Death on the Holy Mountain lfp-7

by David Dickinson

  ‘This used to be the drawing room,’ Moore began, ‘but my grandfather thought it would work better as a dining room. Used to be seven portraits, four full-lengths in here,’ Moore said sadly, nodding at the series of blank spaces on his walls, ‘oldest the one above the fireplace there, Josiah Moore from the 1720s. Then on the opposite wall, his grandson, Joshua, 1770s, on the other two walls his son and grandson. I don’t know if the money ran out, but the other three, my grandfather and his brother and great grandfather on either side of the fire, were much smaller, portrait size is what I believe you call them, head and shoulders only, no greatcoats or uniforms.’

  Outside they could hear the noises of grass being cut. There was a distant view of dark mountains.

  ‘I’m quite lucky in one respect,’ Moore went on, sitting himself down at the head of his table and waving a hand inviting his guests to be seated too. ‘I heard about the difficulties they had over at Butler’s Court in identifying their pictures. I actually had a great uncle who was interested in Irish portraits – can you believe it? – and he made a catalogue of them all.’ Powerscourt thought he made his ancestor sound like a man who claimed he could fly to the moon or empty the Irish Sea. ‘He tried to cover all the paintings in all the great houses in Connaught, you know,’ Moore went on. ‘Mind you, he went mad before he could finish it.’ Fitting fate for the fellow, in Moore’s book at any rate, Powerscourt thought. ‘Anyway,’ Moore nodded at a neat pile of papers in front of him, ‘here are the details of all the ones that went missing. This is for you, Powerscourt, obviously.’ Powerscourt saw that the entries were full and comprehensive, easily sufficient for any art dealer to identify a picture if it passed through his hands.

  ‘This is most impressive, Moore,’ he said. ‘I am very much obliged to you. Tell me, is there any evidence that they broke into this room here, to effect the theft?’

  ‘Not in here,’ said Moore, ‘but let me show you something next door.’ He led them out through the baronial hall into a long room looking out towards the fountain, adorned with three pairs of grey marble columns. ‘This used to be the front door,’ he said, nodding at the great window in front of him, ‘and this used to be the entrance hall. My grandfather changed all this lot round. Now, if you look carefully at the sash on the window next to the one that was the front door, you can see dirty smudge marks on it. The parlour maids noticed them the morning after the robbery and I told them to leave them where they are. It’s my belief that they took the pictures out this way to some kind of conveyance round the corner. It would have been easy to do – the grass would have muffled the noise.’

  ‘Do you know how they got in?’ asked Johnny Fitzgerald.

  ‘There’s a broken window in the kitchen down below,’ Moore said. ‘I think they came and went that way. There is another room where they could have passed the pictures out of the house, mind you, but there are no telltale smudges in there. Come, I’ll show you where the other paintings were.’

  He took them into a billiard room opposite the dining room, a full-size table with a couple of balls lying on the green baize, waiting for the next match. ‘This used to be the library,’ he said sadly, ‘but my grandfather threw all the books out one day. He said they were annoying him so they all had to go. He organized a great bonfire outside on the same day and they all went up in smoke.’ Life, Powerscourt thought, was never dull in Moore Castle.

  ‘Our three Old Masters,’ Moore pointed again to further gaps on the walls, ‘the Titian and the two Gainsboroughs, were here. They used to be in what was the entrance hall, but my father moved them in here.’

  ‘I believe you said when you arrived at Butler’s Court that the Gainsboroughs might not be authentic,’ said Powerscourt. ‘Did your great uncle establish that, before he went mad, I mean?’

  ‘He did and he wasn’t at the time, mad, if you follow me. He was said to have been in good health when he said the Gainsboroughs weren’t painted by the hand of Gainsborough, if you see what I mean. One artist’s hand looks very much like another, if you ask me.’

  ‘And the Titian?’ Powerscourt carried on. ‘Was that real?’

  ‘Nobody ever said it wasn’t,’ said Moore defiantly. ‘Not to me at any rate.’

  He led them back out into the galleried hall with its great timbered roof. ‘This,’ he waved expansively at the enormous space, ‘used to be the main staircase. Then my grandfather threw that out.’

  ‘Before or after he burnt the books?’ asked Johnny Fitzgerald.

