The Garden of Unearthly Delights Read Free

and then go back to the penultimate one.’
    David was hooked, listening intently. ‘Did you find it?’
    ‘Yes, I found the fifth.’

    ‘. . . And the fourth?’
    The man paused, finished his coffee and set down the mug on the table. ‘No, I couldn’t find the fourth. It stumped me completely.’
    With the index finger of his left hand the dealer pushed the fourth image towards David.

    ‘What is it?’ David asked, glancing at the magnified photograph and then back at the man across the table. ‘I can’t make it out. It could be anything.’
    ‘Exactly. I stared at it. I sweated over it. I looked at it in every way, turned it round. It was a landscape, or part of a landscape . . . or was it? I went back to the books, to the computer, to every bloody catalogue about Bosch’s works. But I had no luck, and I was running out of time fast.’
    ‘And the pressure was mounting?’
    ‘Oh yes. I’d even seen one of Basinksi’s men hanging around the gates of my house, and the phone kept ringing, on and off, through the night. If I was in doubt before, I wasn’t any longer. If I didn’t solve the puzzle and absolve my debt, I was in trouble.’
    ‘So you feared for your life?’
    ‘Wouldn’t you?’ the dealer replied. ‘And then I thought of my wife and son – what if they went after them? What greater punishment could there be than to see the ones you love suffer for what you’d done? I had fourteen hours left and I’d decided that if I couldn’t solve the riddle I’d sign the gallery over to Basinksi. That would have more than covered my debt, but I knew even then that he wouldn’t have agreed. As I said before, it wasn’t really about the money . . .’
    David could hear the anxiety in the man’s voice – his hands shook and a couple of times he fiddled with his collar, almost as though he could feel an imaginary noose tightening. His composure had fizzled into despair.
    ‘…Then I had an inspiration. What if it was a trick
within
a trick?’
    David frowned. ‘What d’you mean?’
    ‘What if Basinski had picked a painting whose provenance had been questioned? A picture that had had doubts over it. Was it a work by Bosch . . . or not?’ He smiled, as though he was feeling relief once again. ‘You should have seen me – I went scrambling through my books, back through the old catalogues, gallery listings. God, I was desperate! But I found it . The detail of a landscape that belonged in a painting of St Jerome. A picture which had been under doubt, but was recently authenticated as by the master Bosch.’
    David was almost holding his breath with anticipation. ‘How long did you have left?’
    ‘One hour,’ the dealer replied. ‘Just one hour. I hadn’t slept properly in days. I put the pictures back in the envelope. On each of then I had written the name of the painting to which the detail belonged. All in all, it was a hell of a feat. Not something I would have believed I could have done. But panic concentrates the mind nicely. I had everything to lose – and I’d saved myself.’
    ‘What did Basinski say?’
    The dealer’s smile faded. ‘He said “
Well done
”.’
    ‘That was it?’
    The man paused to recover himself, then continued. ‘I’d been so relieved,. I thought it was over. I thought my debt was paid off. After all, I’d done what had been asked of me. I’d solved the puzzle.’
    ‘But you weren’t right?’
    ‘Oh, I was right! Basinski couldn’t argue with that. I knew I’d found the right answers and placed the details with the correct Bosch paintings.’ He stood up suddenly, and began pacing the room. ‘I’d done what was asked of me. I’d kept my side of the bargain—’
    Uneasy, David stared at him, sensing his despair. ‘What happened? What else did Basinski say?’
    ‘He said “Well done. You’ve finished the
first
part”.’

FOUR
    The rain had stopped, but the water kept running down the window panes, the iron railings shiny. The dealer had