He turned to Norman Potting. ‘This could be our vehicle, Norman. Modern cars have over a hundred computer and data recording systems – interrogation of these can reveal a range of information about their journeys and drivers – and passengers. Ask this lady, Jo Dillan, if she would let us have her car for a few days and we’ll pay for a loan car. If she’s not cooperative, you’ll need to persuade her. It might help us eliminate Archie Goff – or not. We can get Forensics all over it, and at the same time see what the Collision Investigation team can come up with. I know they sometimes work with an outfit in the US, called Berla, which specializes in forensically examining onboard infotainment systems, and I understand there’s a UK company doing something similar.’
‘Will do, boss,’ Potting replied.
‘The UK company is called Harper Shaw,’ Luke Stanstead said.
Grace thanked him and turned to Wilde. ‘How’ve you been getting on, Velvet?’
‘The Porteous Fine Arts gallery was sold after Charlie’s death, boss, to pay his debt. After what happened, his son went down a different career path and didn’t want to be in the art world any longer,’ she replied. ‘But the new owner, Harvey Myman, an American art dealer, kept on most of the original staff, and they are still there. They were helpful but didn’t add much to what we already know. All I was able to confirm with Carrie Hepworth was that Mr Porteous had seemed very excited about a purchase he had just made, and that if he could prove its provenance, it would be the solution to his cash-flow problems. But he had kept tight-lipped about what the painting was. All his other staff members I spoke to confirmed the same thing. I’m still waiting to re-interview Carrie Hepworth.’
‘So, we are no further forward on that,’ Grace said.
Wilde raised a finger in the air. ‘Well, we might be, boss. Yesterday, I drove out to Twineham, to talk to Mr George Astone. He is the wealthy collector who was interested to see this mysterious painting. As we know, the deceased had made an appointment to show it to Astone at 11 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 16 October. So it does seem very probable that Charlie Porteous had the painting with him at the time of his murder.’
Grace nodded. ‘What did Astone have to say?’
‘Wow, sir, you should have seen his house! It’s more like a palace!’ she said, sounding awed. ‘It is vast, in huge grounds.’
‘Was he ever burgled by Archie Goff?’ Norman Potting interrupted.
‘Not that I know, Norman,’ she said dismissively. ‘George Astone is pretty elderly and wheelchair-bound, very lucid and charming, and had very clear recall. He told me he’d bought a great number of paintings from Porteous over the years – and showed me some of his collection. I’m no expert, but as he took me around it felt like I was in an art gallery. He said that Charlie Porteous had the best nose for paintings of any expert he’d ever met.’
She had everyone’s attention.
‘A couple of days prior to his death, Mr Porteous had apparently phoned Astone, telling him he was certain what he had was a genuine Jean-Honoré Fragonard. That it appeared to be, in his opinion, one of four long-lost paintings Fragonard had made depicting the four seasons. He said these had apparently been documented a long time back in the eighteenth century, hanging in a French aristocrat’s chateau, but had disappeared around the time of the French Revolution, when this particular aristocrat and his family had gone to the guillotine.’
She glanced at her notes. ‘This fits with what we know. I’ve spoken to an art historian called Sir Toby Maguire, who specializes in this period, who said there is documented evidence these paintings had existed, but may well have been destroyed around that time, as they’ve never been seen since. But Mr Porteous believed this particular one, Spring, had survived. He was offering it for sale to Mr Astone for five million pounds, a bargain price considering, if it was genuine, that one recent auction of a Fragonard painting had sold for seventeen million and another, even more recent auction of a less important work went for over six million.’
‘Can we eliminate Astone as a suspect?’ Grace asked.
‘I spoke to our Financial Investigations team. Emily Denyer checked and came back to me. George Astone has a net worth of over three hundred and fifty million pounds and no criminal record or known criminal associations. And he’s been confined to a wheelchair following a stroke in 2012.’
Norman Potting cleared his throat. Everyone turned to look at him.
‘You have something you want to say, Norman?’ Grace asked.
‘Ted Bundy, chief. Just saying.’
Grace frowned. ‘Saying what, exactly?’
‘That serial killer who raped and murdered scores of women used a false plaster cast on his arm. He’d get some of his victims to help him lift something into his van, then whack them over the head.’
‘And your point is?’ he asked curtly.
Potting shrugged. ‘ABC, boss, it’s what you’ve always drummed into us, isn’t it? Assume nothing, Believe no one, Check everything.’
Velvet went on. ‘If George Astone was faking being disabled, he deserves a sodding Oscar. One half of his face is lopsided and his speech is slurred. He has no movement at all in his left arm and can only move two fingers on his right hand, enough to press the buttons on his motorized wheelchair. Luke, as a wheelchair user, what do you think – does it sound like he’s faking his condition?’
‘From what I’ve heard, he needs the wheelchair,’ Luke said.
‘OK?’ She glared at Potting.
‘I surrender, Velvet,’ the DS said. ‘Humble apologies.’
She locked eyes with him for some moments, still glaring, then addressed Roy Grace. ‘Mr Astone also said something that might be of significant interest, sir. He told me he’d heard rumours, through the grapevine, that there was another collector in Sussex who had two of the other three paintings – the other three missing Fragonard Four Seasons.’
‘What was he able to tell you about this collector, Velvet?’ Grace pressed.
She shook her head. ‘He said it was only a rumour, and that was back then, four years ago.’
‘Rumours always come from somewhere,’ Grace said. ‘Did he tell you the source?’
‘No, sir. I did press him on that but he was very dismissive about it.’
‘Do you think he was hiding something?’ Glenn Branson asked.
‘I don’t think so, sir, no. He seemed genuinely upset about the murder – he’d regarded Charlie Porteous as a friend. He said he’d heard that rumour a couple of years earlier but couldn’t remember from whom or where.’
‘Couldn’t remember or didn’t want to say?’ Grace pressed.
‘In my opinion, he genuinely could not remember, sir. Possibly due to his stroke.’
Grace made a note then looked up thoughtfully, before continuing. ‘Polly, I’m giving you the action of becoming an instant authority in French old masters. Find out all the dealers and collectors in Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Hampshire who might have an interest in these paintings – and among the collectors, all those with pockets deep enough to afford to buy a Fragonard.’
He turned to DS Alexander. ‘Jack, although this smacks of being a specifically targeted robbery, the fact that at the same time Charlie Porteous’s valuable Rolex, wallet and wedding band were taken indicates it could simply have been a random street robbery by a prowler in that exclusive neighbourhood. If so, that offender would either have offloaded what he’d stolen to a fence, or would have tried to sell the items himself. There are still many jewellers in the Brighton and Hove environs today who deal in second-hand watches and rings. I think it’s worth talking to them again to see if you can jog any memories. The wedding ring had distinct markings on the reverse, the initials of Porteous and his wife and the date of their wedding.’