"You mean to stop us being chosen in the first place?"
"Yes."
Prescott rubbed his forehead. "The perpetrator may have had no reason three or four years ago;
or maybe he is completely perverse and thinks that more obvious and lasting damage can be done now.
Lloyd's murder may well be just the start in a campaign…"
"Mr Prescott," Sam interrupted, "bizarre poisons aside, I don't think we are entangled in an
Agatha Christie plot where all the main characters get bumped off one by one, do you?"
"No. I guess not."
"Then let's concentrate on what we do know and on the things that have happened. I am not
dismissing your concerns but in order to investigate your theory I will need a list of anyone and
everyone you can think of who may want to disrupt the Conference."
"I'll get Anton right on it," Prescott said, reaching for his phone.
"This is not a task you can delegate, Mr Prescott. You will have to consider present employees
who may have an axe to grind, including any with you personally, and past employees who may have a
grudge against the Museum because they are past employees."
"I see, a confidential list."
Sam nodded. "Confidential and comprehensive. I also need to know more about Marsden. I believe a
Dr Maggie…excuse me," she said, pulling the ringing phone from her pocket.
"I am not here," Maggie Tremaine insisted as she struggled through the doorway of
the office she temporarily shared with Professor Carmel Ward. Maggie dropped her laptop, a travel
bag and box on her desk. "I'm just dumping these and then I am really not here."
"Ah, you might have to be," Carmel said, waving a hand to get Maggie's attention. "A man has been
waiting to see you for five hours. He was here most of yesterday too."
"A man, indeed? Well he can wait until Monday," Maggie declared.
"I'd rather not."
Maggie turned in surprise to find a tall, angular man rising from the armchair behind the
door.
"My name is Richard Avonscroft," he said, offering his card. "Of Hudson & Bolt."
"And?" Maggie prodded.
"You are Dr Margaret Selby Tremaine?"
Maggie scowled at him and rummaged around in her traveller's belt pouch for her passport.
"We have been instructed," Avonscroft stated, after actually holding the picture up to compare it
to the real thing, "by Professor Lloyd Marsden to deliver this personally to you."
Maggie accepted the audiotape-sized package and tore off the paper. Written on the lid of a slim
cardboard box where the words:
If you are reading this my fears have
been realised. I am no more.
Maggie read it again then stared at Richard Avonscroft. "What's happened?"
"Professor Marsden was apparently found murdered in Melbourne yesterday morning."
"To which part of that sentence does the word 'apparently' actually apply?" Maggie asked.
"The Professor was found dead in the State Library. It is apparently a case of murder."
Maggie dropped into her chair. Her hands were shaking as she removed the lid of the box. Inside
was a door key, and a note which read:
Check the odyssey of Ouroboros.
Safe no more.
Return to the finder, from the words
of the Bard. Sweet bugger all
back here is the key to Thomas's clue.
"What is it Maggie?" Carmel asked.
"I have absolutely no idea," Maggie stated. "But I have to go to Melbourne."
"No worries, we'll do that next, Jack." Sam disconnected the call and snapped her
mobile shut. "Were was I? Oh yes. If we can assume, for the moment, that Professor Marsden's murder
has nothing to do with the ICOM Conference then, in order to narrow down the field of possible
suspects, I need a better understanding of the man himself. You can help to a certain extent, Mr
Prescott, but I believe a Dr Maggie Tremaine knew him quite well."
"Better than anyone, I'd say," Prescott nodded. "But Maggie's in Sydney. Well, actually she's due
back there from Paris today. I could have Anton check to see if she's put in an appearance at the
University. He could arrange a time for you to call." Prescott pushed the speaker button on his
phone, dialled Anton and asked him to ring Maggie.
"Dr Tremaine just rang you, Mr Prescott," Anton stated.
"Why didn't you put her through?" Prescott demanded.
"You said to hold all your calls."
"Oh. Well, call her back will you, there's a good lad."
