‘I’m afraid I can’t pick and choose my clients. I only joined this law firm last summer and I’m still relatively new.’ She paused for thought. ‘If you want an honest answer, I have to tell you that, given the choice, I wouldn’t have chosen TXA Supplies as a client but, as I say, I have to do as I’m told.’
When the interview had finished and she had left, Virgiliolooked across at the rest of us. ‘Well, what do you think of the two women we’ve just interviewed – Penelope Green and Emilia Cortez? Was Angel in a relationship with either or both of them? Dini, what do you think?’
There was a short pause while the sergeant considered her response. ‘Before getting them in here and interviewing them, I had a feeling that the victim was quite possibly involved with both of them.’ She blushed. ‘I don’t mean at the same time. When I saw them at the dining table, I definitely got the feeling that there was a degree of animosity between them that could have been down to jealousy, but, in fairness, Emilia Cortez didn’t appear to have a particularly high opinion of Angel or any of the others here.’
‘And now that you’ve seen and heard the two women close up, do you still think either or both might have been involved with the victim?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so – at least, not yet. I tend to believe Emilia Cortez that her relationship with the victim was principally business – after all, she told us she’s only met him a few times, and I can easily check that with her employers – but there was a funny note in her voice when she referred to him. Yes, she indicated that she didn’t necessarily approve of his business, but maybe the man attracted her. As for Penelope Green, I still feel that her reaction to the sudden violent death of her boss was unconvincing. Even if she and he weren’t involved together, I would have expected more emotion from her. After all, discovering that somebody you know well has been shot in the head is pretty gruesome, but she didn’t even look pale. She may just be a very tough character, but I’ve mentally put a question mark alongside her name.’
I was impressed. The sergeant had more or less echoed my thoughts. ‘My feelings exactly. I also got the impression that shewas remarkably unemotional. However, I can see no reason why she should have wanted to kill him, apart maybe from jealousy if she had been having an affair with him, and then Emilia Cortez had arrived.’ I looked across at Virgilio. ‘What about his will? Have you got people trying to find out who his personal lawyers are? My friend Paul at Scotland Yard told me that Angel used a whole bunch of lawyers in London, so I could ask him if you like.’
Before he could answer, the sergeant cut in. ‘I’ve just had a message telling me that there’s a problem. The officers looking around upstairs can see that there’s a considerable amount of paperwork and a laptop in the study alongside the victim’s bedroom, but Signor Hicks has stepped in to deny them access without a search warrant.’
Marco replied first. ‘That doesn’t come as a surprise. Get up there straight away and see that the room is securely sealed off. Put an officer on guard outside it to ensure that nobody goes in until we get the search warrant – and that includes housekeeping. We need to lift as much information and as much DNA from that room as possible.’
Virgilio nodded in agreement and Dini hurried out. He glanced across at Marco. ‘Organise a forensic team to be ready to descend on that room just as soon as we have the warrant. And you’d better get Tech involved as well. I imagine there’s going to be some fairly sophisticated security on Angel’s laptop. What we need is anything that might provide us with a motive for murder. Check to see that DNA samples have been taken from everybody here and that they’ve all been swabbed for gunshot residue. If somebody here did it, they should test positive.’ He glanced across at me. ‘Look, Dan, if you want to get away, I reckon Marco and I should be able to handle the rest of the people here. Thanks for the help so far, but why don’t you go and get yourselfa late lunch? I can get one of the officers to give you a lift back to Florence and I’ll give you a call later on if there are any developments.’
Before I could answer, there was a movement at my feet and a Labrador nose poked my knee. Virgilio had mentioned the word lunch, after all, and Oscar is remarkably bilingual when it comes to food. If I needed any further confirmation that lunch for me was well overdue, I heard my stomach give a sinister rumble, so I leant down to my dog.
‘You’ve already had your lunch, Oscar. Remember? This is lunch formewe’re talking about.’
He just batted his eyelids at me and did his best to look as if he was about to succumb to malnourishment. I didn’t buy it for a moment and headed for the door, stopping to give Virgilio and Marco a wave. ‘I’ll take Oscar for a walk up to Fiesole and I’ll get myself a sandwich, but then I’ll come back willingly, if you don’t mind. This case intrigues me and I’d enjoy being involved. If you’re lucky, I’ll bring you sandwiches as well.’
Outside in the lobby, I met Eddie, the ‘right-hand man’, again. He sidled up to me and spoke in hushed tones. ‘I’ve been thinking about possible murderers, and my money’s on a very dodgy character from South Africa. His name was Church or some such. We met him in Monte Carlo in February or March. Ask Mr Hicks. He’ll be able to give you details.’
‘When you say, a “dodgy character”, dodgy in what way?’
‘He’s a mercenary. In this business, you soon learn to smell them a mile off. You ask Mr Hicks.’
‘Thank you, I’ll mention that to the chief inspector. Tell me something else, Eddie – you said that you provided protection for Mr Angel, but what about the big guy I saw in the dining room? Isn’t he here to provide protection as well?’
‘Pete? He’s a good boy, but he’s a bit too visible, if you knowwhat I mean. The boss doesn’t like to look too conspicuous, and going around with somebody the size of King Kong is a bit too obvious – unless it’s needed, if you catch my drift. No, Pete’s on the case in here, but I’m the one who normally shadows the boss, unless we’re in a particularly dodgy place – and we’ve been to a fair few of them, I can tell you.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘It’s a real pity he didn’t let me go with him this morning.’