  ‘After,’ Moore laughed, ‘he must have got into the swing of it by then. This other double staircase’ – an enormous Victorian affair, made of oak, beckoned – ‘used to be where the wall on the side of the old stairs was. They extended the house backwards, if you follow me, to put the new staircase in.’

  William Moore took his visitors round the rest of the house, the dark wood panelling, the strange over-decorated Victorian chapel where Powerscourt felt God would not stay for long if ever he called at all, and out into the gardens by the fountain. Moore talked continuously, giving the names of his ancestors and the dates of construction. High up on the outside of the third floor Powerscourt saw a strange contraption like a bosun’s chair, hanging from the roof by a series of ropes and pulleys. Standing rather precariously inside was a small young man with torn trousers who waved happily at them and shouted Good Morning.

  ‘What on earth is that?’ asked Johnny Fitzgerald, pointing upwards.

  ‘That’s John,’ said Moore. ‘Normally he works in the stables but today he cleans the windows. His elder brother Seamus used to do it but he kept falling off the ladders. They’re not very good with ladders for some reason, Roscommon people. No head for heights at all. I rigged the thing up myself – naval fellow told me how to do it. But come, I think it’s time for some coffee, or something stronger if you would prefer.’

  Powerscourt and Fitzgerald assured their host that coffee would be fine. It came in the long room with the pillars that used to be the entrance hall.

  ‘Now then, Moore,’ Powerscourt began, ‘all these pictures gone, smudges on your window, your wife upset, I don’t suppose you have any idea at all who is responsible?’

  ‘No idea at all.’

  ‘Tell me, pray,’ said Powerscourt, resolved to try a different tactic with Moore than he had employed on the other two victims, ‘what do you say in reply to the letter they sent you?’

  Moore turned red and began rubbing one side of his face as if that would make his discomfort go away. ‘Letter?’ he said in a querulous tone. ‘I had no letter.’

  ‘I think you did, Moore, I’m virtually certain of it.’

  ‘No, I did not.’

  ‘Consider this,’ said Powerscourt. ‘Somebody spent a lot of time planning these robberies. Maybe they are common or garden thieves but I doubt it. There is a great deal of stuff lying about these houses, silver and so on, which would be worth a lot more than your ancestors. It’s possible they were just burglars but I don’t believe it. I think they want something. I have no idea what the something is, but I think you do. Because they told you. In a letter.’

  ‘How many times,’ said Moore, still red in the face and sweating slightly now, ‘do I have to tell you, Powerscourt, there was no letter.’

  ‘Let me make a stab,’ said Powerscourt, not giving up, ‘at telling you what the last sentence said. This or something like it. If you do not comply – maybe they would have said agree rather than comply – with our requests, your wife is next. That also applies if you tell a single human soul about this letter.’

  ‘How on earth -’ Moore began and then stopped suddenly. ‘There was no letter,’ he hurried on as if trying to retract what he had just said, ‘no letter.’ He sat back in his chair. Johnny Fitzgerald took up the attack. He and Powerscourt had carried out interviews like this many times in their lives. They knew the moves so well they hardly needed to communicate with each other, like tennis partners who have been playing doubles together fo
r years.

  ‘How about this then?’ said Johnny, in the manner of a man trying on another coat in a gentleman’s outfitters. ‘You took the paintings yourself. You crept down in the middle of the night and removed them to some hiding place or other. God knows, you could hide the Crown Jewels in a place this size and nobody would find them for years, however hard they tried. You’re broke, or you’re nearly bankrupt like so many of your fellow landlords, in hock to the banks and the insurance companies and those seedy moneylenders in Dublin. The art market’s booming, even for Irish ancestors I shouldn’t wonder. You were going to sell the pictures when all the fuss has died down and pay off some of your debts. There must have been enough debt after all this building work to float a steamer on the Shannon. Admit it, man, you did the whole thing yourself!’

  ‘I did not,’ said Moore. ‘There are all sorts of things I would sell before I sold those paintings. They’re part of our history, part of our family heritage going back to Cromwell’s time, let me tell you. It’d be like selling members of my own family.’

  Powerscourt was suddenly visited by the bizarre image of Michael Henshaw Moore or Casterbridge Moore from Thomas Hardy’s novel, selling off his wife in the marketplace in Sligo town.

