Page 33 of Murder in Portofino

‘But she doesn’t return his affection?’

‘Definitely not.’

‘Do you think anybody else here is attracted to Susie?’

If she was puzzled to see the possible connection between these questions and the missing money, she didn’t show it. I saw her pause for thought for a few seconds before replying. ‘I don’t think so. Of course, there was always Jerome.’

‘What makes you so sure about that?’

‘Just the way he behaved alongside her.’ She raised her eyes from Oscar for a moment or two and looked at me. ‘He was always very… I don’t know the word really, maybe “possessive”. He was very touchy feely with her, he insisted on her sitting with him and I’ve seen him put his hand on her bottom.’ Her expression soured. ‘I certainly wouldn’t have let him do something like that to me.’

‘And do you think anything ever happened between them?’

She shrugged. ‘I really don’t know, but I doubt it. Susie’s a flirt. Everybody knows that, but I don’t think she would stoop that low.’

‘Thank you. I now only have a couple more questions for you. First, what did you do on Saturday night after Jerome Van der Groot stormed off?’

‘A number of us got up and exchanged looks, but nobody said much. Then I just went back to my cabin and went to bed.’

‘Can anybody confirm that?’

She had to think for a few moments. ‘I walked back with Edgar. We stood outside his door for a couple of minutes and chatted – just about Italy and this cruise – and then I went to my cabin. I was on my own all night if you’re looking for an alibi, but I’m not the sort of person who goes around murdering people.’

‘Thank you and, finally, can you think of any connection there may have been between the murdered deckhand, Heinrich or Rick Schiller, and anybody in your group?’

She shook her head but then added, ‘You could ask Susie. She knows pretty much everything that goes on around here.’

I thanked her for her cooperation and asked her if she would mind asking Susie Upton to come and talk to me. Clearly, the glamorous presenter was the fount of all knowledge here on the Regal Princess.

After the door had closed behind Louise, I reflected on what I’d heard from her and the others. Of the five people with access to the accounts, I was increasingly feeling that the suspects had now reduced to just two men: Edgar Beaumont and the late Jerome Van der Groot. As far as the other three were concerned, I had tended to believe them, although I still had the feeling that Adam Phillips had not been completely open with me. The next problem was going to be pinning something on either of the two – the dead man or the one who was still alive. Back in the days when I was at Scotland Yard, I would have sent the company accounts to the team of forensic accounting specialists who are specially trained to go through item by item, line by line, double-checking source and destination of every payment and correlating this against who might have authorised it. It’s a long and painstaking job, but I had a feeling this would now be the only way of getting to the bottom of GreyratTV’s missing millions.

The other interesting piece of information was the fact that Jerome Van der Groot had clearly had the hots for Susie Upton – even though she had been adamant in denying any relationship with him of that ilk, and my brief glimpse of the two of them together in Lucca hadn’t struck me as overly affectionate. But what if Martin Grey had been right? Maybe her denials were just an act? Had she been cynically prostituting herself to her boss so as to get ahead? If so, might this have led to a situation where she couldn’t take it any longer and had decided to resort to drastic action? Was the murderer a woman rather than a man?

19

TUESDAY MORNING

Susie Upton arrived looking flustered. Although Oscar managed to bring a smile to her face, I could hear more than a hint of irritation in her voice when she sat down to talk to me.

‘The Carabinieri are back again. They’ve been asking everybody about this latest murder victim. Surely his killer has to be somebody in the crew, doesn’t it? We barely knew the guy.’

I shook my head. ‘Not necessarily. You have to admit that it’s quite a coincidence that there have been two murders in three days. I suppose the police have to consider that the two might be linked in some way.’ I decided to test her powers of deduction. ‘I’ve been trying to think of any way they might be linked – can you?’

She paused for thought for a few seconds and I studied her while she was thinking. Today, she was wearing a different bikini with a very loose, white, cotton shawl thing wrapped around her. I’m sure there’s a technical term for it, but women’s fashion has never been my strong point. As before, she was looking alluring, but today there was also clear concern or annoyance on her face as she ventured a guess.

‘Could it be that this deckhand and whoever it was who killed Jerome were working together? What if they had a falling-out and one killed the other? No honour among thieves and so on.’

‘You might be right, but the question that still needs answering is why Jerome Van der Groot was killed in the first place.’ I saw her nod in agreement and I continued. ‘As I’m sure you’ve heard, the reason I’m here asking questions is because Edgar Beaumont has asked me to investigate what looks like serious embezzlement. Several million pounds, I believe.’

I saw her eyes widen. ‘Millions of pounds gone missing? Wow! Edgar said money had disappeared, but I hadn’t realised it was that much.’ There was a pause while this registered with her. ‘But I don’t think I’ll be able to help you. I’m very much at the sharp end, in front of the camera. I don’t have access to the accounts and, even if I did, I probably wouldn’t be able to make sense of them. I have an accountant who does all my tax returns and things like that. Who do you suspect?’

‘I was going to ask you that. I’m not suggesting that you’re involved, but I wonder if you’ve heard anything that might help me? Maybe somebody with a gambling habit or big debts, or maybe somebody who has a grudge against the company?’

Again, there was a pause while she thought it through. Finally, she produced her answer. ‘I really can’t imagine anybody here doing something like that. Certainly it would have to have been somebody with access to the accounts, so that limits it to just a few people. Any of us involved with actually making the programmes wouldn’t have had the opportunity. Of those with access, I do know that Edgar’s in big trouble with his wife’s divorce lawyer trying to take him for everything he’s got but, if he called you in, it can’t be him. Of course, there’s always Martin. He has absolutely no moral compass at all, but I can’t see how he could have got access to the accounts.’

‘Talking of Martin Grey, I gather Saturday night’s big argument was between him and Jerome Van der Groot. I heard it might have been something to do with industrial espionage. You’re sure it had nothing to do with the accounts?’ I already knew the answer to this last question but, as I was ostensibly here to investigate the fraud, I did my best to link my question to it.

She answered immediately. ‘It wasn’t about the accounts. Call it what you like, but the fact of the matter is that Martin’s been selling us out to the competition. I’ve noticed quite a few times over the last couple of years that just as we’re coming up with, say, a new quiz show for teenagers, one of the other channels gets there first. To start off with, I thought it was just coincidence, but more recently, I’ve been having serious doubts. When I heard that Martin was responsible, it came as no surprise, but I thought it was shameful, even for somebody like him.’

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