‘And how did you know that she was planning to come to Florence?’
There was another longer pause before he leant forward towards us and began to talk, his tone one of resignation. As he did so, it immediately became clear that much of what Billy and we had suspected was in fact true.
‘I’ve been worried for some time now about the direction in which the company’s been moving. You may already have checked, but you’ll find that I used to be a senior British Army officer, and when I participated in setting up the company all those years ago, I made it clear that I would only be interested in being involved so long as the interests of the company didn’t conflict with the interests of Britain and the free world. Up until last year, to be fair, Tristan and Don kept their word, and we turned down numerous approaches from countries and organisations who could have represented a threat to British and allied interests. Then, late last year, the two of them started to get greedy.’
‘They started dealing with more unscrupulous clients?’Virgilio was using his friendly, conciliatory voice now, in the hope that Archer would go on to reveal all.
Archer nodded again. ‘I’m afraid so.’
‘But, surely, decisions of such significance would have had to be approved by the board of directors? I imagine Angel and Hicks were in favour and, from what you’ve just told us, you were against dealing with potential enemies, but what about Ms Taylor-Mead?’
‘She was vehemently against it. Again, I imagine you’ve been checking our backgrounds, so you may know that her father, now retired, is Major General Sir Wilfred Taylor-Mead, a pillar of British society, and certainly not one to be involved with anything that could damage the country’s interests. She felt the same way as I did but, between us, we were unable to make Tristan and Don change course.’
‘So if two directors were in favour, and two were against, how was it decided? A toss of a coin?’
‘No. As Tristan was the moving spirit behind setting up the company in the first place, it was stipulated in our original articles of association that in the event of the directors being unable to reach agreement, the CEO would have the final word.’
Virgilio’s tone became more ominous. ‘I put it to you, Mr Archer, that the deaths of Angel and Hicks have suited you perfectly. Not only can you now choose to do business with the clients you feel are more appropriate, but the profits will be split two ways and not four. Is that a correct assessment of the new situation?’
Archer looked up from his hands, consternation on his face. ‘Well, yes, but you don’t think I had anything to do with killing Tristan or Don, do you?’
‘It strikes me as a pragmatic solution to the problem you and Signora Taylor-Mead faced. Think very carefully before youanswer my next questions. Were you in the duomo between ten and eleven-thirty yesterday morning? Were you familiar with the armoury hidden behind the tapestry in this room and, in particular, with the non-standard handgun that’s now missing?’
Archer’s expression changed from concerned to seriously worried. He might have been acting, but if so, he was good. ‘Yes, yes and yes, but I can assure you I had nothing to do with either murder.’
Virgilio changed tack. ‘It would appear that you’ve been having some arguments recently, notably on Monday evening. Can you tell me what might have made Tristan Angel shout out the words, “How could you do such a thing?” What was it he accused you of doing?’
Archer answered readily. ‘I told him I’d spoken to his ex-wife, and he flew off the handle.’
I translated the colloquialism for Virgilio’s benefit, but I got the feeling he had already worked it out for himself. ‘Presumably, you had already spoken to her about the illegality of Angel’s plans for the company, and when you told him that she was strongly against anything like that, he got angry?’
Archer nodded. ‘Yes, but he already knew what his ex-wife thought of the idea. What sent him into a rage was the fact that I had asked her to come over here to Florence so we could form a united front and both speak to him in person.’ He looked up and explained. ‘As I understand it, she was also anxious to speak to him about some considerable sums of money still owed to her after their divorce. Ever since the divorce, board meetings have been conducted on Zoom, and Tristan was furious that he was being asked to meet the woman who had dared to reject him. For such an amoral, promiscuous man, he had a remarkably thin skin.’
This explanation sounded reasonable to me, and Virgiliomust have felt the same way because he changed to the other reported argument.
‘And we’ve also heard that later that evening, you and Liam O’Connell almost came to blows and had to be separated by Peter Schneider. What was that about?’
Archer hesitated for a few moments and then trotted out the same explanation O’Connell had produced. ‘The company lost a lot of money when half of a massive shipment of munitions delivered to an important customer in Africa turned out to be completely the wrong calibre. I was in a bad mood and I took it out on Liam, but he was able to show me that it hadn’t been his fault. I apologised for my outburst, and it all blew over.’
Grudgingly, I had to accept that this chimed with what O’Connell had said, so maybe there was nothing more to it. One thing it did prove, however, was that Vincent Archer had a temper. Whether his temper could have been violent enough to make him commit murder was the big question.
Virgilio wasn’t prepared to let him off the hook yet.
‘So, you and Liam O’Connell are friends again?’
‘Of course. It was just a minor disagreement.’
‘A minor disagreement that led to the two of you having to be physically separated?’ Virgilio didn’t give Archer a chance to respond. ‘I put it to you, Signor Archer, that you and Liam O’Connell conspired together to murder Tristan Angel and Donald Hicks. What have you to say about that?’
Archer looked up, his face flushed, and his expression a mixture of outrage and disbelief. ‘I would say that you’re out of your mind, Chief Inspector. I am a man of honour and a man of strong Christian beliefs. There is no way I could ever be involved in murder, particularly the murder of two men I have worked with for over a decade.’ He was positively glowering now. ‘Let me make it as clear as I can: I had absolutely nothing to do with themurder of either man, and anybody who thinks otherwise is deluded – or just plain stupid.’
Virgilio gave no response and kept on with the questions, but without getting any positive result. I watched Archer carefully, reflecting that he was either a very good actor, or he wasn’t our killer. It clearly followed that if he and/or O’Connell hadn’t killed Angel, then the finger of suspicion once again turned firmly in the direction of the ex-wife. The problem was that yesterday, I’d had the feeling that she, too, had most probably had nothing to do with it. At the time, I had questioned how she or her boyfriend might have got hold of the weapon, but I now realised that if Archer and she had been working together, then he could easily have removed it from the cupboard yesterday morning, taken it down to Florence and handed it over for her or her boyfriend to commit the murder. But surely he could just as easily have pulled the trigger himself. My head was spinning. The simple fact, however, was that we had absolutely no evidence against any of them.
Over the next hour or so, we interviewed all the others, but with little or no success. Alex Murray, Liam O’Connell and Peter Schneider all admitted knowing about the armoury and the stealth weapon but vehemently denied having any involvement in either murder. Carl Sinclair, the American, claimed not to have known of the existence of the armoury, as did the two women. All six admitted to having taken part in the clay-pigeon shoot early on Monday evening, and Archer, Murray, O’Connell and Emilia Cortez to having fired the plastic pistol, but they repeated that they hadn’t killed anybody. Carl Sinclair and Penelope Green claimed not to have seen or touched any of thehandguns, and by the time we were ready to interview Eddie Smith, the last of our suspects, we still had no proof against anybody. I wasn’t the only one to feel frustrated.
Before our final interview, I received an interesting phone call from Paul at Scotland Yard.
‘Hi, Dan. As promised, I’ve run those names that you gave me through the system, and they all came up negative except for one. Care to hazard a guess who?’
