“Much to his credit,” Lynley murmured.

“Hmm?” Honor Robayo said.

“The fact that Mr. Lawes turned it in. The treasure and this gentleman who found it.”

“Well, of course,” she said. “But really, less to his credit than you might think.” She and Lynley were standing in front of one of the cases that contained the Hoxne Hoard, where a reconstruction of the chest in which the hoard had been buried was rendered in acrylic. She moved from this across the room to the immense silver platters and trays from the Mildenhall Hoard. She leaned against the case and said, “Remember, this bloke Eric Lawes was out there looking for metal objects anyway. And as that’s what he was doing in the first place, he likely would’ve known the law. ’Course the law’s been changed round a bit since this hoard was found, but at the time, a hoard like Hoxne would’ve become the property of the Crown.”

“Doesn’t that indicate he’d have had a motive to hang on to it?” Lynley asked.

She shrugged. “What’s he supposed to do with it? Especially when the law said a museum could purchase it from the Crown-at fair market value, mind you-and whoever found it would get that money as a reward. That’s some considerable dosh.”

“Ah,” Lynley said. “So someone would be motivated to hand it over, not to hang on to it.”

“Right.”

“And now?” He smiled, feeling rather foolish for the last question. He said, “Forgive me. I probably ought to know the law about this, as a policeman.”

“Bah,” was her reply. “I doubt you come across many cases of people unearthing treasures in your particular line of work. Anyway, the law’s not much changed. Finder has fourteen days to report the treasure-if he knows it’s a treasure-to the local coroner. He actually could be prosecuted if he doesn’t ring up the coroner, as a matter of fact. Local coroner-”

“Hang on,” Lynley said. “What d’you mean, if he knows it’s a treasure.”

“Well, that’s the thing about the 1996 law, you see. It defines what a treasure is. One coin, f’r instance, does not a treasure make, if you know what I mean. Two coins, however, and you’re on shaky ground if you don’t get on the phone and let the proper authorities know.”

“So that they can do what?” Lynley asked. “On the off chance that all you’ve found is two coins and not twenty thousand?”

“So that they can bring out an archaeological team and dig the hell out of your property, I expect,” Honor Robayo said. “Which, to be frank, most people don’t mind because they end up with fair market value for the treasure.”

“If a museum wants to buy it.”

“Right.”

“And if no one does? If the Crown claims it?”

“That’s another interesting bit about the change in law. The Crown can only put its mitts on treasures from the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster. As to the rest of the country…? While it’s not exactly a case of finders keepers/losers weepers, the finder will end up with a reward when the treasure is finally sold, and if the treasure is anything like these”-with a nod at the cases of silver and gold and jewellery in room 49-“you can lay good odds on the reward being hefty.”

“So what you’re saying,” Lynley said, “is that the finder of something like this has absolutely no motivation for keeping the news to himself or to herself.”

“None at all. Of course, I s’pose he could hide it under his bed and bring it out at night and run his hands through it gleefully, for all that’s going to get him. Sort of a Silas Marner kind of thing, if you know what I mean. But at the end of the day, most people’d prefer the cash, I expect.”

“And if all that’s been found is a single coin?”

“Oh, he can keep that. Which bring us to…Over here. We’ve got the aureus you were looking for.”

It was inside one of the smaller cases, one in which various coins were displayed and identified. The aureus in question looked no different from the one he’d seen on the screen of James Dugué’s computer at Sheldon Pockworth Numismatics a short time earlier. Lynley gazed at it, willing the coin to tell him something about Jemima Hastings, who’d supposedly had it in her possession at some point. If, as Honor Robayo had so colourfully indicated, one coin did not a treasure make, then there was every chance that Jemima had possessed it merely as a memento or a good luck charm that she was considering selling, perhaps to help her with her finances in London once she came to live in town. She would have needed to know what it was worth first. There was nothing unreasonable about that. But part of what she’d told the coin dealer had been a lie: Her father hadn’t died recently. From Havers’ report on the matter, as he recalled, Jemima’s father had been dead for years. Did that lie matter? Lynley didn’t know. But he did need to talk to Havers.

He moved away from the case containing the aureus, thanking Honor Robayo for her time. She seemed to think she’d disappointed him in some way because she apologised and said, “Well. Anyway. I do wish there was something…Have I helped at all?”

Again, he didn’t really know. It was certain that he had more information than he’d had earlier in the day. But as to how it reflected a motive for killing Jemima Hastings-

He frowned. The Thetford treasure caught his attention. They’d not looked so closely at that one because it comprised not coins but rather tableware and jewellery. The former was mostly done in silver. The latter was gold. He went for a look.

It was the jewellery that interested him: rings, buckles, pendants, bracelets, and necklaces. The Romans had known how to adorn themselves. They’d done so with precious and semiprecious stones, for the larger pieces along with some of the rings contained garnets, amethysts, and emeralds. Among these nestled one stone in particular, reddish in colour. It was, he could see at once, a carnelian. But what caught his eye was not so much the stone’s presence among the others but what had been done with it: Venus, Cupid, and the armour of Mars were engraved upon it, according to the description given. And it was, in short, nearly identical to the stone that had been found on Jemima’s body.

Lynley swung round to look at Honor Robayo. She raised an eyebrow as if to say, What is it?

He said, “Not two coins but a coin and a gemstone together. Do we have a treasure? Something that has to be reported to that local coroner you were mentioning a moment ago?”

“Something governed by the law?” She considered this, scratching her head. “I s’pose that could be argued. But you could equally argue that someone who happens to find two superficially unrelated objects might merely clean them up, set them aside, and not think about them in relation to the law. I mean, how many people out there actually know this law? Find a treasure like the Hoxne Hoard and you’re highly likely to make a few enquiries as to what you’re supposed to do next, right? Find a single coin and a stone-both of which probably needed massive cleaning, mind you-and why would you jump to the phone over that? I mean, it’s not like newsreaders are announcing on the telly once a week that their viewers must ring up the coroner on the off chance that they’ve unearthed a treasure chest while they’re planting their tulips. Besides, people think of coroners and death, don’t they, not coroners and treasure hoards.”

“Yet according to law, two items constitute treasure, don’t they?”

“Well…Right. They do. Yes.”

It was little enough, Lynley thought, and Honor Robayo could certainly have sounded more robust in her agreement. But at least it was something. If not a torch then at least a match, and as he knew, a match was better than nothing when one was wandering in the dark.

BARBARA HAVERS HAD stopped for both petrol and sustenance when her mobile rang. Otherwise, she would have religiously ignored it. As it was, she’d just pulled into the vast car park of a services area and she was striding towards the Little Chef-first things first, she’d told herself, and first things meant a decent fry-up to see her through the rest of the day-when she heard “Peggy Sue” emanating from her shoulder bag. She rooted out the mobile to see that DI Lynley was ringing her. She took the call as she marched towards the promise of food and air-conditioning.