Marco answered. ‘Interestingly, two shots were fired at Archer from a 9mm pistol. Forensics have found two shell cases and they’re studying them now, but they say their first impression is that they could well have been fired from the same weapon used to kill Angel.’
‘Wow, that is interesting.’ And it was. If it turned out to be the same gun that had killed Tristan Angel in the duomo, then its reappearance here firmly pointed to one of the occupants of the villa having been responsible for his death, as well as this attempted murder. ‘Any sign of the weapon?’
‘No, but we’re combing through the whole place all over again.’
‘What about Archer? He wasn’t hit?’
‘Remarkably, no. He says he was just coming out of his room after lunch, and as he opened the door, two shots were fired from across the landing. One hit the door frame and the other actually tore a hole in his shirt but merely grazed him. He dived back inside, slammed and locked the door and called us. By the time we got upstairs, there was no sign of the perpetrator or the weapon.’
‘Did Archer get a glimpse of his assailant?’
‘Nothing at all. The shots came from the direction of a suit of armour. Presumably, the perpetrator was hiding behind that.’
‘Did anybody hear the gunshots?’
Marco shook his head. ‘No, that’s the other thing: the shooter must have used a suppressor, just like in the duomo.’
‘What time did this happen?’
‘Archer called me at exactly two forty-six, so let’s say a quarter to three.’
‘At least this now means that there can be little doubt that both murders were committed by somebody here at the villa.’ Iglanced across at Virgilio. ‘You said on the phone that almost any of the people here could have done it. Didn’t at least some of them have alibis?’
‘We’ve only done very quick interviews so far, trying to establish who was where at that time, and the only one with a cast-iron alibi is the American. He was in the kitchen with Rosina, being taught how to make gnocchi. Otherwise, everybody else appears to have been either in their rooms, or in the gardens, or somewhere else in the house but, so far, we’ve been unable to find anybody who can corroborate anybody’s evidence.’ He gave another theatrical sigh. ‘And just to add to our woes, Tech have checked every phone and every device here at the villa – and, believe me, they went through the place centimetre by centimetre – and we’ve found absolutely nothing incriminating at all. No mention of Shabah, no mention of Ibrahim Hassan – not even on Penelope Green’s phone – and no recent calls to or from either of the victims.’ He spread his hands helplessly. ‘We’re back to square one.’
I shared his pessimism. Time was passing. I could well imagine the pressure bearing down on Virgilio and Marco from above to get results as quickly as possible, so that the occupants of the villa could be released to get on with their lives again.
I decided to mention something else I had been thinking about on my way here. ‘Is there any way Archer could have faked the murder attempt? If not, then it pretty much removes him from the frame as far as the other murders are concerned, doesn’t it?’
Virgilio answered. ‘Forensics have swabbed his hands and clothes and there’s no gunshot residue on him. Also, they found residue on the side of the suit of armour. I suppose it’s possible that he might have put on gloves, gone across the landing, stoodbeside the armour, deliberately fired into the door frame, and then fired at his shirt to make that hole, but it’s tenuous. Apart from anything else, there’s no sign of any gloves, and no gunshot residue on the shirt, so he would have had to have taken it off. Forensics have found both bullets, and the trajectory of them confirms that they came from the direction of the suit of armour. Equally importantly, there’s no sign of the weapon. It’s just possible that Archer faked it, but it wouldn’t have been easy, and, with the villa full of police, I would say he would have been taking one hell of a chance. So, I think we can probably eliminate him from the list of suspects along with Angel’s ex-wife and her boyfriend, who wouldn’t have had access to the villa or the weapon.’
I nodded in agreement, mentally also removing Shaun, who had the very best of alibis – he had been with me. ‘If so, the odds are shortening, aren’t they? If we forget Amedeo, Rosina and Carl Sinclair, her cookery student, we’re left with the two women, Eddie Smith, Peter Schneider, Alex Murray and Liam O’Connell. Six possibles, but who’s the killer?’
Virgilio looked across at Diana Dini. ‘Do you want first go, Dini?’
