Arent pushed him into the gunpowder store, as if he was a prisoner in a dungeon, then crossed his arms and waited by the door. Sara and Lia peered around him.
‘It stinks of ale, farts and sour piss in here,’ complained Sammy, sniffing the air. ‘Do you have a pomander handy?’
Sara offered him the one dangling from her waist, which he accepted gratefully, before turning to his work.
‘What should I do?’ asked Sara, rejoining Arent and Lia.
‘Just watch,’ replied Arent excitedly. Seeing Sammy let loose upon an impossible problem was one of the great pleasures of his life. It was no different now.
Lying on his stomach, Sammy inspected the store’s floorboards, then the box, running his hand up and down every piece of wood. Dissatisfied, he darted across the room, examining each of the gunpowder kegs on the racks in turn, rocking them one by one – nodding in satisfaction, as some internal idea presented itself.
Leaping on to the box, he tapped the beam connecting the whipstaffs in the helm to the rudders, then put a beady eye on the ceiling, which was covered in tin.
He murmured something to himself, then jumped down.
‘Who had keys to this room and the box, Arent?’
Arent racked his memory for the answer. He’d asked the question when he’d been investigating threats to the ship, but a lot had happened in the last two weeks, and he hadn’t slept for most of it.
‘Quickly, Arent, quickly, your constable is running out of time,’ said Sammy, clicking his fingers impatiently.
‘My uncle and Vos had keys to The Folly’s box,’ said Arent. ‘Only Captain Crauwels, Isaack Larme and the constable had keys to this room. There was no overlap.’
‘No, but one of the keys to this room would have been much easier to acquire than the keys to The Folly’s box.’
For the first time, Sammy noticed the crowd gathered at Arent’s back, watching this demonstration. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, while I’m, of course, honoured by your interest in my work, the matters under discussion must be tended with the strictest discretion. Lia, would you shut the door, please.’
A disappointed groan met the proclamation, but this was almost immediately drowned out by the sound of a drum beating across the weather decks. The rhythm was slow and steady, as if the Saardam’s heartbeat could suddenly be heard.
‘They’ll bring the constable out soon,’ said Arent. ‘What do you know?’
‘I have two theories, neither satisfactory.’ Sammy rubbed his hands together.
Arent noticed Lia flash an excited glance at her mother, who couldn’t help but return it. He knew they enjoyed his reports, and he could only imagine how much they were enjoying seeing them come to life.
‘The first is that The Folly was stolen in Fort Batavia and only the box was brought onboard,’ continued Sammy. ‘After we recovered The Folly, it was taken to the treasury in the fort. That treasury guarded the family’s most valuable possessions and was accessible only to the governor general, Vos and …’
Sara, thought Arent, flashing her a glance.
She had told him that she kept her jewelled pins in the treasury and had gone to collect them the morning of their departure. She might easily have taken her husband’s key beforehand, used it to remove the pieces of The Folly from its box, then locked it again, while she was doing it.
The theory didn’t explain what she’d done with the pieces once she’d stolen them, though. She’d still need to have taken them from the treasury. Could she have had help?
‘I was in the treasury the morning we set sail,’ said Sara, as if aware of his thoughts. ‘The box was opened by …’ The name died on her lips. ‘By an expert to ensure The Folly wasn’t damaged. It was definitely brought aboard.’
‘My second theory is equally flawed, though ingenious given the time you gave me,’ said Sammy, unaware that Arent was lost in his own thoughts. ‘The room itself is solid, without trapdoors of any kind. So how about this? Vos stole either the captain’s key, or Isaack Larme’s, then used it to enter the gunpowder store.’
‘Vos?’ exclaimed Sara. ‘Why Vos of all men? I wouldn’t have believed he had the imagination, and he knows the damage it will do to my husband. His ascension to the Gentlemen 17 depends on him delivering The Folly.’
‘When I was working on recovering the device in Batavia, I noticed that the governor general and Vos never let the keys to the box out of their sight. They kept them on strings around their necks. As the governor general left just then, I noticed he still did. I doubt those keys could be easily obtained. However, the keys to the gunpowder store do not seem to be treated with such care. When we boarded, Isaack Larme certainly didn’t have his upon him. His slops have no pockets and he was shirtless.’
Sammy threw himself down on to the constable’s stool. ‘If we assume – as we must, given the time we have – that it was the key to the gunpowder store that was stolen, our suspects become the governor general and Vos, but the governor general has nothing to gain. The Folly is already in his custody, and would benefit the Company he sails to take command of.’
‘But what motive would Vos have for such a crime? He’s loyal as a hound,’ asked Arent.
From above them, the drumbeat drew faster.
‘The Folly is priceless,’ remarked Sammy. ‘I heard Vos talking. Any nation that owns it can remake the world. They can explore unmapped waters, start new trade routes, strike at their enemies from the fog of a blank map. A king would empty his treasury for such power.’
Sara murmured her assent. ‘Vos told Creesjie he was coming into a large sum when he proposed to her. If he’d already stolen The Folly that could explain why he felt bold enough to ask for her hand after so many years.’
‘And my uncle ruined his company,’ said Arent. ‘Vos denies feeling anything about it, but he could have harboured a grudge these last years.’
‘Then let’s place the theft upon Vos’s head for the moment,’ concluded Sammy. ‘Our second question is, how did he get The Folly out of a locked and guarded room, without being seen by the passengers on the other side?’
‘The constable told me he goes for a piss and a walk at the same time every night. If he were watched, that pattern would be easy to spot.’
Sammy sprang from the stool and opened the door to the crowd on the other side. ‘Did any of you see a solitary man dragging anything large out of here at’ – he glanced at Arent – ‘what time does he go for a piss?
‘Two bells,’ supplied Arent.
‘Two bells!’ Sammy told them. ‘Could have happened any time since we set sail.’
Glances were exchanged, but there wasn’t any knowledge in them. Sammy slammed the door on them once again.
‘Then we have Vos’s window of time, but not his method. Is Vos friendly with anybody on this ship?’
‘Not that I can see,’ said Sara.
Sammy paced and thought. ‘Three of the kegs were empty when I rocked them,’ he muttered.
‘The constable told me those kegs were empty because sailors had packed their cannons without orders,’ said Arent.
‘Three kegs and The Folly comes in three separate pieces.’ Going to the racks, he tried to take one of the empty kegs down, failed, then gestured for Arent to do it instead. Tearing the lid free, they inspected the insides.
‘Here,’ said Sammy, before going to another one. ‘And here. You can see the teeth marks where the cogs gouged the wood when they were wedged inside.’
He straightened up, satisfied with his work. ‘Vos stole a key to the gunpowder store, then used it to enter while the constable was relieving himself. Using his own key, he stole the three pieces of The Folly from the box, then hid them in three kegs, which he must have emptied of gunpowder ahead of time.’ His eyes clouded, then became bright. He snapped his fingers in delight. ‘Oh, what a meticulous man he is,’ he said admiringly.