Page 22 of Murder in Portofino

This certainly was significant. Could it be that Martin Grey had decided to take his revenge on his boss in such a radical way? But, from what I’d just seen and heard, Martin Grey wasn’t the only person with a short fuse. Doug Kingsley had sounded quite vicious in his altercation with Grey and I had a feeling that if he and Jerome Van der Groot had crossed swords, the comic with the earrings might have resorted to violence. Seeing as Tamsin was in talkative mood, I glanced around to check that we weren’t being overheard and then asked her a question that had been preying on my mind.

‘Could I ask why Martin Grey called Susie a slut? Was that just a random insult or is he basing that on something linked to her behaviour perhaps?’

I noticed that Tamsin also took a surreptitious look around before answering. ‘No, of course not, although she’s no saint. As far as Martin’s concerned, it all stems from his narcissism. For ages now, he’s been peddling a rumour – quite unfounded, I’m sure – that the only reason Susie has done so well in the company is because she’s been sleeping with the boss.’ I saw her exchange glances with Anna. ‘You never met Jerome, did you? But, believe me, he wasn’t the sort of man that any woman with an ounce of self-respect would consider as a bedfellow.’ I saw her actually shudder. ‘Like I say, Martin always has to be top dog, and it’s pretty clear to me, and I’m sure it was clear to everybody including Jerome, that Susie can run rings around Martin in terms of professionalism, public popularity and just plain intelligence. And, deep down, I’m sure Martin knows it’s true, but this just makes him more and more sour towards her. Hence the insults.’

Anna was looking surprised. ‘And yet the two of them can appear side by side on TV and you’d think they were the very best of friends.’

Tamsin gave her a wry smile. ‘What happens in front of the camera and what happens away from it are two very different things.’

This reminded me that half the people on this boat were actors. I’d met quite a few talented actors in my time – not in a comedic but in a criminal sense – and I knew that an innocent smile often concealed hidden guilt. Yes, Martin Grey and Doug Kingsley might appear to be rude and argumentative, but could it be that other less aggressive members of the GreyratTV staff were skilfully concealing hidden depths? If there was a murderer here on board the Regal Princess, his or her identity was far from clear.

13

MONDAY AFTERNOON

As soon as we reached the jetty and I’d waved farewell to Christopher in the launch, I pulled out my phone and called Lieutenant Bertoletti. He answered immediately and told me that he was in his office if I wanted to drop in. I explained to Anna that I would only be a few minutes and then I promised that would be the end of my involvement with this case. I left her looking a lot happier than she had been this morning, sitting on a bench in the shade with Oscar at her side. I struggled through the crowds to the Carabinieri station and found Maresciallo Veronese standing outside as usual. As before, he gave me a salute when he saw me and addressed me as Commissario. I decided there was no point in trying to correct him as this would probably be the last time I would see him anyway.

‘Good afternoon, Maresciallo. I’m just going in to see the lieutenant. What sort of morning have you had?’

‘Frustrating. The lieutenant will tell you all about it. The two Libyans claim that they’re old friends of Mario Fortunato and they just happened to bump into him by sheer chance here in Portofino.’ He shot me a sceptical look. ‘And I’m Father Christmas, right?’

‘And what about Fortunato himself? Did his lawyer appear?’

‘Yes, but I don’t think the lieutenant got much out of him either. Come on, he can tell you himself.’

He led me through to the lieutenant’s office and left me there. The lieutenant was looking a bit less tired but, just like the maresciallo, I could tell he was frustrated. I could well understand and I gave him a sympathetic smile.

‘I gather that your three suspects haven’t provided you with any kind of breakthrough.’

‘My three suspects have hardly said anything. The Libyans claim they know nothing and want to speak to their embassy in Rome, accusing me of harassment. Fortunato continues to deny everything, including a mystery vessel arriving in the night, as well as any knowledge of the boxes in his hold, even though I’ve told him his girlfriend witnessed their transfer from the other vessel. He says she must be mistaken and hinted darkly that she’d been smoking pot. We did find a stash of marijuana in the main cabin but whether that was for her use or his, I have no idea.’

‘What about her? When you spoke to her, did she manage to give you a decent description of the other boat?’

