Page 26 of Murder in Portofino

‘Me, too, but it was good, wasn’t it?’

‘Both meals were excellent, but food isn’t the only reason you’ve been lying there talking to your dog, is it?’

‘You heard that?’

‘Only odd words, but enough to know that you’re struggling to know what to do.’

‘I know what I have to do, it’s just that I’m finding it hard to turn my back on years of conditioning.’ I reached across with my hand and let it rest against her cheek. ‘My number-one priority is you. I know that, I hope you know that, and Oscar now knows that. I brought you away for a few days for a nice, relaxing holiday and what have you had? Me charging off all over the place, pretending I’m in the murder squad again while you’ve had to sit around and twiddle your thumbs. I’m really sorry and, however much my instincts are telling me to get involved with the people on that yacht, I know where my responsibilities lie. And that’s with you.’ To reinforce the point, I kissed her.

She kissed me in return and then gave my arm a squeeze. ‘I know that, carissimo, but I also know what drives you. It’s that Hercule Poirot brain of yours that just can’t switch off.’ She leant over and gave me another kiss. ‘And I love you for your brain, so I have a suggestion. Tomorrow morning, sorry, this morning, I think you need to go back over to Portofino and go out to the yacht with Guido. Between the two of you, I know you’ll be able to sort things out.’ Before I could reply, she placed a finger on my lips. ‘I can easily walk down to the station tomorrow and catch a train that’ll get me to Florence by lunchtime. My meeting isn’t till five and there are loads of things I have to do for work, so I’ll just go back to my place and get on with that while you do your best to solve the mystery here. All right?’

Just in case I might be thinking of omitting to give credit to my four-legged friend for initiating this conversation, two heavy paws then landed on my bottom and the next thing I knew, I had fifty or sixty pounds of canine bone and muscle climbing all over me. By the time I had managed to persuade him to return to his place on the floor and had thanked him formally for his intervention, Anna had finally stopped laughing. I rolled back towards her and saw her face, no longer covered by the sheet, smiling at me.

‘You’re sure you don’t mind?’ I gave her a kiss for good measure.

‘Of course I don’t mind. I’ll go back to the never-ending arguments between Pope Julius II and Michelangelo while you go and solve your murders. We all have our areas of expertise. Go and use yours.’

I woke up at six-thirty on Tuesday morning and took Oscar for a walk. The beauty of getting out so early was that the temperature was delightful, the air almost fresh, and the traffic on the streets around the hotel far lighter than I knew it would be later on in the day. We walked to a nearby park that I had found the previous day where Oscar had the chance to run around retrieving pine cones for me to throw for him. While the game continued, I pulled out my phone and texted Neil Vaughan, telling him I would be happy to investigate the missing money, and then I called the lieutenant. His phone was answered by Maresciallo Veronese.

‘Lieutenant Bertoletti’s phone.’

‘Good morning, Maresciallo, it’s Dan Armstrong. How did it go on the Regal Princess last night?’

‘Good morning, Commissario, it certainly looks like the same perpetrator. The man was lying on the rear deck of the yacht with his throat cut and a steak knife still sticking into his heart. The pathologist said he must have died almost instantly, so whoever did it knew what they were doing.’

‘And they cut his throat as well as stabbing him through the heart! They certainly wanted to make sure he was dead. Did the pathologist say which blow came first?’

‘The throat, apparently – that accounts for all the blood.’

I digested what he’d said. The choice of murder weapon certainly seemed to indicate that this latest murder had been committed by the same person who had killed Van der Groot.

‘Any chance of prints on the knife?’

‘Forensics were there until two and they say there are at least some partials. We’ll fingerprint everybody this morning and it would be great if we found some that matched, but we’re not getting our hopes up yet. The pathologist’s doing a post-mortem as we speak but he doesn’t expect to find anything much apart from the stab wounds.’

‘Any suspects?’

‘Nothing for now. At that time of night, half of the people on the yacht were already in bed and most of the remainder looked as if they were too drunk to have been able to get down the stairs to the rear deck, let alone stab a fit thirty-year-old. The lieutenant stationed two officers on the boat overnight and he’s confined everybody to the area. We’re going back over again this morning to do formal interviews. Ah, here he is now. I’ll pass you over to him.’

A couple of seconds later, I heard Guido’s voice. ‘Good morning, Dan. I hope you slept well.’

‘Ultimately, yes, but Anna and I were doing a bit of talking first. The decision we’ve come to is that she’s going back to Florence by train and I’m going to accept Mr Vaughan’s proposition, so I’m up for a visit to the yacht as soon as you like.’

‘Excellent. Do you want me to send a boat over to Rapallo to pick you up?’

‘Thanks, but I have to leave the hotel today, and that includes moving the van. The place is completely booked tonight and for the rest of the week, so I thought I’d drive over because, if all else fails, that means I can sleep in the van. Somehow, I don’t think I can afford Portofino prices.’

He laughed. ‘I can help with that. I’ll find you a bed here at the barracks if you need it and I can even offer you a free parking space. Just park in any of the yellow parking spaces at the top of Piazza della Libertà and I’ll get you a permit. What time can you be here?’

‘It’s almost seven now. Probably around eight-thirty if that’s okay with you.’

‘Perfect, see you then. I’ll fill you in on what happened last night when you’re here.’

After a quick breakfast, I kissed Anna goodbye and loaded Oscar into the van. Fortunately, at this time of the morning, the road to Portofino wasn’t too busy and I managed to get to Piazza della Libertà at just before eight-thirty. As instructed, I parked in one of the restricted spaces right in front of a sign indicating graphically that transgressors would find their vehicles towed away. I hurried up to the Carabinieri station where I found Maresciallo Veronese in his usual spot outside. We shook hands and he ruffled Oscar’s ears before leading me in to see the lieutenant, who greeted me with a smile.

‘Come in, Dan, sit down. Veronese, will you see that a parking permit gets put on Dan’s car? What’s the make and registration number?’

After the maresciallo had gone off to make sure that my van didn’t end up being towed away, Guido ran through the events of the previous night.

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