A Trick of the Light by Ali Carter (surface ebook reader txt) 📕

‘How about I tell you over lunch?’ I teased. ‘I’m hungry.’

‘Fine, have it your way,’ he grinned and jumped up onto the bandstand.

I turned around to look at the view. I need to clear my thoughts. This morning I woke up in my childhood bed at Number 64 Cleaver Square: my week at Auchen Laggan Tosh had paled. Easter Day was good fun, Mass then lunch. Sam joined us for both. The next day my parents had taken it upon themselves to tell me a few family truths. ‘Now you know you had a twin who died at birth, poppet, well, your father and I feel there are some other blips we should share with you.’ None of these ‘blips’, as she so harmlessly put it, did I want to know, but they told me regardless. Consequently, yesterday equals deadly; I spent it sitting out the after-effects of what I now knew. But this morning…now that’s a whole different matter. It’s as if I’ve been granted a golden day.

At 9.30am I left Cleaver Square on foot to Waterloo Station. I had my overnight bag with me. After Basingstoke I plan to go home. I took a slight right turn onto Baylis Road and got caught in an almighty rush of people as I passed Lambeth tube station. Rather than fight my way through, with time on my side, I stood back for it to pass. I turned to a newspaper stand, the headline, Insincere Landseer Tears Twins Apart, caught my eye. I grabbed a copy and here’s what it said inside.

The Daily News, Wednesday 1 April

ART FRAUD AT

AUCHEN LAGGAN TOSH

The Inside Story

The Honourable Ewen Hewson, 40, is by all accounts something of a gentleman rogue, although one with a true talent for painting.

The police are investigating an alleged fraud to do with copied Landseer paintings at Auchen Laggan Tosh, the Highland estate inherited by the Earl of Muchton, Mr Hewson’s elder twin brother.

Mr Hewson, who lives on the estate, has been questioned under caution on art-forgery offences. His initials were masterfully identified within the paintings, thanks to the acute eye of an unnamed source, although formal charges are yet to be made.

We understand that a Landseer expert had raised doubts over the authenticity of two of the Landseers hanging in the main house. He refused to be drawn on the exact value of the original paintings, other than to say that each would be worth ‘at least a substantial six-figure sum’.

A source close to the family told the Daily News exclusively, ‘To fake an artist’s work, you need to love him. It looks like Ewen didn’t love Landseer enough. His brother Fergus, the most honest man I have ever met, must be spitting feathers to have the family name besmirched in this way.’

It is believed that the police are yet to uncover firm evidence of black-market involvement or money-laundering, and it seems that the original works of art were sold unframed and for an honest price, although it is also claimed that neither sale was sanctioned or known about by the Earl of Muchton.

The police say they have leads to the buyer(s) of the two original pictures, Rutting Stags and Dogs in the Moonlight, who are thought to be both resident in Canada.

Mr Hewson was apprehended at Portsmouth in possession of one of the original paintings, Dogs in the Moonlight.

When stopped, witnesses say that Mr Hewson was dressed as a young blonde woman, under the alias Rose Flowers, and he was placing the work of art on a container ship set for the Port of Halifax in Nova Scotia.

Mr Hewson and another man, thought to be his friend, photographer Louis Bouchon, are currently in police custody in Inverness.

The Daily News has approached the Earl of Muchton for a comment. Auchen Laggan Tosh is one of the largest privately owned estates in the Highlands.

Meanwhile, the Highlands and Islands Police Headquarters have expressed enormous thanks to their unnamed caller for ‘vital information received’ prior to the arrests of Mr Hewson and Mr Bouchon.

Acknowledgements

Gigantic thank you to: Andrew Festing, great friend, brilliant painter and Henry Wyndham my art-fraud adviser; all at Oneworld – everyone needs an editor and Jenny Parrott’s the best; Jo Bending, the voice of Susie Mahl; Emily Carter for uncompromising honesty; and brilliant Sam, who never complains when I disappear to write – I love you from the bottom of my heart.

Ali Carter was born in Scotland and read art history at St Andrews. She first followed an eclectic career in investment management, retail and technology; then, in 2011, she had a catastrophic bicycling accident. After major brain surgery and a long recovery, Ali set herself a challenge to walk alone from Canterbury to Rome, a three-month pilgrimage she wrote about in her book, An Accidental Jubilee by Alice Warrender. From then she decided to follow her passion and become a fine artist, specialising in oil paintings from life with an emphasis on colour. Ali also draws pet portraits to commission and works from her studio in East Sussex. She is the author of A Brush with Death and The Colours of Murder.

A Point Blank Book

First published by Point Blank, an imprint of

Oneworld Publications, 2020

This ebook published 2020

Copyright © Ali Carter 2020

The moral right of Ali Carter to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved

Copyright under Berne Convention

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78607-768-4

ISBN 978-1-78607-769-1 (eBook)

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Oneworld Publications

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