  ‘Anyway,’ Moore went on, ‘I’m not broke. Richard Butler certainly isn’t broke. Your man Connolly isn’t broke either. Between us we hold some of the finest land in Ireland. You may not know it, living across the water as you do, but the Government has been passing laws for years encouraging tenants to buy the land they rent off their landlords. They’ve just passed another one called the Wyndham Act which actually bribes the landlords to sell out. People can make a packet. There’s a whole lot of new houses going up down in Carlow and Kilkenny with Wyndham money, the bonus they call it. Well, let me tell you something, Powerscourt. They can do what they like down there in Carlow and Kilkenny, but we’re not selling. No, sir. We may not be the masters now but we’re damned if the bloody Government is going to decide the future of our property. Like the pictures, it’s our history and our heritage too.’

  Powerscourt thought it was time to call a halt. ‘All right, Moore,’ he said, ‘we’ll leave it there for now. We didn’t mean any of it personally. I hope you understand that.’

  ‘I know you have to ask your questions,’ said Moore, pouring himself a generous glass of John Powers. ‘I’m just upset you thought I might have done it myself, that’s all.’

  ‘We’ve come across stranger things than that in our line of work,’ said Johnny Fitzgerald delphically.

  ‘I suppose you’ll want to get back to Butler’s Court,’ Moore said. ‘Let me arrange for a couple of fresh horses for you.’

  Another Anglo-Irish house, Powerscourt thought ruefully, where the welcome was not as warm as it might have been. Two out of three of them were keen to get him off the premises as fast as they could.

  6

  Alice Bracken and Johnpeter Kilross were sitting on a bench by the river Shannon at the bottom of Richard Butler’s garden. They were both hot after an energetic game of tennis which Johnpeter had won 6-3, 7-5, coming from 5-2 down to take the second set. Maybe it was this unexpected defeat that had put Alice in a bad mood.

  ‘I’m sure that backhand of mine was in,’ she said grumpily, ‘the one down the line when I was leading 5-4 and 40-15 in that last set.’

  ‘No, no,’ said Johnpeter, patting her hand as sweetly as he knew how, ‘it was out.’

  ‘Didn’t look out to me,’ said the girl.

  Johnpeter wished he had let Alice win the second set. He had had every intention of doing so. That, after all, was why he had let her build up such a big lead in the first place. But then she had laughed at him when he fell over at the net, trying for an acrobatic smash, and his heart had hardened. Alice began kicking the side of the bench.

  ‘Don’t be in a bad mood, Alice,’ he said, trying and failing to hold her hand. ‘It’s only a game.’

  ‘That’s what everybody says when they’ve won,’ she said. ‘I’ve never heard anyone say it when they’ve lost. Nothing’s going right for me at the moment. Everything’s so boring. There’s no sign of the Captain returning, no sign at all. And it’s months and months before the hunting season starts. And I haven’t got any money for a new hunter.’ She went on kicking the side of the bench.

  ‘Well, there’s all this business about the paintings,’ said Johnpeter. ‘That’s not boring.’

  ‘If I hear another word about those wretched paintings,’ said Alice, ‘I’m going to scream. Anybody would think the paintings were more important than everybody having a good time. Mind you,’ she turned to look around to make sure they were not overheard, ‘Richard Butler is worried sick. He’s been riding over to see that man Connolly every other day without telling anybody about it. One of the stable lads told me. Very early in the morning he goes. Maybe they’ve lost some paintings over there too, though nobody talks about it. You’d think we were in a war.’

  ‘Maybe we are,’ said Johnpeter. ‘And what do you make of our investigating friend, Lord Francis Powerscourt? His wife is coming tomorrow to join him for a few days, you know. I heard him discussing it with Mrs Butler. And she’s worried sick too, Sylvia Butler, though she tries to put a brave face on it. When she thinks nobody’s looking her face goes from cheerful to miserable in one second flat.’

  ‘They’ll turn up when nobody’s expecting them, those paintings, so they will,’ said the girl.

  Johnpeter thought she might be in a slightly better mood now. ‘I know, Alice,’ he said brightly, ‘why don’t we take a boat over to the island? You know you always like it over there.’

