Chapter 42

Janey had homework to do so I returned to my room to belatedly start on my own daily ration of catch-up school work. As soon as I opened my bedroom door, the smell of stale sweat hit me, so I started by opening the windows wide to air the room. As I was beavering away, my concentration was interrupted by Dex bringing round my next ration of schoolwork. Fortunately he arrived before Mum got home.

“We had some excitement in class this afternoon,” Dex said. “Claudia Ranieri fainted and it was several minutes before the school nurse could rouse her. She seemed okay after that, but the school nurse called Claudia’s parents to take her to the hospital to be checked.”

“What time was that?”, I asked, hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t when I was conducting my experiment.

“I’m not sure. It was during the first period after lunch.”

It took all my acting skills not to show any reaction to the news that the timing meant I was almost certainly the cause. “Was she hurt?”

“She probably had a bruise or two after falling off her chair,” said Dex, “but she seemed fine once she had woken up. She seemed more worried about all the fuss.”

My first instinct was to track down Claudia, confess and apologise. But on reflection, it might only make things worse. Despite sharing several classes together, she was another girl I found myself unable to talk to and consequently we hardly knew each other. How then could I possibly explain my role in her loss of consciousness? Then it struck me that Dr Kelleher might have examined Claudia at the hospital and she might have given Claudia an EEG and it might have shown an abnormal brain pattern and that might have led to her asking Professor Palatinsky for a consult and that would be a nightmare. Surely Dr Kelleher wouldn’t have contacted Professor Palatinsky again in those circumstances without checking whether I was somehow involved.

Somehow I managed to maintain a poker face for Dex’s benefit while all those thoughts churned through my mind.

After Dex left, I felt guilty about not inviting him in to play video games but I had too much to worry about to be good company. I shared Dex’s news about Claudia with Janey, including my conviction that I was the cause. She promised not to share the information with the parents without my permission and she even volunteered to check on Claudia at school the next day but, in return, I had to help her with some homework she was having trouble with. Fortunately it was a few simple maths problems rather than essay writing.

Afterwards, I secreted myself back in my room and grappled, not very successfully, with more catch-up schoolwork, until Mum called us down for dinner.

“Are you okay, Jon?” asked Mum when she saw me. “You look a bit peaky.”

“I’m okay, Mum. I tried an experiment this afternoon but I’ll explain during the family meeting.”

I don’t think much chewing and taste savouring took place during dinner as we were all anxious to get on with the meeting. Yet, despite seeming as keen as the rest of us, Mum still insisted that we cleared up and washed the dinner things afterwards. Then, each with our choice of beverage, we assembled in the lounge for our meeting.

Mum started the meeting with a revelation. “Richard Masson received a copy of the insurance document from Dr Wells. He called in a favour from a friend at another law firm who specialises in international contract law, and forwarded a copy of the document. What Dr Giovanelli said is right. The Italians have covered themselves with that get-out clause about provenance, so we have no claim against them.”

I think we all silently made unrepeatable comments about the moral standing of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

“However,” she continued, “there’s a potential damages claim against our local museum since Dr Wells recommended sending the coin to Italy.”