Wyczinski put on a pair of white gloves, took a magnifying glass from the side of the desk and carefully picked up the gold. “Mmm. A fine piece of work indeed.” He switched on a small desk lamp to his right and held the ingot in the light. “Yes. Please bear with me a moment. I just need to confirm something.” He disappeared up a rackety spiral staircase behind the desk and returned some minutes later with a very large, leather-bound book, which he set down in front of him. Clouds of dust dispersed in all directions as he opened the pages.
“I am sorry, but I haven’t had cause to look at this book for some time.” After a few minutes’ browsing, Wyczinski turned the book around. “Eh voilà! There is your piece of gold.” There indeed was a large black and white photograph of Merlin’s ingot. Wyczinski rose to join them on the other side of his desk. “This, officers, the unicorn surrounded by these two six-pointed stars in the right-hand corners and clusters of six swords in the left, is the family badge of the Stanislawicki family, a famous and noble Polish family. In its time, if I recall correctly, the Roman figure six in the badge related to the six brothers who laid the foundations of the family’s success in the fifteenth century. Here, if I turn a page, you’ll see the notes. Yes, there, ‘the six Stanislawicki brothers were great warriors who helped destroy the power of the Teutonic Knights. All but one of them died at the great Battle of Grunewald in 1410 leaving Stanislaw Stanislawicki as the sole survivor. He was ennobled, given extensive lands in southern Poland by King Wladislaw Jagiello and his family remained one of the pre-eminent Polish dynasties for centuries. A specific reason for the use of the symbol of the unicorn is not known, save that of the general context of purity attaching to that figure in medieval thought.’ There you have it!” Wyczinski picked the book up and returned to his seat. He closed the book with a flourish, generating more dust clouds and picked up the small bar.
“The eagle on the other side is a representation of the White Eagle of Poland. Legend has it that Poland’s founder, Lech, established the first capital of the country on the spot where he discovered a white eagle’s nest. Ingots like these would have been used as a form of currency in the regions controlled by the Stanislawicki family, but not as currency in general circulation. These would have been high-value tender used by noblemen, wealthy businessmen, the Church and, most importantly, by the family itself. Above all, I believe it would have served as a staple form of repository for the family’s wealth, kept under lock and key in the treasuries of their castles.” He held the ingot under his desk lamp again. “This example is in remarkably good condition. It looks as if it could have been minted yesterday. But of course it must date back many centuries. Remarkable! Remarkable!” He chuckled and reached out to stroke his cat, which, belying its corpulence, had jumped up nimbly to settle in an alcove next to the desk. “Remarkable, eh, Boris? I wonder how such an interesting artefact ended up in the hands of the London Constabulary?”
“I found it in a bombed-out building in Marylebone.”
“Indeed, Chief Inspector. However did it get there?”
“That’s what we’d like to find out. Do you have much knowledge of the Polish community in London?”
The cat made an unpleasant screeching sound as Wyczinski withdrew his hand from its back. “No, I’m afraid not. I am – what is the word – an integrated Pole. I have been here for over thirty years. In that time I think I have met only four or five other Poles. My wife is English, Chief Inspector, and in the way of things we mostly socialise with her friends. Of course, now that there has been such a wave of Poles coming here, perhaps I shall meet more – especially if they have items such as this.”
“Do you know anything of what happened to the Stanislawicki family? Are they still around?”