7
TUESDAY AFTERNOON
I checked with the housekeeper, and she explained how to find an old track that would lead me up to Fiesole, rather than having to follow the busy main road. It was a swelteringly hot afternoon and I was soon sweating as Oscar and I climbed ever upwards on a cobbled pathway that snaked between imposing stone walls that did at least offer some protection from the sun from time to time. Partway up, we came upon a lovely old stone fountain where Oscar was able to stand up on his hind legs and drink deeply from the spout of water emerging from the hillside. After quenching his thirst, he then stuck his whole head under the stream of cold water and let it run down his neck and onto his back. Even though he was born here in Tuscany, it can’t be a lot of fun having a fur coat in thirty-degree heat. By the time we started off again, I had a soaking-wet Labrador on my hands and I had come close to sticking my own head under the jet of water as well.
To compensate for the heat and the discomfort, the higher we climbed, the better the views back over Florence became, and by the time I reached the little town of Fiesole itself, I could see,not only the whole of Florence behind me with the duomo in the centre, but also serried rows of green hills reaching off southwards until they disappeared into the heat haze beyond.
In Fiesole’s sloping main square, just up from the town’s very own duomo, I found a café with tables outside on the pavement. I sat down and relaxed while Oscar thudded onto the flagstones at my feet, panting like a steam train. I took a good look around. The little town wasn’t actually on the top of the hill, as I could see cypress trees and the roofs of imposing villas further on up the slope, and I was glad I hadn’t had to climb any further to find some shade and a cold drink. The last time I’d come here, there had been a market in the square, but today it was empty except for a few tourists braving the relentless sun.
When the waiter came out, I ordered a cold beer and four focaccia sandwiches – one for me and one each for Virgilio, Marco and the sergeant – filled with roast aubergine and goat’s cheese, and a couple of biscuits for Oscar. As I quenched my thirst and munched my sandwich, I cast my mind back to the interviews of the people we’d seen so far. Although I didn’t necessarily see Penelope Green as a killer, I had been struck by her lack of visible shock or grief, and I was left with the lingering sensation that she hadn’t told us the whole truth. I had tended to believe Emilia Cortez, but not completely. The hardness in her face and that momentary tightening of the lips made me think that she, too, maybe had something to hide, but I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a viable motive for murder in either of them – at least not yet.
As for Hicks, he was definitely top of my list of suspects for now. He had had clear motive to do away with his boss and take over the arms empire – particularly as he already had a seat on the board – and there had been something about him that had rankled with me. Maybe I was just getting more intolerant as Iapproached old age, but I hadn’t liked his arrogant attitude and I had little doubt that he would have been cold-blooded enough to commit murder in order to achieve his aims. Some of the other men around the table had looked even harder, but I was struggling to find a motive for any of them to have murdered the boss, though without fuller knowledge of the internal dynamics of the company hierarchy, it was impossible to be sure. Of course, there remained the very real possibility that Angel’s murder had been committed by somebody outside the TXA family, maybe even by operatives working for another country, some shady terrorist organisation or the mercenary group Eddie had mentioned. My suspicions along these lines were further reinforced by a telephone call from Paul at Scotland Yard.
‘Hi, Dan, I’ve been doing a bit of research on Tristan Angel for you, and there’s no shortage of foreign powers who would have been only too happy to see him dead. Apart from the usual global players, it would seem that his company has been selling to some very unpleasant warlords in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. They, in turn, have been using weapons supplied by him to attack forces belonging to legitimate governments and even assets of major powers like China and Iran. He and his company were skating on very thin ice.’
‘Thanks for that, Paul. That doesn’t come as a surprise, but it makes me realise what we’re up against here.’ I went on to give him a brief rundown of the latest events and mentioned the people here at the villa. ‘Could I ask another favour on behalf of Virgilio? Would you mind checking your files for any mention of the residents of the villa here? I’d just like to know if any of them have a record. In particular, please could you check a man called Donald Hicks – he was the victim’s second in command – and an Edward Alfred Smith? From his accent, I reckon Eddie’s from south-east London, and he reckoned he knew my name, even ifhis doesn’t ring a bell with me. Please don’t waste a lot of time but just see if his name comes up.’
He agreed willingly, although he repeated his belief that any number of foreign agencies could have been queuing up to get rid of Angel. He had a point. Maybe the interviews at the villa would prove to be a complete waste of time. I gave him the names of the suspects anyway and then mentioned the imminent arrival of the Italian security services, after which he produced another bit of bad news – at least for Virgilio.
‘As well as the Italian security services, I understand from a source at MI6 that they’re going to send somebody up from the embassy in Rome to do detailed in-depth interviews to establish what’s been happening, and what’s going to happen now that Angel’s dead. And if MI6 are coming, you can bet your life that the CIA won’t be far behind. Angel’s organisation was flirting with the lines of legality, but what if somebody with even fewer scruples were to take over? You never know, maybe the people from Rome will be able to get some of the people there to spill the beans.’
I wasn’t so sure. ‘The people here at the villa constitute the senior management of the company, so theyshouldbe able to provide that sort of information, but I’ve a feeling MI6 and others are going to be faced with a wall of silence.’
‘Well, let’s hope they manage to break it down. TXA have got multiple deaths on their consciences – assuming they have consciences – and the more we can find out about them, the better.’
