‘Rydal,’ Emma said.
‘He’s been here all along,’ Kelly said.
Chapter 33
Angelina’s house was chocolate-box pretty.
Fin greeted them and showed them round. They’d managed to get a forensic officer to the scene and the house was being processed so they wore coveralls, masks and gloves.
It was hell-hot and Angelina’s studio was a conservatory with windows on all sides. It was like an oven in there. Photos of Jamie were everywhere.
‘She loved to paint him. He was a common subject in her work,’ Fin told them.
They stood in silence in the middle of an active work room which was not in any way abandoned.
Angelina was planning to come back here.
‘It doesn’t look like she was a natural portrait artist; she preferred landscapes. There’s a magazine of her famous pieces over there and the one hanging in the Hampton-Dent HQ in New York is valued at two million dollars.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Emma said. ‘Who says what a drawing is worth?’
‘Supply and demand,’ Kelly said. ‘There’s only one like it. It’s virtually priceless if somebody is willing to pay limitless amounts for it. It’s a crazy world.’
‘Everything about this case gets crazier,’ Emma said.
‘Look,’ Fin said. He directed them to a series of sketches of Rydal and Grasmere.
‘Is that Heron Hall?’ Emma asked.
‘It is. She studied it, why?’ Kelly asked aloud.
‘The photo of Joe Folly is in the kitchen. I didn’t bag it; I waited for you. There’s an ultrasound pinned up there too.’
They followed him and walked through where Angelina lived her life. Kelly recalled Water Nymph and her smashed-in head,and her broken hands, and the sexual assault and it jarred with this haven of tranquillity and creativity.
The photo of Joe Folly was vibrant. Phone copies could never capture the original and he beamed out of the satin-finish photograph. It was a different man to the professional one. He was open, happy, in love.
‘Anything else?’ Kelly asked.
‘Everything seems in order, as you would expect a happy home.’
‘A happy home expecting a baby,’ Kelly added.
Emma went quiet and Kelly felt clumsy.
‘Sorry, Emma. That was insensitive of me.’
‘No, we’re here to do a job. My pregnancy is incidental,’ she said.
‘I needed to see this place for myself,’ Kelly said. ‘I feel I know her a bit better now. And Jamie.’
Her eyes were drawn to a large painting in the corner of the kitchen.
‘Is that a self-portrait?’ Kelly asked.
‘It looks like her,’ Emma said.
They were drawn to the large eyes, the black hair and the way the subject peeked from a shy stare to seduce the onlooker.
