Page 77 of The Girl You Left Behind
Liv shakes her head mutely.
“There is the possibility of sale and division, where we—”
“No,” say Liv and Lefèvre in unison.
“Ms. Halston.”
“Mrs. Halston,” she says.
“Mrs. Halston.” Paul’s tone has hardened. “I am obliged to inform you that our case is very strong. We have a good deal of evidence supporting restitution, and a body of precedent that lends weight to our cause. In your own interests, I suggest you think quite carefully about the issue of settlement.”
The room falls silent. “Is that meant to frighten me?” Liv asks.
“No,” he says slowly. “But it is, I would remind you, in everyone’s best interests for this to be settled amicably. It’s not going to go away. I—we are not going to go away.”
She sees him suddenly, his arm slung across her naked waist, his mop of brown hair resting against her left breast. She sees his eyes, smiling, in the half-light.
She lifts her chin a little. “She’s not yours to take,” she says. “I’ll see you in court.”
•••
They are in Henry’s office. She has drunk a large whiskey. She has never in her life drunk whiskey in the daytime, but Henry has poured her one, as if it is totally expected. He waits a few minutes as she takes a couple of sips.
“I should warn you, it will be an expensive case,” he says, leaning back in his chair.
“How expensive?”
“Well, in many cases the artwork has had to be sold after the case simply to pay the legal fees. There was a claimant in Connecticut recently who recovered stolen works worth twenty-two million dollars. But they owed more than ten million in legal fees to one lawyer alone. We will need to pay experts, especially French legal experts, given the painting’s history. And these cases can drag on, Liv.”
“But they have to pay our costs if we win, yes?”
“Not necessarily.”
She digests this. “Well, what are we talking—five figures?”
“I would bank on six. It depends on their firepower. But they do have precedent on their side.” Henry shrugs. “We can prove that you have good title. But there do seem to be gaps in this painting’s history, as it stands, and if they have evidence that it was removed in wartime, then...”
“Six figures?” she says, standing and pacing around the room. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe someone can just walk into my life and demand to take something that belongs to me. Something I’ve owned forever.”
“Their case is far from watertight. But I have to point out that the political climate is in favor of claimants at the moment. Sotheby’s sold thirty-eight such works last year. It sold none a decade earlier.”
She feels electrified, her nerve endings still jangling from the encounter. “He’s—they’re not having her,” she says.
“But the money. You implied you were stretched already.”
“I’ll remortgage,” she says. “Is there anything I can do to keep the costs down?”
Henry leans over his desk. “If you choose to fight this, there’s a lot you can do. Most important, the more you can find out about the painting’s provenance, the stronger the position we’ll be in. Otherwise I have to put someone here onto it, and charge you an hourly rate, and that’s without the cost of expert witnesses once we go to court. I suggest that if you can do that, we’ll see where we are, and I’ll look into instructing a barrister.”
“I’ll start the search.”
She keeps hearing the certainty of their voices.Our case is very strong.... We have... a body of precedent that lends weight to our cause.She sees Paul’s face, his fake concern:It is... in everyone’s best interests for this to be settled amicably.
She sips the whiskey, and deflates a little. She suddenly feels very alone. “Henry, what would you do? If it were you, I mean.”
He presses his fingertips together and rests them against his nose. “I think this is a terribly unfair situation. But, Liv, I would personally be cautious about proceeding to court. These cases can get... ugly. It might be worth your while just thinking further about whether there is any way you could settle.”
She keeps seeing Paul’s face. “No,” she says baldly. “He is not having her.”
