‘Oh no, Detective Superintendent. They’re not there for decoration. They are purely functional — elegant, but functional.’
‘And their function is?’ he asked, tilting the blade. The pearls went clack-clack again.
She smiled and again he saw that look in her eyes that increasingly unsettled him. ‘Evisceration!’
In answer to his and Branson’s frowns she said, ‘It’s one thing to simply stab an enemy. In and out with a normal dagger will leave a nasty wound but not necessarily fatal. But these pearls, as the stabber withdraws the dagger from the victim, will rip out anything in their way. And should the stabber twist the dagger after it has entered the human torso, the pearls will add enormously to the internal damage. If you can rip through part of the bowel — not difficult — then without instant surgery, the victim will die of what we now know as sepsis. And it’s a slow, agonizing death.’
He handed her back the dagger, courteously holding the blade, and she re-sheathed it then knelt, with another gasp of pain, and placed it on the floor beside the box in which, Grace noticed, was an unsheathed curved sword. He glanced at Branson, wondering if he was picking up the same vibes from this woman. But the DI was looking around the room in almost a state of rapture.
Then, remaining on her knees, Rose Cadoret said, ‘But, much though I would be happy to talk about swords and daggers all day, I don’t imagine that’s actually what you’ve come here to talk about, is it, gentlemen?’
Grace smiled, but it was an uneasy smile. ‘No, we have a few things we’d like to ask you, Ms Cadoret.’
‘Rose is fine. I don’t do the whole Miz thing.’
‘OK, Rose, thank you. The first question I wanted to ask you is whether there are any cuckoo clocks in Buckingham Palace?’
‘Cuckoo clocks?’
‘Yes.’ Grace ignored the WTF, have you gone nuts look Branson was giving him. But noted that his partner was strategically blocking the doorway. Smart.
98
Thursday 30 November 2023
‘Cuckoo clocks?’ Rose Cadoret shook her head in amusement. ‘You’ve driven all the way here from Brighton to ask me about cuckoo clocks?’
‘It’s one of my questions, yes,’ Grace replied, calmly.
‘We do actually have just three cuckoo clocks in the Royal Collection. My favourite is a particularly beautiful one acquired by Queen Mary. It features a unique gilt bronze chapter ring and cuckoo striking mechanism with a circular pendulum. There is another in the Collection with moon-shaped hands and a painted face, which also has a unique mechanism. But none are here in Buckingham Palace. One is at Sandringham, one is in the Lodge on the Balmoral estate. I’m not actually sure where the third one is — but I can find out for you. If you are interested, I could introduce you to the Keeper of the Clocks. There are over one thousand clocks spread across the Royal Palaces and five full-time clock winders.’
Grace nodded. ‘Another time perhaps.’ Then he looked hard at her. ‘Do you have the duty roster for PC Jon Smoke, showing Monday November the twentieth for me?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Sir Tommy Magellan-Lacey said he was going to give you the original copy of the duty roster of PC Smoke, which included that day, to hand to me.’
She looked puzzled. ‘No, I... he... didn’t say anything about it. I do apologize. I’m sure I can get it for you quite easily.’
‘When we’ve finished, thank you, I need to see it,’ Grace said. ‘He also told me you were going to let me see the box of Granny’s Personal Chips. Where is that kept?’
She looked hesitant. Her eyes darted around wildly for a moment and, just fleetingly, her face had a strange, almost feral expression. It reminded him of something but before he could think what, it morphed into a friendly smile. She said, ‘Yes, yes, of course, yes! It’s down in the vault, I’ll take you there. Do you want to go now?’
He raised a placatory hand. A call was coming through on his mobile phone. He saw it was from Shannon and stepped to one side, taking the call, but said nothing in response to the information he was given, just a ‘Thank you, goodbye.’
He turned back his attention to Cadoret. ‘Just a couple more questions before we go to the vault, please.’ He took a moment before continuing, watching her face very carefully now. ‘Rose, there’s something I wonder if you can tell us. I understand you recently paid a company in Bexhill, in East Sussex, called Silversands Residential, a substantial sum of money. I understand this is a very high-end care home for the elderly. Can I ask you where that money came from?’
She hesitated again, her eyes looked wildly around once more and that feral expression fleetingly returned. ‘It was actually one hundred and eighty-two thousand, five hundred pounds and ninety-two pence, if you want it exactly, Detective Superintendent.’ Her eyes shot from Grace to Branson and back to Grace. ‘And what the hell business of yours is it, no disrespect, where that money came from?’
‘It’s very much my business,’ Grace replied, still calm. ‘I’m conducting a murder enquiry into the death of Sir Peregrine Greaves, and I’m looking at everyone with whom he had connections.’
‘And just what does my paying money to a care home have to do with Sir Peregrine’s very tragic death?’
‘I would be grateful if you would answer my question, Rose,’ he said, with a sharper edge to his voice now. ‘I asked you where did the money come from?’
‘From my savings,’ she answered with an insolent expression. ‘Is it illegal to have savings?’
Again her eyes roamed the room and that expression returned; suddenly Grace realized what it reminded him of. It was a trapped animal. A desperate, trapped animal.
99
Thursday 30 November 2023
There was a long silence. Grace, increasingly wary, watched Rose Cadoret’s eyes moving from him to Branson and back to him.
‘Actually,’ she said, ‘no, I don’t want to tell you where the money came from.’
‘In which case, Rosemary Catherine Cadoret, I’m arresting you on suspicion of theft and on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.’ As he spoke, he dug his hand into his right pocket to pull out his handcuffs. ‘You do not have to say—’
She was faster than he imagined she could possibly be, especially with the pain she seemed to be suffering, and caught him totally by surprise. Within what felt like a nanosecond she was on her feet, holding in her right hand the unsheathed and clacking Ibrahim dagger, and in her left the long, curved sword. And lunging at Grace.
He stepped back.
‘Stay away from me!’ she shrieked. She lunged again and he stepped back again. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Branson moving towards her. But as he did so, she suddenly spun on her own axis, launching a spinning back kick to the DI’s stomach, sending him tumbling backwards with a grunt of pain as the wind was taken out of him.
Then she was gone through the door.
100
Thursday 30 November 2023
Grace glanced at Branson, who was trying to get to his feet, all the while struggling to get his wind back. ‘You OK?’
‘Get her!’ Branson gasped, hauling himself up. ‘I’m right behind you.’
Grace sprinted to the door, looked left then right and saw her, some distance away, sprinting along an eau-de-nil-coloured corridor lined with marble busts and huge vases, the walls hung with paintings.
As he raced after her, a footman emerged from a door at the far end of the corridor and she ran in through it. Grace followed her in half a minute later. And found himself in a large and very grand, formal drawing room. There was a Persian carpet covering most of the floor, a wide oil painting of the Colosseum, flanked on each side by portraits of two rather self-important-looking men in frock coats and grey wigs. Elegant chairs and sofas were arranged around a fine white marble fireplace. One entire wall was floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined with red and green leather volumes.