There was a distinct frisson of interest around the table, and Vincent Archer, in particular, allowed a glimmer of relief to appear on his face as Virgilio launched into our agreed charade.
‘My officers have managed to retrieve the murder weapon used to kill Tristan Angel in the duomo on Tuesday and for the attempted murder of Vincent Archer here yesterday afternoon. It’s the pistol missing from here and it was wrapped in a plastic bag and buried behind rosemary bushes at the top corner of the garden. This has been taken to the forensic laboratory, where it’s currently undergoing tests, but I’ve just had a message from them to say that they have located some traces of DNA. They areworking on this now, so as to be able to compare the results with the DNA provided by you all that we have on file already. From what they tell me, within an hour or so, they should be able to give me the name of the murderer in your midst.’
He laid extra emphasis on the last words of this sentence and paused to let the ramifications of his announcement sink in. I was scanning the faces around the table very closely and it seemed to me that Liam O’Connell and Eddie Smith both looked not so much reassured as perturbed by the news. Might this imply guilt? As for the others, it was hard to pick up any reaction. I kept a careful eye on the two women but was unable to pin down any specific emotion on their faces, which, in fairness, were looking careworn already. The only one to look enthusiastic at the news was Carl Sinclair. A smile appeared on his face and he spoke up.
‘Hallelujah. Thank the Lord for that. What do you want us to do for the next hour until you get the results? Will we be able to leave as soon as you arrest whoever’s been doing these terrible things?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘You’re all free to do what you like for now, just don’t leave the villa or the grounds. Yes, as soon as this affair is concluded and we’ve arrested the perpetrator, you will be free to leave. I’m sorry you’ve had to be kept here, but it’s been a complicated investigation.’ He turned towards me. ‘Have you anything to add, Dan?’
Keeping my expression serious, I ramped up the pressure a bit more. ‘Just a bit of advice, really. You must all realise by now that this means that somebody here is a brutal killer who has shown no hesitation about committing murder. Whoever it is has already killed twice and, but for some good fortune, Mr Archer would have been the third victim. My advice to you is, whatever you decide to do over this next hour or so, make sure you don’tallow yourself to end up in a one-to-one situation with anybody here. Remember, there’s a murderer here and, with arrest looming, they could do something extreme. Go to your room and lock yourself in or stay down here in a group of at least three or four people. Don’t take any chances. The killer in your midst won’t hesitate to kill again.’
This time, I read fear on several faces, most notably Penelope’s and Peter Schneider’s. Liam O’Connell showed no reaction at all. Alexander Murray had been sitting stony-faced, but now I thought I could spot emotion on his face as well. It was hard for me to decide whether this was anxiety, guilt or something else, but at least it was a reaction. Eddie was harder to read, studiously averting his eyes, while Emilia Cortez managed to produce a smile – not a broad smile, but a reasonable attempt.
‘Thank goodness we can soon go home. My nerves are destroyed, knowing that I’ve been living so close to a murderer.’ She shuddered. ‘All I want now is to get on an Air France plane and fly back to Paris.’
Virgilio acknowledged her intervention. ‘I’m sure you will all be pleased to leave… at least, all of you except the murderer.’
23
FRIDAY MORNING
At just before ten, Virgilio received a call. It was Tristan Angel’s ex-wife calling from the Four Seasons hotel, and he put it on speaker. He and I were sitting alone in the small lounge with Oscar stretched out on the Persian rug at our feet.
‘Chief Inspector Pisano? This is Jane Taylor-Mead. You told me to tell you when I intended to leave Florence. Unless you have any objections, I’m planning on travelling down to Rome this afternoon. Is that all right?’
‘Good morning, Signora. Yes, that’s fine. Thank you for letting me know.’
‘Have there been any developments in your investigation?’
‘I hope so. We’re waiting for some results from the laboratory, but the signs are good. Did you hear about Donald Hicks?’
‘Yes, Vince called me on Wednesday. How awful. Why do you think he was murdered?’
