Page 7 of The Trick of the Treasure
“Did the footman wait with you?” Solomon asked.
“No, I sent him back to his dinner duties. I never open the strong room door when anyone is watching.”
“Did you wrestle the chest in here by yourself, then?” Constance asked.
Lloyd smiled slightly. “I didn’t need to. Sydney and I moved it together.”
“Then your son saw you open and close the strong room door?”
“Yes, but he already knew how. I showed him on his eighteenth birthday. I live an adventurous life, which is not without its dangers. It seemed only sensible that someone else should know, in case of my death.”
Carefully, Solomon did not glance at Constance. There seemed to be several things Lloyd had not thought to mention at their initial interview. “Who else knows how to open it?”
“Only the locksmith. And there is a sealed note with my solicitor with instructions.”
“Perhaps you would give us the directions of both these gentlemen?”
“If you wish, but I can assure you, they were not in the house last night. I employ a night porter and the doors are locked every night. In any case, even if they were not the most respected men in their professions, how would they have known the treasure was there that particular night?”
“What else do you keep there?” Constance asked. “Money? Jewels?”
“From time to time. But it would hardly be fair to deprive my wife of her jewelry for months at a time while I am out of the country.”
“When was all this security installed?” Solomon asked.
“About ten years ago, when I brought the first treasure home.”
“Then this was not your first?” Constance moved past the men and out into the passage.
“No, we found a wreck on a sand bank, close in to the Jamaican coast.”
Solomon looked up quickly. Everything to do with the island of his birth drew his attention. “When were you in Jamaica?”
“Oh, must have been ten years ago? 1842.”
Too late. His brother David had vanished from Jamaican shores ten years before that.
“The wreck had gone down during the earthquake of 1692,” Lloyd continued, “and was never found until I did so, with the aid of some other sea divers. At low tide, we could reach it and bring things up. Not quite as fabulous as my African treasure—mainly gold and silver plate—but it gave me a taste for treasure seeking.”
“Then you had the strong room installed while you were away?” Solomon asked.
Lloyd looked slightly sheepish. “No, I commissioned it when I came home. I’m afraid I kept the valuables under the bed until I sold what we did not wish to keep. So you see, my house, and my household, is secure. But the strong room was common sense. It even has a special coating to help protect it from fire. And the other valuable artifacts I obtained after it was built—from Egypt and Greece and the Middle East—have been stored quite safely in the room from time to time. Have you seen enough?”
“For now, yes, thank you,” Solomon said, backing into the passage and watching Lloyd close and relock the door, going through the same motions as for unlocking, only in reverse.
Constance asked, “Did the same people as now live in the house ten years ago, when you installed the strong room?”
Lloyd blinked at her. “Of course.”
“Even the servants?”
He led them into a bright, pleasant room, scattered with antique vases and exquisite ornaments carved from wood and marble that he had no doubt brought home from his travels.
“Yes, mostly,” he said, closing the door and gesturing for them to be seated. “Garrick, of course—the butler—has been here since my father’s time. So have the cook and the night porter. I can’t really remember when the younger staff joined us, but most of them came from our country estate in Berkshire. Loyal people.”
“What doyouthink happened here, Mr. Lloyd?” Constance asked.
“If I knew, I would not have consulted you,” he said sharply.
