seemed younger than the ones doing the actual thieving. Glenn’s words came back to Ransome: Four or five schemies with pool cues… Glenn had been thinking of the lads as a gang to intimidate Hate. But maybe he’d been wrong. The younger thieves hadn’t worn much by way of disguise either – just baseball caps pulled low and scarves muffling mouth and nose. Ransome couldn’t see anyone in the guardroom, so stepped inside. There were TV screens, working again now and showing interior and exterior views of the warehouse. Coverage of the gatehouse was hopeless – the camera was trained on the vehicle barrier. You could make out half the gatehouse but nothing of the pedestrian walkway beyond it. He knew that Hendricks had already complained to the galleries boss about this. Ransome sat himself down at the desk and peered through the window into the warehouse proper. You couldn’t see the relevant vaults from here in any case. The warehouse and its contents were sitting targets – amazing no one had thought to turn the place over sooner…
There was a knock at the open door. Ransome turned his head sharply, fully expecting to see his nemesis, but it was someone else – someone he recognised. Professor Robert Gissing.
‘Oh,’ the academic began, clearly flustered. ‘I was looking for DI Hendricks…’
Ransome was on his feet, taking a step forwards. ‘He’s not here,’ he ventured, offering his hand. ‘I’m a colleague, DI Ransome.’
‘Yes, I saw you at Marine Drive.’
‘Did you?’
‘What about Alasdair Noone?’ Gissing was staring down at his shoes.
‘He’s around somewhere.’
‘Thank you.’ Eyes still directed floorwards. ‘I’d better have a word with him.’
But Ransome wasn’t about to let him go without a fight. ‘Professor?’
Gissing hesitated. ‘Yes?’ Eventually raising his eyes to meet the detective’s gaze.
Ransome was right in his face now. Gissing was a good inch and a half taller than him, but that meant nothing. ‘Just wondered if I could have your take on things, sir. Bungled robbery – someone on the inside – is that your reading of it?’
Gissing folded his arms – defensive again – then gave a pout and looked thoughtful. ‘I dare say more fanciful scenarios exist – I’ve seen them in today’s newspapers. But my job’s not to make wild guesses, Inspector.’
‘That’s right, sir. Your job was to verify the paintings – but you did that yesterday… so what brings you here this morning?’
Gissing straightened his back. ‘My attendance was requested by Alasdair Noone. He seems to think I may be able to pinpoint any gaps in the holdings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish art.’
‘Because that’s what the thieves took?’
‘Indeed.’
‘Pretty specialised market, would you say, sir?’
‘Hardly – there are collectors from Canada to Shanghai.’
‘Your field of expertise, though?’
‘I suppose so, yes.’
‘Well, I’d better let you get on – inventory’s well underway already. ’
For the first time, Gissing seemed to notice the activity going on around them.
‘Due to happen in a few weeks anyway, wasn’t it?’ Ransome added. ‘Robbery just speeded it up.’