‘That’s still unclear at this stage. Tell me, Signora, does the name Shabah mean anything to you?’
‘No, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t.’ There was silence for a moment before she continued. ‘Do you think Donald was murderedbecause somebody has been trying to eliminate the directors of the company?’
‘It’s a possibility. I don’t know if you heard, but Vincent Archer narrowly missed being shot yesterday.’
There was an audible intake of breath from her. When she responded, there was definite fear in her voice. ‘I haven’t heard from Vince since Wednesday. I’ve tried ringing him, but his phone just goes to voicemail.’
‘All the phones have been at our technical department being analysed. I imagine that’s why you haven’t heard from him. Yesterday, he was very lucky when somebody fired two shots at him at close range but missed.’
‘This is all Tristan’s doing.’ Along with fear, there was anger in her voice now. ‘I’ve been telling him for years that no good can come out of dealing with certain customers. It sounds like somebody’s waging a vendetta against the company. Surely it can’t be somebody inside the company.’ Another pause. ‘Do you thinkImight be in danger? With Tristan and Don gone, Vince and I are now the last remaining directors of the company.’
‘It’s our belief that the murderer of both men is one of the group here. You might be right about the motive, although I agree that it’s hard to see why somebody who’s part of the company should be actively working against it. Hopefully, when we catch the killer, the motive will become clear.’
He went on to offer a few more words of reassurance, before promising that he would let her know the result of the investigation as soon as it was concluded. When the call ended, I stated the obvious.
‘Of course, if a vendetta against TXA Supplies really is the motive behind the murders, there is one person here who isn’t an employee of the company.’ A sudden thought occurred to me. ‘How stupid of me. I’ve just realised what I’d forgotten up tillnow. You know we were trying to work out how somebody here could have managed to visit the duomo on Monday to check out the confessional before sending the email to Angel arranging to meet there on Tuesday? Well, of course, there was one person who had that opportunity. Why didn’t I think of it before?’
He looked up with interest, but before he could reply, his phone started ringing again. He listened intently and when the call ended, there was a far more optimistic look on his face.
‘That was the ministry in Rome. They’ve just heard back from the Spanish authorities and we have a result. Emilia Cortez Garcia has an interesting past. She was indeed born in Melilla as she said, and she studied law in Spain and the US, before returning to work in a charity in her home town. The charity in question seeks to help the numerous asylum seekers arriving at the gates of Melilla every day from all over Africa, the Middle East and even as far afield as Afghanistan. She was apparently very good at her job. Apart from being a skilled lawyer, the fact that she was born and brought up in Melilla meant she is fluent not only in Spanish but also in Arabic and the local Berber language. Interesting that she didn’t give us that information under questioning, isn’t it?’
I nodded in agreement. ‘Very definitely. Apart from anything else, she would easily have been able to impersonate an Arabic speaker in the email exchange with Angel. Even more importantly, she told us she flew into Florence on Monday, but she only arrived at the villa at lunchtime. From what she’s just told us, she flew Air France. We need to check which flight she was on and what time it arrived. If it was an early flight, that would mean she had time to visit the duomo and suss out a suitable spot for the handover of the fictitious two million pounds from the equally fictitious Shabah. It sounds as though we’ve been barking up the wrong tree about her. We all thought that there was somethingsuspicious in the way she sounded when she referred to Tristan Angel and, initially, we put it down to physical attraction. Maybe the truth is that she came here with a mission: to eliminate the top echelons of a company that she saw as having fuelled, if not caused, so much suffering across Africa and the Middle East.’
Virgilio jumped to his feet, rousing Oscar in the process. ‘We need to talk to her right now.’ He went to the door and sent an officer to look for Marco or Dini. The sergeant arrived first and Virgilio gave her a two-line summary of this latest development and told her to fetch Emilia Cortez immediately and then check with Air France to find out her flight times on Monday. Less than five minutes later, Dini was back.
