19
‘How much did you say?’
‘If it had been genuine, Vernon says around £3,000.’
Mayo and his inspector stared uncomprehendingly at the garish object sitting on top of the filing cabinet, the safest place in the office, just in case Vernon had been wrong and the candlestick wasn’t a copy, after all. Marvelling that a mere piece of household pottery, even if it was the real McCoy, could be worth that much. But Vernon Walcott, a knowledgeable auctioneer and valuer with fifty years in the trade, who ran the local fortnightly auction mart, was unlikely to have made a mistake. When Abigail had showed it to him, and he’d finished laughing, he said there was no way anyone he knew could have been fooled into thinking this was authentic. He showed her a teapot that was, and invited her to make a
