Page 85 of The Hallmarked Man
‘The lion passant,’ repeated Pamela, with slight disbelief at Robin’s own lack of knowledge. ‘The mostbasic, common British hallmark. It means the item is sterling silver: point nine two five purity. When Ay explained that to Wrayght, he said “that’s funny”.’
‘“That’s funny,”’ repeated Robin. ‘What was funny about it?’
‘Ay’ve no idea,’ said Pamela. ‘But afterwards, when we found out he was Knowles, Ay thought,Ay should have known, from the name “William Wrayght”. They’re a well-known firm in Sheffield. They make silverware for hospitality. That’ll be where Knowles got the idea. Ay felt so silly for not seeing it.’
‘Mr Ramsay says Wright used the work computer to look things up,’ said Robin.
‘Yes, he visited “Truth About Freemasons” or some such sayte. Ay suppose you could argue he was traying to learn, but there’s no proper information on silverware on a sayte laykethat. Just conspiracy nonsense, and people going on there to discuss masonic plots, and Freemasons arguing with them – nothing about masonicobjects.’
‘Mr Ramsay’s given us the camera footage from the day the Murdoch silver arrived, but we haven’t had a chance to look at it yet,’ Robin fibbed. ‘Was it a normal kind of day?’
‘Yes,’ said Pamela, but there was a slight wariness in her tone. ‘Well – not with the Murdoch silver arrayving. But otherwayse it was normal.’
‘Mr Ramsay told us the silver arrived late,’ said Robin.
‘It did, yes. He’s been sacked – the delivery man from Gibsons. Ay’dhad dealings with him once before. Name of Larry McGee. Careless, not at all the kaynd of person you’d trust with valuable deliveries. Ay’m not surpraysed Gibsons got rid of him.’
‘The silver was meant to arrive at lunchtime, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, but it didn’t get there until a quarter past three, and then McGee refused to carry it down to the vault, just dumped the crates in the middle of the shop, so Ay had to call Todd to come and help Wrayght lift it. Todd does Frayday afternoons at an office on Kingsway that closes at lunchtime, so he was nearby.’
‘And did anyone open the crates, to check the silver?’ asked Robin.
‘Yes, of course, Ay did mayself. Ay’m very careful about security, Ay wasn’t going to let those two handle valuable objects without me present. Ay opened the vault for them, and once they’d carried the crates inside, and were back upstairs, Ay went down, and took off the lids mayself.That’swhen Ay opened the big crate and found McGee had deliveredourthings to Ramsays, so Ay knew the Oriental Centrepiece must behere. Wrayght went to fetch it from may husband.’ For a second, Pamela looked as though she might cry again, but she took a deep breath then said, ‘Afterwards, if you can believe it –after everything that had happened! –Kenneth grumbled that Ay’d bought a few things from the collection for Bullens. Said Ay’d broken a gentlemen’s agreement. Absolute nonsense! Nothing we bought was masonic, just a few nayce bits of general silverware. Ay think Kenneth believes anything A. H. Murdochtouchedis his, by divayne rayte!’
‘He’s a personal fan of A. H. Murdoch, then?’ said Robin.
‘Oh, yes. Murdoch wrote books, you know. Kenneth’s got all of them. He belongs to some grotty little lodge in Lewisham – Kenneth, not A. H. Murdoch. May father was a mason, too, that’s whay Bullen & Co had a little saydlayne in masonic goods while he was alayve, but Daddy wasn’t anywherenearas silly about it all as Kenneth.’
‘So, once you’d put the Murdoch silver in the vault, it was a completely normal day?’ asked Robin. ‘You closed at the usual time, and so forth?’
A fractional pause followed, in which Robin was certain Pamela was reminding herself that she was caught on camera.
‘Ay had to leave a little early. Ay had anawfulheadache,’ said Pamela. ‘Ay’ve had them ever since the laser surgery.’
‘You got a text, didn’t you?’ said Robin casually. ‘Just before you left?’
‘What?’ said Pamela. ‘Oh – yes…’
Tears rose suddenly in Pamela’s eyes again.
‘Ay don’t want to talk about that. It had nothing to do with any of this, the Murdoch silver, or Wrayght. Ay asked Todd to man the shop until Wrayght got back. Everything was quayte safe. And then I went home.’
Leaving untouched the question of how Wright and Todd were supposed to have locked the door, set the alarm or opened the vault to place the centrepiece in it, Robin said,
‘I don’t suppose there’s any possibility of you giving us a clip of yourownfootage – just from when William Wright came here that Friday, to pick up the centrepiece?’
‘Well… Ay don’t see why not,’ said Pamela, still sniffing, but turning to her keyboard. Coffee and sympathy appeared to have softened her considerably. ‘But you won’t faynd it very helpful, Ay’m afraid. He’s only visible for a few seconds.’
When the segment of footage had been forwarded to her email, Robin said,
‘Would you mind looking at a picture for me?’
She took a copy of Rupert Fleetwood’s photo from her bag and held it out.
‘Our client would like to know whether this could have been William Wright.’
Pamela raised her reading glasses and peered at Rupert in his burgundy waiter’s uniform. Robin could tell she was having difficulty focusing. When Pamela shook her head, her stiffly lacquered hair didn’t move at all.
