In the Frame - By Dick Francis Page 0,8

made him suspicious… It was a good deal my fault that he was so bloody to you.’

He shook his head tiredly. ‘I would have told him myself. I wouldn’t have thought of not telling him.’

‘But… I even pointed out that it must have taken a fair time to move so many bottles.’

‘Mm. Well, he would have worked that out for himself.’

‘How long, in fact, do you think it would have taken?’

‘Depends how many people were doing it,’ he said, rubbing his hand over his face and squeezing his tired eyes. ‘They would have to have had proper wine boxes in any case. That means they had to know in advance that the wine was there, and didn’t just chance on it. And that means… Frost says… that I sold it myself some time ago and am now saying it is stolen so I can claim fraudulent insurance, or, if it was stolen last Friday, that I told the thieves they’d need proper boxes, which means that I set up the whole frightful mess myself.’

We thought it over in depressed silence. Eventually, I said, ‘Who did know you had the wine there? And who knew the house was always empty on Fridays? And was the prime target the wine, the antiques, or the paintings?’

‘God, Charles, you sound like Frost.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Every business nowadays,’ he said defensively, ‘is going through a cash crisis. Look at the nationalised industries, losing money by the million. Look at the wage rises and the taxes and the inflation… How can any small business make the profit it used to? Of course we have a cash flow problem. Whoever hasn’t?’

‘How bad is yours?’ I said.

‘Not critical. Bad enough. But not within sight of liquidation. It’s illegal for a limited company to carry on trading if it can’t cover its costs.’

‘But it could… if you could raise more capital to prop it up?’

He surveyed me with the ghost of a smile. ‘It surprises me still that you chose to paint for a living.’

‘It gives me a good excuse to go racing whenever I like.’

‘Lazy sod.’ He sounded for a second like the old Donald, but the lightness passed. ‘The absolutely last thing I would do would be to use my own personal assets to prop up a dying business. If my firm was that rocky, I’d wind it up. It would be mad not to.’

I sucked my teeth. ‘I suppose Frost asked if the stolen things were insured for more than their worth?’

‘Yes, he did. Several times.’

‘Not likely you’d tell him, even if they were.’

‘They weren’t, though.’

‘No.’

‘Under-insured, if anything.’ He sighed. ‘God knows if they’ll pay up for the Munnings. I’d only arranged the insurance by telephone. I hadn’t actually sent the premium.’

‘It should be all right, if you can give them proof of purchase, and so on.’

He shook his head listlessly. ‘All the papers to do with it were in the desk in the hall. The receipt from the gallery where I bought it, the letter of provenance, and the customs and excise receipt. All gone.’

‘Frost won’t like that.’

‘He doesn’t.’

‘Well… I hope you pointed out that you would hardly be buying expensive pictures and going on world trips if you were down to your last farthing.’

‘He said it might be because of buying expensive pictures and going on world trips that I might be down to my last farthing.’

Frost had built a brick wall of suspicion for Donald to batter his head against. My cousin needed hauling away before he was punch drunk.

‘Have some spaghetti,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘It’s about all I can cook.’

‘Oh…’ He focused unclearly on the kitchen clock. It was half past four and long past feeding time according to my stomach.

‘If you like,’ he said.

The police sent a car the following morning to fetch him to his ordeal in the office. He went lifelessly, having more or less made it clear over coffee that he wouldn’t defend himself.

‘Don, you must,’ I said. ‘The only way to deal with the situation is to be firm and reasonable, and decisive, and accurate. In fact, just your own self.’

He smiled faintly. ‘You’d better go instead of me. I haven’t the energy. And what does it matter?’ His smile broke suddenly and the ravaging misery showed deeply like black water under cracked ice. ‘Without Regina… there’s no point making money.’

‘We’re not talking about making money, we’re talking about suspicion. If you don’t defend yourself, they’ll assume you can’t.’

‘I’m too tired. I can’t be bothered. They can think what they like.’

‘Don,’ I