She looked up from where she had been scratching Oscar’s tummy while he lay on his back on the floor with his legs in the air and a big canine smile on his face. ‘They all had the opportunity to assault all three victims. Peter Schneider and Alex Murray claimed not to have visited the duomo on Tuesday morning, but it’s perfectly possible that they did. Having said that, I fail to see what motive Schneider might have had, and it’s hard to find a motive for Emilia Cortez to have killed the first two and to have tried to kill again. Yes, she might have been jealous of Angel and Penelope, but if that were the case, surely her second victim afterAngel would have been Penelope herself, rather than Donald Hicks.’
Virgilio gave her an approving look. ‘That all sounds quite clear and reasonable, Dini. So, if we take Peter Schneider and Emilia Cortez out of the equation for now, that leaves us with only four suspects: Liam O’Connell, Alexander Murray, Penelope Green or Eddie Smith. Marco, do you have a favourite?’
Marco answered immediately. ‘Penelope Green. I’m sure it’s the jihadi connection. Maybe her old boyfriend is still alive and he’s the mysterious Shabah. Of course, it’s possible that hewaskilled in that bombing raid, but that she was so affected by his death that she has thrown in her hand with the Islamists. My feeling is that she killed both men and tried to kill again today, although I suppose she might have provided the weapon for Angel’s murder, and somebody else, calling himself Shabah, pulled the trigger. Either way, I think she’s our killer.’
Virgilio looked across at me and gave me a wry smile. ‘Marco makes a good case although, let’s face it, there’s absolutely no evidence to support it yet. What about Murray, O’Connell and Eddie Smith? Can you think of any possible motive for any of them to be our killer?’
It wasn’t an easy question to answer, but I tried all the same. ‘Having seen and talked to Murray, I don’t see him as a killer and I can’t come up with a motive unless he was defrauding the company and got found out. I think it’s more likely that Liam O’Connell is our man – after all, both Eddie and Emilia have their doubts about him. Maybe he set out to eliminate his superiors in the company in the hope that he would find himself promoted to CEO with a seat on the board. It’s a totally over-the-top way of gaining promotion, but I find it more credible than to think that Eddie would have wanted to murder the man who quite literally pulled him out of the gutter andgave him a job. Maybe we have to go back and revisit the whole idea of whether we really are looking for one perpetrator with one clear motive, or more than one person, each with their own agenda.’
Marco looked across at me and raised an eyebrow. ‘Such as who?’
‘Maybe Angel was murdered by somebody here, either out of ambition, jealousy, or objection to the direction of travel of the company, and its increasingly undesirable customers. As we said before, maybe Hicks invented the Shabah story so as to lure Angel to his death, but Eddie Smith got wind of what he’d done and killed Hicks in retaliation. But there’s a problem: whoever lured Angel into that confessional must have visited the duomo in advance. How else would they have known where the confessional was and about the sign indicating it was closed? The trouble is that the people here arrived at lunchtime on Monday and were involved in meetings that afternoon. How could they have sneaked off to check out the confessional? That makes it all the more likely that Angel really was killed by this Shabah character and Hicks by somebody here.’
Virgilio nodded in agreement. ‘So we could be looking at two deaths, two different killers, after all.’
I carried on. ‘Then there’s the question of who tried to kill Vincent Archer today, and this is where it gets trickier. All I can imagine is that Archer might have seen the person who killed Hicks with the poison, or the murderer imagined that he’d been seen, and today’s attempt on Archer was to silence him.’ I found myself repeating Virgilio’s helpless gesture with my hands outstretched. ‘But it’s weak, I know. I suppose all I’m saying is that, although I’ve been working on the assumption up till now that both murders were the work of the same person, it’s looking ever more likely that not all the assaults were committed for thesame reason, so, like you say, maybe there really were two different perpetrators.’
I looked around at the others and read the same expression of frustration on all the faces. We appeared to be getting nowhere and we now had the added complication of a killer on the loose who had no qualms about attempting murder right under our noses. Would there be another fatality?
21
THURSDAY EVENING
