Page 40 of The Hallmarked Man
‘Yes, and Jim would’ve seen a bit of him, too. More than me. As I say, I’ve been very busy, but it was important to keep the shop going. It’s our baby, you know, and—’
Ramsay’s voice broke, and Robin, thinking again of the dead son, said,
‘This must all have been incredibly difficult for you.’
‘It has,’ said Ramsay hoarsely. ‘Yes. It has.’
His gaze roved, apparently absent-mindedly, back to Robin’s chest. She folded her arms and he looked hastily away.
‘So William Wright was on your security footage, all that Friday the seventeenth of June?’ said Strike, his tone less sympathetic than Robin’s. He’d noticed the ogling.
‘Yes, yes, we’ve always got the camera on, in case of shoplifters. The police took that footage away, after the burglary, or – no, maybe it’s still on here,’ said Ramsay, peering dimly at the computer, ‘but I wouldn’t know how to…’
‘Could I have a look?’ asked Robin. ‘We’ve got a similar camera feed in our office. I might be able to find it.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Ramsay. ‘Password,’ he muttered, and after a couple of attempts, he succeeded in entering it correctly, then ceded his chair to Robin.
‘I understand Wright left the shop for a while, that Friday?’ said Strike.
‘Yes, very briefly, in the afternoon,’ said Ramsay, taking Robin’s vacated seat. ‘Stupid thing. The delivery driver mixed up two crates. Sent the Oriental Lodge centrepiece – you’ll see it in the catalogue, magnificent, it really is – to Bullen & Co by mistake, and delivered some of the thingsthey’dbought to us. Pamela realised what had happened and sent Wright out to Bullens to get it back. Embarrassing for Pamela, actually,’ said Ramsay, his face growing a little pinker. ‘If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have known she and her husband had bid on some of the Murdoch collection. We had a gentlemen’s agreement that Bullen & Co wouldn’t set themselves up in competition with us.Wewere to concentrate on masonic silver.’
‘And Wright brought this centrepiece back, did he?’ said Strike.
‘Yes, in a taxi. He wasn’t gone long. The Silver Vaults are only just up the road.’
‘I think,’ said Robin, her eyes on the computer monitor, ‘I might be able to download the relevant camera footage. Would you be comfortable with us taking a copy, Mr Ramsay?’
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said Ramsay.
‘Would you have phone numbers for Pamela Bullen-Driscoll and Jim Todd?’ Strike asked.
Ramsay gave them. Strike now brought out the photograph of Rupert Fleetwood that Decima had given him.
‘In your opinion, is there any possibility that William Wright was this man?’
Ramsay glanced down at Rupert Fleetwood.
‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘No, no. What is he – a waiter? Wright wore glasses, and had a beard. He was dark.’
‘Disregarding the outfit,’ said Strike, ‘and trying to picture this man with a beard, and dyed hair—’
‘No, no,’ repeated Ramsay, who seemed annoyed, ‘no, he doesn’t look at all like Knowles.’
Strike took the picture back.
‘Did the police show you pictures of two men called Niall Semple and Tyler Powell?’
‘Yes, yes, but it wasn’t them, it was Knowles,’ said Ramsay, now almost agitated. ‘I’mcertainit was Knowles.’
‘OK,’ said Strike, making a note. ‘Did anyone offer you a different nef for sale, around the time Wright came to work here?’
‘A different nef?’ said Ramsay, confused. ‘No, theCarolina Merchant’s the only one we’ve ever had in stock. We don’t deal in ornamental objects that aren’t masonic.’
‘Right,’ said Strike, making another note. ‘And is there anything you remember about Wright that seemed odd, or distinctive?’
‘No, not at all. As I say, I didn’t really – oh, but there were the things he searched for. The police found that out.’
‘“Things he searched for”?’