  ‘I’m not in the mood for the island today,’ said Alice haughtily, as if island escapades were beneath her.

  ‘Do come on, Alice,’ said Johnpeter, ‘there won’t be anybody there. The children have all gone off to their cousins.’

  ‘I told you, I’m not in the mood.’

  Johnpeter wished he could find somewhere less exposed than the island, some little place where he and Alice could be alone. More than anything, for the moment anyway, he regretted not having let her win that second set.

  Pronsias Mulcahy, sole proprietor of Mulcahy and Sons, Grocery and Bar, of the main square in Butler’s Cross, was peering over his ledgers in the back room of his shop. Pronsias was a well-built man of about fifty years, his hair turning grey, his figure growing stout as if he partook too liberally of the provisions, both solid and liquid, that he dispensed in his shop. He was surrounded this afternoon by some of the raw materials of his trade, great hams hanging from the ceiling, boxes of cheeses about to make their way on to the tables of Butler’s Cross and its neighbouring villages, tinned stuff from England and America, fresh barrels of stout. Today was half-day in the shopping community, thirsty citizens having no choice but MacSwiggin’s Hotel and Bar if dehydration overcame them on a warm afternoon. Pronsias was an eldest son and had inherited the business from his father. Over time he had built it up into a thriving concern. The locals said that Pronsias was the wealthiest man in the county, even including Richard Butler. There was a black book open in front of him now where all the grocery accounts were kept, Pronsias able to work out the precise level of profit on every entry merely by looking at them. This facility was known to a select few in Butler’s Cross who had happened to see it in action, and it had gained him a remarkable reputation for financial wizardry. Any normal person, the locals said, would have to write everything down, suck heavily on the pencil, maybe have a drink or two to improve the mental powers, and then take about five minutes to complete the complex calculations. And Pronsias could do it in his head! Truly it was a gift from God.

  One of Pronsias’s brothers, Declan, was a solicitor out west in County Mayo. Another was a police sergeant down in County Kerry where the police station, for some unknown reason, had one of the finest vegetable gardens in the south. A third was a priest up in Donegal. His two sisters had made good marriages, one to a
schoolteacher and another to a man who worked in a bank. Next to the black book was a red one where the entries and the accounts for the bar were kept. And next to that, the most secret volume of them all, the blue book where Pronsias kept the details of his loans. By now he had a more substantial portfolio than the bank in North Street on the far side of the square. His customer base was far wider than you might have expected, reaching out into levels of society that did not normally buy their groceries in the main square in Butler’s Cross. The loan business had begun in a very small way, regular customers unable to pay at the store. From then it gradually expanded into small tenant farmers behind with their rent, worried parents anxious to pay for their sons or daughters to take passage to England or America or Australia. Weddings, he had discovered by accident, were a fruitful source of business. About half of the local receptions were now paid for by the generosity of Pronsias Mulcahy, Grocery and Bar of Butler’s Cross. Pronsias charged slightly more than the banks in interest, that was admitted, but he never foreclosed on a loan, a little help for a friend in need as he would put it to his customers. He would let the loans go on for years if necessary, fully aware that if he ever foreclosed his business might dry up. He looked on himself as a great benefactor, oiling the wheels of local commerce and giving young people a chance to make something of their lives. When necessary, the youngest Delaney of Delaney, Delaney and Delaney, solicitors in law across the way, would draw up the necessary paperwork and keep the documents in their storeroom.

  Once a week on half-days like this one Pronsias would take himself off to the priest’s house at five o’clock for a refreshing glass of John Powers. Pronsias always took a fresh bottle with him, reasoning that Father O’Donovan Brady might need whatever was left to succour unhappy parishioners who had fallen foul of their God. Pronsias thought that the Powers would be more comforting than the priest in those circumstances, but he shared that thought with nobody. Father Brady was a useful fount of local information, pointing out to Pronsias who might be having trouble with the rent. It was an arrangement of mutual benefit to both sides. Both felt that whiskey in exchange for customers was a fair bargain, especially for Father O’Donovan Brady who appeared to have an inexhaustible supply of John Powers stored in his cellar, some bottles nearly full, some a third full, others half full, however hard he tried to exhaust his supply.