Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death (The Grantchester Mysteries)

not. How unpredictable life is.’
    ‘This is ridiculous. My friend knows I am here. He will bring the police.’
    ‘No sign of him, though, is there?’
    ‘I trust him to come,’ Amanda replied.
    ‘Who is “he”?’
    ‘A good man. Far too good for me.’
    ‘You are fortunate that someone loves you. I only had my mother.’
    ‘Why you are doing this? It can’t be to make me understand you, Mr Phillips.’
    ‘You can call me Wilkie.’
    ‘Why can’t you let me go?’
    ‘Because the painting is mine and I can’t let you take it away.’
    ‘I don’t have to take it away. I could just leave.’
    ‘But then you will tell your friends and they will come and I will be removed from this lovely home and I will never see such beauty again.’
    Amanda saw that she was getting nowhere. She was beginning to understand the nature of his obsession. She decided on another course of action. ‘I meant to ask. The Holbein seems an odd choice?’
    ‘Does it indeed? Perhaps so. But it is because the lady in the painting looks unerringly like my mother. As soon as I saw her I knew that I would have to own it. Do you know how old Anne Boleyn was on her coronation?
    ‘Either twenty-six or thirty-two. Her birth date is disputed.’
    ‘You do know your history. I am very impressed. We’re going to get along grandly. My mother was in between those ages when I was born, and I think she must have looked very much like this. And now she will always be with me, preserved in the timelessness of art, where death cannot touch her. I can look at her as much as I like: all day if I need too. I don’t have many fine qualities but one of them is astonishing patience.’
    ‘But the painting is not of your mother.’
    ‘I can imagine it is her.’
    ‘And why does it have to be the original painting? Everything else here is a copy. You seem perfectly content with them.’
    ‘Because my mother is now the only real thing in a world of fakes, as she was in life. Do you see? It’s really rather clever of me.’
    ‘I suppose it is.’
    ‘So do you think I am going to give up the only original artwork I possess? Or perhaps I now have two: you being one yourself. A living sculpture. I am Pygmalion. Together, perhaps, we could have Paphus: a son. Try some of your sandwich . . .’
    Amanda was still unsure how to deal with her captor: whether to be defiant or try to befriend him. ‘You know my friend will come for me. I have told him about my visit.’
    ‘I am afraid that I don’t believe you. You sound too nervous when you tell me. You’re not a very good liar, are you, Miss Kendall? Perhaps I should call you Amanda, seeing as we are about to be intimate. Or Mandy. Do you like being called Mandy?’
    ‘No I don’t.’
    ‘Milly-Molly-Mandy. You even look a bit like her. Were you pretty as a child? I imagine so. I wonder what you look like without your clothes on. I think I will have to watch when you wash.’
    ‘I won’t wash.’
    ‘We all have to keep clean, my dear. There is soap. It’s Cidal. My mother used to use it. And a towel. You see how I look after you. I’m a very kind man. I can be even kinder if you are nice to me.’
    ‘I feel faint.’
    ‘Then you should eat something.’
    ‘I do not want to be poisoned.’
    ‘I have left you a banana. You can peel it yourself.’
    ‘You could have interfered with it.’
    ‘It’s on the window ledge. I’m glad I put bars across. Another week and you could be such a slip of a girl you’d probably be able to squeeze right through them.’
    ‘Can’t you leave me alone?’
    ‘Aren’t you enjoying my company?’
    ‘I am not.’
    ‘I thought you liked our little chats?’
    ‘Go . . .’ said Amanda. ‘Please. Just go.’
    ‘I don’t think you should be rude to me. I’m not a very nice person when I’m angry.’
    ‘You’re not a very nice person in any circumstances.’
    ‘That’s not very generous of you. Have your banana . . .’
    ‘I don’t want a bloody banana.’
    ‘When I was a small boy it was my Friday treat. My mother used to take me down to the greengrocer’s and let me choose. We would eat them in the car on the way home. I like them when they are a bit sticky.’
    ‘I can’t stand bananas. They make me sick.’
    ‘That’s a pity. Especially since I brought one as a present.’
    Amanda decided to mollify him. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to appear ungrateful.’
    ‘Of course, you should give me something in return. I wonder what that