Big enough to be noticed. Sator emerged from this blank spot on the map with an ambition that eventually led him here, to buy his way into the British establishment.
PROTAGONIST:
Through his wife?
CROSBY:
Katherine Barton, eldest niece of Sir Frederick Barton. She works at Shipley’s, met Sator at an auction.
PROTAGONIST:
He’s into art?
CROSBY:
Like a lot of wealthy criminals, he thinks if he covers his walls with tasteful, expensive things it’ll distract from the bloodshed.
Judging by the lovely girl he married, there might be something in it.
PROTAGONIST:
Happy marriage?
CROSBY:
No. Practically estranged.
PROTAGONIST:
How do I get to Sator?
CROSBY:
Through her, of course.
PROTAGONIST:
You may have an inflated idea of my powers of seduction.
CROSBY:
Hardly. We have an ace in the hole... Crosby slides a SHOPPING BAG over to the Protagonist’s feet.
The Protagonist looks inside:
a small FRAMED DRAWING.
PROTAGONIST:
You’re carrying a Goya in a Harrods bag?
CROSBY:
It’s a fake, by a Spaniard named Arepo. One of two we confiscated from an embezzler in Bern. We hung on to this one for a rainy day – I felt the first drops when India called.
PROTAGONIST:
What happened to the other one?
CROSBY:
A Rubens. It turned up at Shipley’s, where it was authenticated by Katherine Barton before going under the hammer. And who do you suppose bought it?
PROTAGONIST:
Her husband? Does she know it’s a forgery?
CROSBY:
Hard to say. Rumour had it that she and Arepo were close.
Crosby looks the Protagonist over – CROSBY (CONT'D) Look, no offence, but this is a world where someone claiming to be a billionaire gets asked if they’re just a dollar billionaire.