Dead Man's Time

night. He’d stayed at work with several members of his team until
after midnight, then Noah had barely let him or Cleo sleep a wink. ‘Can I get you some coffee?’ he offered.
    ‘With a hypodermic syringe, I’ll take it intravenously! Black, no sugar, and as strong as you can make it, please.’
    Grace stepped out, and returned a few minutes later holding two steaming mugs. ‘I really appreciate your moving so fast, Mr Stuart-Simmonds,’ he said.
    ‘Have to, Detective Superintendent, if we’re to have any chance of playing catch-up. You can be damned sure this has been carefully planned, and most of the items, if not all, are
already overseas. What time does your briefing start?’
    ‘Eight thirty. I’d like to use this hour to learn as much from you as I can. If we could run through the highest-value items that have been taken from Mrs McWhirter’s home,
what their identifying features are, and how rare they are. Also, in your experience, how they might have been transported, where they are likely to have been shipped to – and which agencies
overseas are most likely to be able to help us locate them. Then you could help me set some parameters for my team, as well as giving us a crash course in how the global antiques world
works.’
    An ASDA lorry rumbled up the hill outside. The expert blew on his coffee, then sipped. ‘More to the point, how the global antiques
black market
operates – I think
you’ll find that more helpful.’
    ‘I’ll be guided by you.’
    ‘What you have to understand is that small stuff such as low-value porcelain, jewellery, pictures, silverware – items worth only a few hundred quid – can be fenced easily in a
city like Brighton, with all its antiques stalls and little shops. But these days important pieces are recorded on an international register, along with photographs and their details, which every
reputable international dealer subscribes to. None of them would touch a stolen item on it with a bargepole.’
    ‘So that works in our favour?’ Grace said.
    ‘Yes and no. What happens in reality is the stolen items go underground, which is the bugger. Most, if not all, are likely to have been stolen to order or presold to private buyers. In
twenty, thirty or fifty years’ time, if those buyers want to sell, the items will have long since dropped off the register.’
    ‘Where do we begin looking?’
    ‘I understand Mrs McWhirter’s brother is Gavin Daly?’
    ‘Yes.’
    The antiques expert nodded. ‘He has a tremendous reputation. At one time he was one of the most important dealers in this country – and very respected.’ He smiled.
‘That’s not to say possibly a bit of a rogue.’
    ‘Oh?’ That piqued Grace’s interest.
    ‘Most of the old dealers in Brighton were. They operated an illegal cartel called the
Ring
, where they’d band together to rig prices at auction, for instance. But
that’s not to deny Gavin Daly’s expertise. It’s clear from looking through the list of items taken from Mrs McWhirter that she had some jolly fine stuff. Clearly someone was
advising her when she bought them – I would imagine her brother. But, like everyone, she’d have had some less good stuff as well.’ He raised a finger. ‘I think one of the
first areas you should be looking at is the low-hanging fruit.’
    ‘Low-hanging fruit?’ Grace frowned and took a tentative sip of his scalding coffee. Light rain was falling outside and it felt chilly in the room. Almost autumnal. Outside, in the
large open-plan detectives’ area, a phone warbled, unanswered. He felt desperately tired, and it was going to be a struggle to make it through the very long day ahead, although he had no
option but to get on with it. And more importantly, he wanted to get on with it. He wanted the bastards who did this. Very badly.
    ‘Well, from the amount taken, and the size of some of the pieces, we can assume there were at least two men, probably three, if not even a fourth. In my experience, when hired hands are
sent to steal to order, they almost always help themselves to some extra items not on the list, and pass them on to fences for a bit of extra cash.’ He blew on his coffee again. ‘Almost
certainly Mrs McWhirter would have photos, taken for insurance purposes, of the contents in each room. If you can get hold of them, then you can check what has been taken and what is still there,
beyond the high-value items her brother has already identified. If there