Page 18 of Murder in Portofino

He looked across and caught my eye. ‘You can be more than that if you can spare the time. That way, you could listen to the men’s voices one more time as well, in case you can pick out the other man you heard. We could do that tomorrow morning after I’ve spoken to this young lady. You’re welcome to sit in and ask any questions of your own, but only if you can spare the time and if your girlfriend and your dog will allow it.’

‘That sounds like a very good idea. I’ll talk to Anna about it tonight and I look forward to seeing Officer Solaro and his speedboat tomorrow at nine. I’m sure Anna will understand that it’s something I need to do.’

Even as I said it, I found myself wondering whether she would.

10

MONDAY MORNING

As it turned out, I didn’t need to sleep on the floor after all, although when I broke the news to Anna that I felt I needed to go back in the morning to help with the investigation, I had a feeling she was thinking of turfing me out of, not only the bed and the room, but maybe also her life as well. Luckily, she was appreciative of the way I was helping the maiden in distress so she swallowed her exasperation and agreed to return to Portofino with me next day. I knew I was breaking my promise to try to concentrate on her and our holiday, but something deep down inside me wouldn’t let me turn my back on a murder case – even if, as she was quick to point out, I wasn’t being paid for my efforts.

Anna had been able to convince the receptionist to find a small single room for Heather, and the receptionist even very kindly managed to provide her with a comb and a little tube of toothpaste with a disposable toothbrush, although all her other stuff was still on board La Fortunata at Portofino. Heather thanked us most warmly, but her voice was weary and I told her she would feel better after a good night’s sleep.

Anna was still asleep when I woke up early next morning, so I crept out of bed and took Oscar for a walk before breakfast. When I got back to the room, the atmosphere was a bit strained but Anna appeared to have accepted the fait accompli and she no longer tried to object to my ‘playing detectives’. Of course, in spite of her choice of vocabulary, she knows as well as I do that murder isn’t a game.

When we met up with Heather in the breakfast room at eight, she was looking much brighter than the previous night. Over breakfast, I told her about the death of one of the group from the Regal Princess and she sounded interested when she heard who was on board the yacht.

‘Susie Upton and Martin Grey: they did that sitcom about the magician and his assistant, didn’t they? My mum used to love that one. As for their huge yacht, I saw it yesterday morning. It was anchored only a couple of hundred metres further out than us overnight and it came past around half past seven in the morning, heading for Portofino. I asked Mario why we weren’t going ashore as well, because I was getting fed up with just bobbing up and down with the shore half a mile away, but he said he wanted to wait. Like I told you last night, he changed completely the previous night when that other boat appeared and he was in a foul mood all day yesterday. He really snapped at me. My phone wasn’t working and I had nothing to read, so I had a really boring day. It was late afternoon before he finally decided it was time to go into the harbour and that was a tremendous relief.’

This confirmed what I had thought. The rendezvous with the unknown boat had been pre-arranged and presumably Mario had wanted to keep whatever was in those boxes safely out of the way of prying eyes until the last minute. Knowing that he was scheduled to meet and pick up the two Arabs that evening, he had just hung around out at sea and wasted time. Little wonder Heather had been bored and getting more and more disenchanted with him.

I found Officer Solaro waiting for us when we got down to the jetty and he gave us another exhilarating trip across the bay. Oscar clearly loved it and he stood on the foredeck, firmly braced with his legs splayed, his nose pointing into the wind and his tail wagging, while I kept hold of the end of his lead in case he might decide to jump over the side. Fortunately, Anna also found the trip exciting and she was looking and sounding more cheerful when we got to Portofino. After dropping us off on the quayside, Officer Solaro stayed on board the boat, telling me he was going off to do his ‘rounds’. I presumed this to mean checking up on the multitude of different boats moored up in the bay and beyond. Anna and I had already agreed that she and Oscar would go for a walking tour of the town while Heather and I went up to the Carabinieri station. The good news was that there were far fewer people around first thing on a Monday morning and it didn’t take us long to get there.

When we got to the barracks I found Maresciallo Veronese standing outside once more, this time without a cigarette in his hand, and he gave me a smart salute.

‘Buongiorno, Commissario.’ Word of my former rank must have spread.

I smiled back at him. ‘Good morning, Maresciallo, but it’s ex-commissario these days. How did it go with the three men you have in custody?’

‘The two Arabs claim they only speak a few words of Italian, no English, not even French. We couldn’t get a word out of them although they’d been sitting with Mario Fortunato when we picked them up, so how did they talk to each other – hand signals?’ He gave a dismissive snort. ‘The lieutenant’s trying to get an interpreter, but whether that will start them talking is another matter. As for Fortunato, he’s barely said a word except for bleating that he wants to see his lawyer. That’s the way it is for these pros: say nothing, get an expensive lawyer and try to wriggle out of all charges.’

‘You say he’s a pro – what sort of pro? A pro smuggler?’

‘He’s an arms dealer, a middleman between factories in places like Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria on the one hand and a variety of clients all around the globe, some of them decidedly suspicious, on the other. The lieutenant will tell you more, but we’ve had our eye on this bunch for months now.’

‘I see.’ This confirmed my feeling that the speed with which the Carabinieri had impounded the yacht and arrested its occupants had to mean that the authorities had already had them in their sights. ‘Well, I hope you manage to break down their wall of silence.’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’m not holding my breath.’ He checked his watch. ‘I expect the lieutenant’s back in his office now. He spent the night here at the barracks and the last I heard of him, he was having a quick coffee. Come on, let me show you through to his office. If he hasn’t come back yet, you can wait for him.’

In fact, Lieutenant Bertoletti was already at his desk when we were ushered into his office. He stood up to shake my hand and looked across at the maresciallo. ‘Veronese, I’d like you to take this young lady to an interview room, please. I’ll be with her shortly.’

I gave Heather a little wave and mouthed to her not to worry. In response to the lieutenant’s gesture, I sat down opposite him and gave him a sympathetic grin. ‘Tired?’

‘Exhausted. I didn’t get to bed until 4a.m. and I was up again at six-thirty. I’ve had so many cups of coffee this morning that I feel light-headed, but at least I’m awake.’

‘I gather from the maresciallo that your other guests aren’t talking.’

He shook his head helplessly. ‘Hopefully, in the next hour or so, the Arabic interpreter should be here, although we’re perfectly sure that these two already speak Italian, if not English, so that means I’m not expecting any instant confessions. As for Mario Fortunato, he refuses to say anything until his lawyer gets here from Pisa, and that won’t be until mid-morning at the earliest.’

‘The maresciallo told me that they were involved with arms smuggling. Did you manage to get any clues off those boxes that were transferred from the other boat? Don’t worry, I don’t want to know what was in them.’

‘The Forensic team are still studying them. What I can tell you is that our ballistics specialists say they should have no trouble identifying the origin of the highly sophisticated weapons in the boxes and, you never know, we might be able to get some prints off them and match them with some of the other suspects in this case. They were no doubt destined for some very unpleasant people – Veronese may have told you that this is a Europewide, if not worldwide, operation.’

‘I gathered as much. I wish you luck.’

He smiled. ‘Thanks, we need it.’

‘Did you get any kind of reaction from any of the three when you mentioned Jerome Van der Groot? I presume if they weren’t talking, you didn’t get much.’

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