I had to wait a few seconds for her reply. When it came, she was sounding hesitant. ‘I heard him shouting at Vince, Vincent Archer, on Monday evening. They were in his study, but everybody must have heard it. The phrase that kept echoing through the house was, “How could you do such a thing?” I wasn’t close enough to hear what he meant by that, but clearly, Tristan was accusing Vince of having done something wrong, or of allowing something bad to happen.’
I thought about this for a few moments. I knew that Vincent Archer was the financial director. Had he made a serious mistake, or had Angel even been accusing him of stealing from the company? Whatever it was, it must have been serious if it had led to murder, or even a double murder.
‘Any other arguments you might have overheard?’
‘Nothing much, except that Liam and Vince almost got into a fight a bit later on Monday night, and Big Peter had to step in to separate them. I’ve no idea what it was about, but they both looked furious.’
This was potentially significant, and I resolved to pass on theinformation to Virgilio and Marco. The other thing that was going around in my head was the question of why Hicks had been killed – if, of course, it turned out to have been murder. If it hadn’t been a business matter, could it have been personal? After all, like his boss, Hicks had been a good-looking and younger man, and he had also no doubt been very well off – probably even more so after Angel’s death. Might a woman have been involved? But why should one of them choose to kill him? Had he, rather than Tristan Angel, been playing around? And if he had, it seemed highly unlikely that this had been with the newly arrived Spanish lawyer, which left us with Penelope. But, if Penelope had committed murder, why try to get a private investigator involved as well as the police? It made no sense.
Seeing as she appeared happy to talk, I thought I had better try and establish once and for all what her relationship had been with Tristan Angel, and now also with Donald Hicks.
‘I’m sorry to be so suspicious, but that’s my profession. You said yesterday that your relationship with Tristan Angel was purely business. In the light of what’s happened to him and to Mr Hicks, are you still sticking to that story, or is there something you want to tell me? I certainly got the impression yesterday that at least some of the people in the room thought that you and Tristan had hooked up, but might you have been involved with Donald Hicks? Please tell me the truth. This is a murder investigation, and any bit of information, however insignificant you think it might be, can add up and prove important.’
There was what could have been stunned silence at the other end for several seconds until she finally answered, and I was relieved to hear her reply in even, if terse tones. ‘No, I can assure you that Tristan and I werenotan item, and as for Donald, you must be joking.’ There was another pause before she added an interesting piece of information. ‘The first thing you need toknow – ask anybody – is that Don was gay. There’s no way he could possibly have been interested in me, even if I had been looking for a man – which I am not.’ There was real conviction in her voice. ‘As for Tristan, the honest truth is that he did proposition me on the two previous trips I did with him, and I’m pretty sure the main reason he brought me along this time was so he could try again, rather than for my social-media skills. What am I doing here otherwise, in the midst of the top management of the company?’
I had to wait a couple of seconds before she opened up a bit more. ‘This is going to sound like I’m just moaning, and you’ll probably laugh, but all my life, I’ve found it almost impossible ever to be taken seriously just for me, whether for my academic ability, my effectiveness in the workplace, or even as a Girl Guide many years ago. Time and time again, men don’t see any further than the outside. I’m not stupid; I know some men find me attractive, but you can’t imagine how frustrating it is never to be judged on your ability, always on your looks. As I say, I’m sorry if this sounds like me just being gratuitously bitchy, but time and again, that’s what I’ve encountered.’
This sounded genuine and heartfelt, and I reassured her. ‘Thank you, Penelope, I appreciate your openness. Tell me, what about Emilia Cortez? Was her relationship with Tristan purely business, or do you think he was also pursuing her?’
It didn’t take long for her to formulate a response. ‘I think it might have been the other way around. Maybeshewas pursuing him. There was something about the way she looked at him. I definitely got the idea that she would have been more than happy if something had happened between them but, for some reason, he couldn’t stop fixating on me.’
This was an interesting observation, and it was consistent with the impression Sergeant Dini had received. Might Angelhave been murdered by Emilia Cortez in a rage of unrequited love? But I was at a loss to see why she might then have murdered the allegedly gay Hicks. Were we looking for two different murderers?
I promised Penelope once again that I would do my best for her and told her to try not to worry.
Easier said than done.
10
WEDNESDAY MORNING
I had another close encounter with Eddie Smith when I got to the villa. A uniformed officer at the front door told me that Virgilio was once again in the small lounge, and I was on my way there when I bumped into Eddie. He glanced furtively around before approaching me.
‘Seems I might have got it wrong… you know, about the killer. The Italian chief inspector told me that South African mercenary bloke copped it in a bomb blast, but, now that Mr Hicks has snuffed it, I’m coming round to thinking it might be somebody here what done both murders.’
This was pretty much what I’d been thinking myself, but I just nodded and let Eddie elaborate.
‘Anyway, I’ve been doing a bit more thinking and I reckon it was the Spanish bird.’
‘Emilia Cortez? Why would you think that? Has she been doing anything suspicious?’
He shook his head ruefully. ‘Well, no, but it must be her, mustn’t it? She’s the only one who ain’t one of us, you know, one of the TXA bunch.’
‘That’s your only reason for thinking she might be the killer?’
‘I suppose so. It’s just that I can’t imagine any of the TXA gang killing Mr Hicks or, indeed, the boss.’ There was another short pause. ‘I’ll be quite honest, guvnor, I never really liked Mr Hicks. He wasn’t like the boss. The boss was straight; you could trust him. Mr Hicks was different. You never really knew where you stood with him.’
‘Can you think of anybody here who might have had a grudge against Hicks?’
There was another, longer pause before Eddie just shook his head and padded silently away. I filed away the fact that Donald Hicks maybe hadn’t had the best reputation and carried on towards the small lounge and it was there that I found Agent Toselli in the process of handing over to Virgilio’s team.
Maurizio Toselli of the Italian security service was quite something. I had always assumed that one of the principal requirements of a good spy should be the ability to pass unnoticed, to be able to melt into a crowd and disappear. Toselli definitely didn’t fit into that category. He was probably about six feet six, as thin as a beanpole, with an unruly mop of carrot-coloured hair. To make matters worse, today he was wearing a bright-red shirt with a white collar. He would have stood out in a football crowd, let alone in an identity parade.
He and Virgilio were sitting opposite each other, with Marco Innocenti and Sergeant Dini standing solemnly in the background, and the atmosphere in the room was tense, to say the least. When I followed Oscar into the room, Toselli leapt to his feet and pointed an outraged finger at my dog.
‘Get that animal out of here. This isn’t a zoo. This is a crime scene.’
Oscar stopped and shot me a glance that clearly said,What’s his problem?
