An Exhibition of Murder
Page 23
Left alone in the room, he took one last look at the mask of death. It shone quietly under the light from above. He reminded himself to close the window. It would be a shame if the mask got stolen.
When he turned around after closing it, he saw that the guards were already letting the audience back into the room. Two couples, and a man alone. Medium height, medium build, very average in every way.
Almost too average, Jasper thought randomly as he approached him on his way to the door. The man was consulting a booklet he carried, probably about the mask’s history. He almost bumped into Jasper and grabbed him around the waist. ‘Excuse me, how clumsy of me.’ He smiled a moment and walked on.
Jasper looked back over his shoulder and stepped into the corridor. He walked down the stairs. He still felt the man’s hand around him. He slipped his hand into his pocket where the man’s hand had touched. There was a card in it. ‘Well done,’ it read, signed L.
L?
Jasper froze on the step, turned his head, his whole body tight and ready to run back up and arrest that average man. The Lynx, who had shamelessly appeared in his bedroom at night and was now here at the museum, complimenting him on the successful conclusion of his murder case.
How had he known what was going to happen here today? Had he somehow been listening? Through the open window?
No. He couldn’t.
Could he?
‘Inspector!’ The caretaker approached with Red, who greeted him enthusiastically. Taking the leash in his hand, Jasper felt a bit of vacation spirit return. Outside the walls of this museum there was a beautiful city just waiting to be explored.
But as he reached the door, Baum materialised beside him. ‘I won’t ask for the dream book back. Honestly. But you must share with me some of your experiences of the criminal mind in action. Your expertise is just what I need.’
‘And some fresh air and relaxation is just what I need,’ Jasper retorted. ‘From now on I’m merely a tourist enjoying the sights.’
‘But Vienna is the city of Freud!’ Baum protested.
Jasper nodded gravely. ‘Indeed. But it’s also the city of Lipizzaners and Sachertorte and they’re waiting for me. Good day.’
Placing his hat at a frivolous angle on his head, he walked with Red out of the museum into the bright sunshine and the birdsong of a glorious afternoon.
Acknowledgements
As always, I’m grateful to all agents, editors and authors who share online about the writing and publishing process. Special thanks to my fabulous editor, Emily Bedford, for her enthusiasm for Jasper’s adventures, to the entire talented Canelo crew for their hard work on this series, and to the brilliant cover designer, Edward Bettison, for the glorious cover.
When I thought up the plot for this book, involving psychology and dreams, I knew the setting for it had to be Vienna, the city of the great Sigmund Freud. Sir Peter’s quest for fabled Lykean kings and the discovery of a golden mask of death attributed to those kings was loosely inspired by Heinrich Schliemann’s quest for Homer’s Troy and his unearthing of the ‘mask of Agamemnon’ as well as by the 1925 discovery of the death mask of Tutankhamun. Like the warriors described by Homer, my fictional Lykean kings are figures of epic proportion who could actually have existed and have simply been lost in the shadows of history. After all, as Kurt Baum observes in the story, there’s so much we don’t know…
The Murder Will Follow series, more than any other I’ve written so far, shows my love of Agatha Christie and the deep joy I have always derived from reading her stories ever since I discovered her work as a teen. I hope Jasper’s adventures in some of the most beautiful places in the world also bring joy to you, reader, and provide a few hours of pure sleuthing fun.
Murder Will Follow
A Testament to Murder
Honeymoon with Death
Under the Guise of Death
An Exhibition of Murder
Find out more
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
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London W1T 3JW
United Kingdom
Copyright © Vivian Conroy, 2020
The moral right of Vivian Conroy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788639057
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events 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.
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