The Luminaries

departed for the Reserve Bank, the envelope from John Hincher Garrity snug in the inside pocket of his jacket; Alistair Lauderback had likewise long since left the building . Anna was received by a red-faced solicitor named Fellowes, whom she did not know. He directed her into an alcove at the far side of the hall, where they sat down on either side of a plain deal table. Anna handed him the charred document without a word. The lawyer placed it on the table before him, squaring it with the edge of the desk, and then cupped his hands around his eyes to read it.
    ‘Where did you get this?’ Fellowes said at last, looking up.
    ‘It was given to me,’ Anna said. ‘Anonymously.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘This morning.’
    ‘Given how?’
    ‘Someone slipped it under the door,’ Anna lied. ‘While Mrs. Wells was down here at the Courthouse.’
    ‘Down here at the Courthouse, receiving the news that her appeal has been revoked at last,’ Fellowes said, with a sceptical emphasis. He turned back to the document. ‘Crosbie Wells … and Staines is the fellow whom nobody’s heard from … and Miss Wetherell is you. Strange. Any idea who dropped it off?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Or why?’
    ‘No,’ Anna said. ‘I suppose someone wanted to do me a good turn.’
    ‘Anyone in mind? Care to speculate?’
    ‘No,’ Anna said. ‘I only want to know whether it’s good.’
    ‘It seems all right,’ said Fellowes, peering at it. ‘But it’s not exactly a cash cheque, is it? Not with things being as they are—eight weeks on, and Mr. Staines still missing.’
    ‘I don’t understand.’
    ‘Well. Even
if
this deed is valid, our good friend Mr. Staines no longer has two thousand pounds to give away. All of his assets have been seized, on account of his absence. Effective last Friday. He’d be lucky to scrape together a few hundred from what he’s got left.’
    ‘But the deed is binding,’ Anna said. ‘Even so.’
    The lawyer shook his head. ‘What I’m saying to you, my girl, is that our Mr. Staines
can’t
give you two thousand pounds—unless by some miracle he’s found alive, with a great deal of cash money on his person. His claims have been given over. Bought by other men.’
    ‘But the deed is binding,’ Anna said again. ‘It has to be.’
    Mr. Fellowes smiled. ‘I’m afraid the law doesn’t quite work that way. Think on this. I could write you a cheque right now for a million pounds, but that doesn’t mean you’re a million pounds up, does it, if I’ve nothing in my pocket, and nobody to act as my surety? Money always has to come out of someone’s pocket, and if everyone’s pockets are empty … well, that’s that, no matter what anyone might claim.’
    ‘Mr. Staines has two thousand pounds,’ Anna said.
    ‘Yes—well, if he did, that would be a different story.’
    ‘No,’ Anna said. ‘I’m telling you. Mr. Staines has two thousand pounds.’
    ‘How’s that?’
    ‘The gold in Crosbie Wells’s cottage belonged to him.’
    Fellowes paused. He stared at her for several seconds, and then, in quite a different voice, he said, ‘Can that be proven?’
    Anna repeated what Devlin had told her that morning: that the gold was found retorted, and bearing a signature that identified the origin of the gold.
    ‘Which mine?’
    ‘I can’t remember the name,’ Anna said.
    ‘What’s your source?’
    She hesitated. ‘I’d rather not say.’
    Fellowes was looking interested. ‘We could check the truth of it. The fortune was a component part of Wells’s estate, after all, so there should be a record somewhere at the bank. I wonder why it hasn’t come up before. Someone at the bank is keeping it back, perhaps.’
    ‘If it’s true,’ Anna said, ‘that means the fortune’s mine, does it not? Two thousand pounds of it belongs to me. By the authority of this piece of paper here.’
    ‘Miss Wetherell,’ Fellowes said, ‘this kind of money does not change hands so easily. I’m afraid it is never as simple as drawing down a cheque. But I will say that your coming here today is fortuitously timed. Mrs. Wells’s appeal has just been granted, and the share apportioned her is in the process of being released. I can place a hold on her claim very easily, while we figure out what to do with this paper of yours.’
    ‘Yes,’ Anna said. ‘Will you do that?’
    ‘If you will consent to take me on as your solicitor, I will do all that I can to help,’ Fellowes said, sitting back. ‘My retainer is two