There was no reply.
Samantha laid her head back and closed her eyes. She felt drained, exhausted with a nervous kind of tiredness which would not let her relax. She wanted some pills, but they were all gone. Tom could go out and get her more, if only he would come out of his trance.
There was a knock at the front door. At last Tom moved. He looked at the doorway, warily, like a trapped animal. Samantha heard Anita′s footsteps along the hall. There was a muted conversation.
Suddenly several pairs of feet were coming down the stairs. Tom stood up.
The three men did not look at Samantha.
Two of them were heavily built, and carried themselves gracefully like athletes. The third was short. He wore a coat with a velvet collar.
It was the short one who spoke. ″You′ve let the governor down, Tom. He′s less than pleased. He wants words with you.″
Tom moved fast, but the two big men were faster. As he went for the door, one of them stuck out a foot and the other pushed Tom over it.
They picked him up, each holding an arm. There was a curious, almost sexual smile on the short man′s face. He punched Tom′s stomach with both fists, many times. He carried on long after Tom had slumped, eyes closed, in the grip of the other two.
Samantha opened her mouth wide, but she could not scream.
The little man slapped Tom′s face until his eyes opened. The four of them left the room.
Samantha heard the front door slam. Her phone rang. She picked it up automatically, and listened.
ʺOh, Joe,″ she said. ʺJoe, thank God you′re there.″ Then she began to cry.
For the second time in two days, Julian knocked on the door of Dunroamin. Moore looked surprised when he opened up.
″This time I′ve got the original,ʺ Julian said.
Moore smiled. ″I hope you have,″ he said. ″Come in, lad.″
This time he led the way to the laboratory without preamble. ″Give it here, then.″
Julian handed the picture over. ″I had a stroke of luck.ʺ
″I′ll bet you did. I think you′d better not tell me the details.″ Moore took out his teeth and dismantled the frame of the painting. ″It looks exactly like yesterday′s.″
″Yesterday′s was a copy.″
″And now you want the Gaston Moore seal of approval.″ Moore picked up his knife and scraped a minuscule quantity of paint off the edge of the canvas. He poured the liquid into the test tube and dipped the knife in.
They both waited in silence.
″Looks as though it′s all right,ʺ said Julian after a couple of minutes.
″Don′t rush.″
They watched again.
″No!″ Julian shouted.
The paint was dissolving in the fluid, just like yesterday.
″Another disappointment. I′m sorry, lad.″
Julian banged his fist on the bench in fury. ″How?″ he hissed. ʺI can′t see how!″
Moore put his teeth in again. ″Look here, lad. A forgery is a forgery. But no one copies it. Someone′s gone to the trouble of making two of these. There′s almost certain to be an original somewhere, I reckon. Maybe you could find it. Could you look for it?′
Julian stood up straight. The emotion had washed out of his face now, and he looked defeated, yet dignified—as if the battle no longer mattered, because he had worked out how it had been lost.
″I know exactly where it is,″ he said. ″And there′s absolutely nothing I can do about it.″
V
DEE WAS LYING IN a sack chair, naked, when Mike walked into the Regent′s Park flat and shrugged off his coat.
″I think it′s sexy,″ she said.
″It′s just a coat,″ he replied.
″Mike Arnaz, you are insufferably narcissistic,″ she laughed. ″I meant the picture.″
He dropped his coat on the carpet and came to sit on the floor beside her. They both gazed at the painting on the wall.
The women were unmistakably Modigliani′s women: they had long, narrow faces, the characteristic noses, the inscrutable expressions. But that was where the similarity to the rest of his work ended.
They were thrown together in a jumble of limbs and torsos, distorted and tangled, and mixed up with bits of background: towels, flowers, tables. So far, it prefigured the work Picasso was doing—but keeping secret—in the last years of Modigliani′s life. What was different again was the coloring. It was psychedelic: startling pinks, oranges, purples, and greens, painted hard and dear, quite out of period. The color bore no relation to the objects colored: a leg could be green, an apple blue, a woman′s hair turquoise.
″It doesn′t turn me on,″ Mike said finally. ″Not that-away, anyhow.″ He turned away from the picture and laid his head on Dee′s thigh. ″This, however, does.″
She touched his curly hair with her hand. ″Mike, do you think much about it?″
″Nope.″
″I do. I think what a terrible, loathsome, brilliant pair of crooks you and I are. Look what we′ve got: this beautiful painting, for practically nothing; material for my thesis; and fifty thousand pounds each.″ She giggled.
Mike closed his eyes. ″Sure, honey.″
Dee shut her eyes, and they both remembered a peasant bar in an Italian village.
Dee entered the bar first, and saw with a shock that the short, dark-haired, dapper man they had sent on a wild-goose chase that morning was already there.
Mike thought faster. He hissed in her ear: ″If I leave, keep him talking.″
Dee recovered her composure quickly and walked up to the dapper man′s table. ″I′m surprised you′re still here,″ she said pleasantly.
The man stood up. ″So am I,″ he said. ″Will you join me?″
The three of them sat around the table. ″What will it be?″ the man asked.
″My turn, I think,″ Mike said. He turned to the back of the bar. ″Two whiskies, one beer,″ he called.
″My name is Lipsey, by the way.″
″I am Michael Arnaz and this is Dee Sleign.″
″How do you do?″ There was a flicker of surprise in Lipsey′s eyes at the name Arnaz.
Another man had come into the bar. He looked over at their table.
He hesitated, then said: ″I saw the English number plates. May I join you?
″I′m Julian Black,″ the third man said, and they all introduced themselves.
″It′s strange to find so many English people in a little out-of the-way place like this,″ Black said.
Lipsey smiled. ″These two are looking for a lost masterpiece,″ he said indulgently.
Black said: ″Then you must be Dee Sleign. I′m looking for the same picture.″
Mike cut in quickly. ″And Mr. Lipsey is also looking for the picture, although he′s the only one who hasn′t been candid about it.″ Lipsey opened his mouth to speak, but Mike forestalled him. ″However, you′re both too late. I have the picture already. It′s in the trunk of my car. Would you like to see it?″
Without waiting for a reply he got up and left the bar. Dee covered up her astonishment and remembered her instructions.
Lipsey said: ″Well, well, well.″
″Tell me,″ Dee said. ″It was only chance that led me to this picture. How did you two get on to it?″
″I′m going to be honest with you,″ Black said. ″You wrote a postcard to a mutual friend of ours—Sammy Winacre—and I saw it. I′m setting up my own gallery right now, and I couldn′t resist the temptation to have a go.″