He shook his head sadly. ‘Not really: similar size yacht to the one she was on, but because it was dark, she barely glimpsed the name and can’t remember what that was. She has little or no experience of boats, and she didn’t even notice if it had a mast or not. So, no, not a lot of help. We’ve taken a statement from her and we have her contact details, but we sent her away just after ten. She’s probably back in Lucca by now. The trouble is that, without her evidence, we still can’t get a positive ID on that other boat – assuming there really was one and it wasn’t just the product of a drug-induced dream. What about you? How did it go on board the Regal Princess?’

I gave him a rundown of what I’d learned, starting with the bad news that I’d been unable to identify the other voice I’d heard in Lucca. I saw him nod gloomily and I went on to give him the other bits of information I had gleaned, finishing off with a brief summary.

‘So what does that give us? The victim was generally disliked by all and particularly hated by Martin Grey. Douglas Kingsley, the younger comedian, looks like a tough character, although I’m not sure I could see him committing murder, and I’m not aware of him having had any particular arguments with the victim. There’s the question of the company maybe facing insolvency, but I fail to see how that might have provided grounds for killing the boss. To be honest, without sitting down and giving each of them a full in-depth interview and checking their records, I’m struggling. What about the crew? Did Maresciallo Veronese get any joy when he interviewed them?’

‘Nothing of any value. The deckhand who was on anchor watch that night claims that he saw nothing and heard nothing apart from the outboard motor on the dinghy starting up when Van der Groot set off for the shore. Veronese said the man wasn’t particularly cooperative.’ He consulted his notebook. ‘Name of Heinrich Schiller, German national, goes by the name Rick on board the yacht, and Veronese wondered if he might even have a criminal record as he was very negative, almost insolent. I haven’t checked him out yet. I’ve been waiting to see if you’d come across anything interesting, but I’ll get onto the German authorities now. According to Schiller, all he says he could see when he heard the sound of the dinghy engine was the shape of a single person sitting in the boat as it disappeared into the dark, heading for shore, but there was no way he could identify who that was. Apart from that one sighting, he claims no other boats came or left or even passed near them between sunset and dawn.’

‘Van der Groot stormed off at the end of a major argument that night. I’m not sure, but it was probably with Martin Grey.’

‘I’ll check that out. Veronese and I are on our way back to the yacht this afternoon.’

‘And when you spoke to the people on the yacht yesterday, did they tell you what they did after Van der Groot stormed off? Did they get up and leave as well or just stay in the saloon?’

‘We didn’t have long with each of them so I’ll ask for more detail this afternoon, but, from what people told me, after the meal had finished, some started heading back to their cabins, one or two went for a late-night swim in the pool, a couple opened yet another bottle of wine and stayed in the saloon but, otherwise, nothing much happened. Very few of them have solid alibis so I suppose almost any of them could have followed Van der Groot and killed him. We asked each of the guests if they’d seen anything of Van der Groot after he stormed off and they all said no, but I find it hard to believe that he just disappeared into thin air. To make matters worse, although the yacht has a CCTV system, it’s been out of action for the last two or three days and I gather they’re calling into Genoa later in the week to get a replacement part fitted. It’s infuriating.’

I knew how he felt. ‘That’s a great pity. There’s a part of me that still thinks there’s something not quite right on the Regal Princess, but I suppose I’m coming around to having to accept that it might not have been one of them after all. Maybe Van der Groot just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he was murdered by Mario Fortunato or the crew of the boat that brought the cases of weapons to stop him revealing what he’d seen.’

Bertoletti nodded slowly. ‘But of course we have no conclusive proof that there was a second vessel there, so that leaves us with the possibility that as Van der Groot was passing Fortunato’s boat, he spotted him doing something compromising – whatever that might have been – and Fortunato decided to kill him to shut him up, but I’m just clutching at straws.’ He gave a frustrated snort. ‘Who knows? Maybe Van der Groot was killed for some completely different reason. It might even have happened after he landed here in Portofino. He arrives at the harbour and somebody’s lying in wait for him. They jump into the dinghy, knife him, then tip the body into the water and push the dinghy out into the current and that’s that. But why? And more to the point, how did they know he was coming? I haven’t done checks on all the phones on board the Regal Princess yet, but I suppose it’s just possible somebody on board phoned here to tip the killer off, but why?’

‘Why indeed? Could it just have been an opportunistic robbery?’

‘Anything’s possible. When the body was found, there was no phone, wallet or passport on him but the murderer might have taken them just to give the impression of a robbery or just to slow the investigation.’ He shrugged helplessly. ‘Like I say, anything’s possible.’

‘By the way, have your Forensics people checked the dinghy used by the victim yet?’

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