"It's probably too late, she was just leaving. She already knew about Professor Marsden, and said
to tell you she'll see you tomorrow. She's catching a morning flight to Melbourne."
"It seems, Detective Diamond," Prescott said, switching off the speaker without further ado, or
anything resembling a 'thank you Anton', "that I may be able to arrange a time for you to meet with
Maggie, in person."
Sam nodded her thanks. She was thinking, however, that if Prescott's treatment of Anton was
anything to go by, the Assistant Director's entire staff probably wanted to ruin his precious
Conference - just to see him squirm. She decided it probably would be more profitable to ask Anton
for a list of people who were ticked off with Prescott or the Museum.
"Can you tell me about Professor Marsden's trip to Peru?"
"Which one?" Prescott asked.
"His next one," Sam replied. "He was supposed to fly to Lima tomorrow."
"Was he?" Prescott reached for his phone again and for a moment Sam thought he was going to get
Anton to explain that hitherto unknown fact, but he spoke this time to someone in personnel. Hanging
up, again abruptly, he said, "Lloyd asked, at short notice, for three weeks leave. This Peru trip
had nothing to do with the Museum, at least not directly. Knowing Lloyd though, he would have
returned with a request for funding to acquire some 'thing' or other."
Sam looked puzzled. "Marsden was liaison for the visiting exhibition, which starts next week, and
on the committee for the Conference, which starts in three weeks, and yet he was just going to fly
off to Peru for a holiday?"
"Lloyd pretty much did what he felt like around here," Prescott said shaking his head.
"You said short notice," Rivers said. "When did he apply for leave?"
"Apply? Last Friday he
told
personnel he was taking three weeks, from the end of
today."
Rivers consulted his notebook. "That was the day he spoke to Ellington about the lawyer."
"And the day after he saw the lawyer himself," Sam stated. "Mr Prescott, I believe you said that
Haddon Gould was pi… um, resentful of Marsden over funding issues," Sam said.
"Yes, but that's old history," Prescott qualified. "Lloyd was simply more eloquent than Haddon
and better able to state his case for research funding or money for acquisitions. That changed
completely with the restructure of the Museum a couple of years ago. Lloyd was getting less for his
pet projects while Haddon's field of expertise became encompassed in the Environmental Conservation
Program, one of our key areas of development. In fact Lloyd's whole collection, South American
antiquities, is something of an anomaly within the new structure. We're still trying to find a place
for it."
"You mean in the new Museum when it's finished?" Rivers asked.
"No. I mean in the grand scheme of things," Prescott explained. "New technologies, especially in
the arena of information gathering, storage, dissemination and access, are radically changing the
way the world communicates. It's had and, as we approach the threshold of the new millennium, is
still having a revolutionary impact on the role of museums in society."
"I'm sure it is, Mr Prescott," Sam interrupted, trying to avoid another lecture on museum
practices, "but why should that adversely affect Professor Marsden's collection?"
"With its restructure, the Museum of Victoria has developed a unique philosophy and mission to
improve the understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live."
"That's nice and vague," Sam commented. "I thought museums have always done that."
"Well, yes," Prescott bristled. "But the new Melbourne Museum will be a living museum, a place
full of activity and interaction. Much like Scienceworks. Have you been there?"
"Yes, it was quite an experience." Sam gave up trying to keep Prescott on track. She watched his
hands, noting the gestures were quite deliberate as if he'd had lessons in motivational
speaking.
"Then you should understand the difference between the static 19
th
century style
displays of specimens and artefacts in glass cases, and the interactive exhibits of the modern
museum. Museum policy has historically been driven by research, education and collections. While
research and education are still paramount in our mission for the future, our traditional role of
collecting, preserving and displaying artefacts is evolving to fit the new philosophy of providing
an institution that will benefit the whole community. The new Melbourne Museum will be deliberately
outward looking and audience focussed, with an emphasis on public programs that are relevant,
involving and educational."
