Ella beamed. ‘That’s what I’ll do. I’ll get the audience to suggest different hats. And it will give me plenty of material for the future. And I could display some of my pictures – I’ve got loads in storage. And seven of them are already framed. I’ll needto get a couple more done, so that I can do a bit of a display. I can probably buy a few nice frames with mounts, although time’s a bit tight.’
‘Bets and I could pitch in to help. If you just bought a job lot of frames in IKEA, they wouldn’t be expensive.’
‘That’s a brilliant idea. The original illustrations can be cut down easily to fit as they’re all on A4 cartridge paper.’ Ella frowned. ‘Although I’m not sure how I’ll get them out here. I don’t fancy taking Magda’s car into London and I can’t carry them on the train.’
‘That’s easy,’ said Devon. ‘I’m going into London on Tuesday. You’d get them all in the Volvo. Where’s your storage?’
‘It’s just off the North Circular in London.’
‘Perfect. I can drive you there and park the car and then get a Tube into central London. I’m going to see a vet friend of mine. You can come and meet him. Nice chap. We could grab some lunch together.’
‘Thanks. That would be great.’
‘OK. We’ll need to leave earlyish. I expect we could persuade Bets to have both dogs for the day.’ He flashed Bets a smile, knowing it was a rare day she turned down a chance for a dog fix. ‘Shall I pick you up about eight? Then we’ll miss the worst of the traffic in town.’
Chapter Twenty-One
Ella punched in the pin code to the storage room, flinching slightly at the brightness of the well-lit corridor.
‘I’ve never been in one of these places before,’ said Devon looking around at the wide corridor stretching beyond them. ‘It’s huge.’
‘They store all sorts of things here. The first time I came, there was a guy loading in a full-size grizzly bear.’
‘You’re kidding?’ Devon looked alarmed and turned to look at the brightly coloured doors lining the corridor.
‘It was stuffed.’ Ella giggled at the horrified expression on his face. ‘He worked for some museum and they’d had a flood and they needed emergency storage.’
The pin pad beeped and Ella pulled open the door. Fluorescent light flooded the room, stark on the almost empty room.
Ella’s heart thudded painfully as she took a disbelieving step into the room. Where was everything? There were a few tatty boxes, a couple of old sculptures she done at art college and two large abstracts propped against the wall.
For a horrible moment she wanted to cry. Surely Patrick hadn’t thrown everything away. He wouldn’t have, would he?
Although she hadn’t worried about her drawings, now that they weren’t here, nausea swamped her. Grief reared up so sharply, it took her breath away. Her creations. The history of Cuthbert and his siblings.
Devon didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. The facts were glaringly obvious.
‘They’re gone,’ she stuttered turning in a slow circle as if items might miraculously materialise à la Harry Potter. ‘There’s nothing here.’
‘I can see that,’ said Devon drily.
‘I don’t understand. It was all there.’ She pointed to the wall on the right. ‘Stacked up against that wall. The framed prints and a stack of portfolio holders. Just there.’ She walked to the spot.
‘Does anyone else have access?’ asked Devon.
‘Only Patrick. But what would he want with them?’
Devon looked searchingly at her. ‘I’ve no idea. Emotional attachment. He’s missing you, he needed them like a security blanket.’
Ella gave a mirthless laugh. ‘You don’t know Patrick.’ They were too much of a reminder of her failure to fulfil the artistic promise that had first attracted him to her. ‘They’re the last thing he’d have emotional attachment to. He thinks I waste too much energy and time on them at the expense of my creativity.’
Devon frowned.
Where were they? The sudden stomach clench of panic didn’t make sense. She’d not really looked at them in years, certainly never missed them, but now acute fear filled her. What if they’d gone for good?
‘I’m sure there’s a simple explanation,’ she announced a little more confidently than she felt.
‘Yes.’ Devon nodded. ‘So what do you want to do?’
