Page 12 of Murder in Portofino

The maresciallo shook his head. ‘I asked them that and they said no, no attempt had been made to secure it. It’s a miracle it got stuck in the rocks, or it and the body would have been washed way out to sea by the currents and goodness only knows when it would have been found again.’ He glanced across at me for a moment. ‘You maybe know the story of the unfortunate Countess Vacca Agusta twenty years ago. Her body wasn’t found for over three weeks until it washed up on the shore in France.’

‘Yes, I just heard about it this morning. So on that basis, there’s no proof that Van der Groot was actually still in the boat when it reached the shore.’

‘That’s quite correct.’

The lieutenant nodded approvingly and caught my eye. ‘Looks like you were right, Signor Armstrong.’ He returned his attention to the maresciallo. ‘What time did you say the man, Van der Groot, left the Regal Princess?’

‘The captain said it was around eleven.’

‘Where was the boat moored?’

‘About a kilometre off the coast, between here and Santa Margherita. She says they arrived there from Rapallo at eight yesterday evening and spent the night there before moving to their current position closer to Portofino at seven-thirty this morning. They haven’t moved since.’

‘Has anybody come ashore or are they all still on the boat?’

‘The two crewmembers who came looking for the dinghy at six-thirty this morning didn’t set foot on dry land and returned with it as soon as they found it. As far as the guests on board are concerned, the captain says none of them have left the yacht so far today.’ He gave a little smile. ‘By the sound of it, they’ve been hitting the booze pretty hard and, as a result, they’re not too active in the mornings.’

I saw the lieutenant digest the information for a few seconds before turning to me. ‘Signor Armstrong, I know you said you’re on holiday, but I wonder if you might be able to give us one more hour of your time. You said you think you might be able to recognise the voices you heard in Lucca, so would it be possible for you to come with me to the yacht now? I won’t do formal interviews at this stage because I’m sure your time is precious, but I would just like to have a quick chat to everybody on board with you listening in, in the hope of pinpointing the men you heard.’ I was impressed to hear him then switch to pretty good English with a distinct but comprehensible Italian accent. ‘As you can imagine, I have to use English quite a lot so I’m reasonably fluent and I don’t really need the services of an interpreter, but the people on the yacht don’t need to know that. I won’t introduce you and if anybody asks, we’ll just say you’re helping with the language.’ He switched back to Italian again. ‘Would you be able to do that for us? I’d be very grateful.’

I checked the time. It was almost two o’clock now and if Anna had gone for a snooze after her lunchtime sandwich she probably wouldn’t be surfacing before three so I reckoned I was safe enough. ‘Yes, of course. I wish I could give you more of my time, but I’m here with my girlfriend and she’s expecting me to spend our holiday weekend with her.’ I caught his eye for a moment. ‘I’m afraid my job’s been causing a bit of friction between us.’

The lieutenant gave me a rueful smile in return. ‘That sounds all too familiar. Thank you very much for your help.’ He turned to the young Coastguard officer. ‘Paolo, I wonder if in return for Signor Armstrong’s assistance, you or one of your colleagues would be kind enough to run him back to Rapallo after we’ve finished talking to the people on the yacht?’

‘Of course.’ Officer Solaro gave me a little grin. ‘I promise I’ll get you back a lot faster than the ferry.’

7

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

The Regal Princess was even more impressive close up. I’d been on a luxury yacht once before during a big drug investigation over in the UK, but that had been less than half the size of this monster. As the bright-orange Coastguard rigid inflatable nudged up against the open platform at the stern, the vessel towered above us. A crewman in shorts and a light-blue polo shirt with the name of the yacht on his back and his name, Christopher, on his left breast, took our mooring rope and made it fast. We climbed aboard and followed him up a flight of steps onto the open deck, where the swimming pool looked very inviting. I had no doubt that had Oscar been with me, he would have made a beeline for it. Like most Labradors, he loves the water.

I was mildly surprised to see nobody by the pool, but when we climbed the next flight of steps to the deck above, I realised why. Here we found everybody in a huge open-plan living/dining room that Christopher – who spoke with an Irish accent – referred to as the saloon. There was a huge dining table at one end and a series of smart, white leather armchairs at the other. As far as I could see, the only concession to this being a yacht, rather than a room in a luxury hotel, was the fact that the armchairs appeared to be bolted to the floor.

I counted eleven people sitting around a massive dining table laden with plates, cutlery, and the remains of a meal as well as about a dozen wine bottles, by the look of them mostly empty. This appeared to indicate that the alcoholic indulgence of the group wasn’t restricted to the evenings. There was an aroma of freshly made coffee in the air and it was clear that the guests were just finishing their lunch. I looked around with interest and immediately spotted Susie Upton sitting next to her fellow comedian, Martin Grey. Around them were five other men and four women. I recognised several of the faces from various TV shows back in the UK and from the restaurant in Lucca but was unable to name any of them. Needless to say, there was no sign of Jerome Van der Groot, the man with the eyepatch.

I intercepted a few curious looks but nobody commented and the lieutenant said nothing as we followed Christopher up another level to the bridge. This was a state-of-the-art environment packed with electronic equipment and computer screens. There were panoramic windows all around, giving a terrific view of Portofino and the bay of Rapallo. A slim, fit-looking woman, probably in her early fifties, stepped forward and held out her hand to the lieutenant.

‘Welcome aboard. I’m the captain. My name’s Devesi, Monica Devesi. How can we help you?’ She was speaking in Italian and I felt pretty sure I could hear a northern Italian accent, but I’ve only been living over here for two years and I’m not too good at pinning down precise locations yet.

‘Good afternoon, Captain.’ The lieutenant was sounding respectful. ‘My name is Lieutenant Bertoletti from the investigative branch of the Carabinieri, based in Portofino.’

The lieutenant shook hands with her and, as agreed, made no attempt to introduce me or either of the two officers with us. ‘Thank you for sparing me your time. I’m afraid I have to inform you that it’s possible that the passenger who left last night may have been murdered.’ He checked his notebook, ‘Mr Van der Groot, Jerome Van der Groot.’

The captain looked genuinely shocked. ‘Murdered? But how…?’

The lieutenant didn’t go into any detail and quickly qualified his statement. ‘A body was found in a rocky inlet below Castello Brown this morning. At the moment, we aren’t sure if the body found in the sea is that of your former guest or not. We’d like to have a few words with the other passengers and see if we can confirm his identity. I just have one or two questions for you first, if you don’t mind. Firstly, how many guests are you carrying?’

‘Twelve, including Mr Van der Groot. They’re all involved with a British TV company.’

‘And how many crewmembers do you have on board?’

‘Sixteen – plus myself.’ I listened in awe as she listed them. There were more crewmembers than passengers on board the Regal Princess. One thing was for sure: a cruising holiday on something like this was only for the mega rich.

‘And are all of the crew well known to you?’

She nodded. ‘Most of them. The second officer, purser and engineer have been with me for two years now, ever since I took over as Captain. Luigi and Carlo, the chefs, have been working with me since January, along with all the hospitality staff, and the only relatively new crewmembers are Rick and Penny. They started in May.’

‘Any problems with any of them? Any violence, drug taking, anything like that?’

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