"But how did this affect the Professor?" Rivers took a turn at guiding Prescott to the point.
"It's been a giant leap in thinking and application from those inanimate institutions of the past
to the dynamic museums of the future," Prescott continued, seemingly undeterred. "Lloyd didn't want
to make that leap. He was a traditionalist, a collector, and he hated change. I think the future
frightened the hell out him actually."
"Are you saying Marsden's collection was denied a place in the new Museum because he refused to
change his thinking?" Sam asked.
"Of course not," Prescott pronounced. "But our new charter provides for priority areas in which
to deliver broad-based public programs with the best possible research, information, and content. We
have six programs, Environmental Conservation, Indigenous Cultures, Australian Society, Human Mind
and Body, and Technology in Society. Lloyd's collection as you can see fits none of these
categories."
"What was going to happen to it?" Sam asked.
"It will still go into storage until a suitable home can be found for it."
"It seems like Professor Marsden had a better reason for being a murderer than meeting his death
at the hands of one," Sam noted.
Prescott actually laughed. "It may seem that way, but it didn't particularly worry him where his
collection was housed as long as it was kept intact. Lloyd was a bit of a bower bird if the truth be
known but his collection is very valuable, in terms of historical significance. We had no intention
of giving it up or keeping it in storage forever but when he threatened to resign, during the
restructure, we gave a firm commitment that a permanent space would be found by the end of 1999. We
simply couldn't afford to lose his expertise."
"You said the Professor didn't care where his collection was kept, yet he threatened to resign
over it," Sam noted.
"It wasn't over that. Lloyd just didn't approve of the new direction. I suppose you've noticed
that museum people are passionate about what they do. Lloyd, unfortunately, was passionately
old-fashioned. I assigned him to the ICOM committee in the hope that involving in him in the
preparations would help him understand our vision for the 21st century."
"That could have been risky," Rivers commented.
"No, not really. Lloyd could always be counted on to put his heart and soul into whatever he was
doing. He was also a pragmatist; he knew he couldn't stop progress. So he did what he always did -
worked tirelessly and argued like mad."
"What is Haddon Gould's story?" Sam asked.
Prescott hesitated a moment, as if he had to retrieve the name from a filing cabinet located in
the depths in his mind. "Haddon thinks the Museum is here for him. He's a collector, much like
Lloyd, but less talented and with a tendency to whinge. Needless to say, he was quite pleased with
the restructure. The term 'living museum' that I used before, applies particularly to a key
environmental feature of the new Museum - an interpretive area we're calling the Gallery of Life.
This will be a living temperate forest with plants, birds, fish and insects."
"And this was Dr Gould's idea?" Sam queried.
"Good heavens, no," Prescott exclaimed. "Haddon hasn't had an original thought in decades. But we
will be using some of his plant collection."
"Did the restructure affect anyone else apart from Professor Marsden?" Sam asked.
"Yes and no," Prescott smiled. "Morale within the museum community is bound up with issues like
whether the institution is supporting or betraying individual ideals. The pay is never good, but as
I said earlier our staff are passionate; they work for the love of it. When we announced that
changes were on the horizon everyone, and I mean everyone, went into a flat panic. Understandable
you might think when, in the outside world if an organisation the size of ours announces a
restructure it means downsizing, or whatever euphemism they're using this year. But here, not one
single person lost their job, they simply got new titles and that caused a great deal of angst."
Prescott seemed to find this highly amusing.
"You said earlier that the Conference will be addressing the resolution of international issues
such as the repatriation of cultural material…" Sam hesitated because she noticed that Rivers
seemed to have lost his place in his notebook. He was flipping back the pages and looking quite
puzzled. "Are you okay, Rivers?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Sorry."
"The return of cultural property is a key issue," Prescott replied, "But I think Julia Cooper
from our Indigenous Cultures Program could best explain the concept for you."
"I understand the concept Mr Prescott, I just wanted to verify whether this was another thing
that Professor Marsden had a problem with."