Chapter 6 #2
‘I can assure you that it was purely a business relationship.’ She sounded sincere, but I wondered what kind of relationship it had been.
Certainly, she appeared far from heartbroken, and this strengthened my conviction that Eddie might have been mistaken about her being Angel’s ‘bit of stuff’, although the fact that many eyes in the dining room had turned towards her when the tattoo question had been raised surely indicated a close relationship with the victim.
She made an attempt to change the subject. ‘You said he was shot. Would he have died instantly?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘No question. He was shot through the temple with a 9 mm pistol. Death would have been instantaneous.’
I took a long hard look at her. Although it was a pretty convincing performance, there was still something about it that didn’t ring completely true, and I had a feeling she knew more than she was prepared to say.
There was little shock or horror, and certainly no outpouring of grief. Instead, she just looked puzzled.
‘Who on earth would do something like that to Tristan?’
‘I was rather hoping you might be able to help us with that. I imagine that, in his line of business, he must have managed to make quite a few enemies.’
She gave a dismissive shrug of the shoulders. ‘He wasn’t the sort of man to worry about making enemies.’ There was what might have been a note of respect in her voice.
Virgilio picked up on this. ‘Did you like Mr Angel? Did you admire him?’
‘Yes, I liked him and, to a certain extent, I admired him. He built up the company by himself and it’s now one of the major world players.’
‘Players in a very dirty game.’ Virgilio’s tone was clearly disapproving, but she didn’t rise to the bait.
‘I agree with you that there are some very questionable operators involved in the arms trade, but people need arms to defend themselves. Without TXA, many helpless groups, and even smaller nations, would have been overrun by now.’
I wondered whether Tristan Angel had followed some kind of moral compass, or whether Penelope Green was just deluding herself.
I was sure Virgilio felt the same way, but there was little point in pursuing the rights and wrongs of the arms business with somebody who worked in it.
Instead, he asked the important question:
‘Tell me, Signora Green, who do you think murdered Tristan Angel?’
She gave us a helpless look. ‘Who knows?’
‘Might it have been somebody here at the villa?’
Her eyes opened a bit wider in an apparent show of disbelief. ‘Somebody here? What makes you say that?’ I noticed that she didn’t say no.
‘I’m just trying to consider all possibilities.’ Virgilio was still adopting his friendly voice. ‘Has there been any discord here? Any arguments?’
She shook her head. ‘None that I can remember. Most people get on pretty well together.’ I also noted her use of the word ‘most’, rather than ‘all’. This might merit further investigation.
Virgilio carried on with his questions. ‘Can you tell me where you were this morning between nine and noon?’
‘I went into town with the others at nine. We were back here by half-past twelve.’
‘What about Mr Angel? Was he with you?’
‘He came with us on the way into town, but then he went off on his own.’
‘Did he tell you where he was going, what he was going to do?’
‘He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.’ The unhelpful note was back in her voice.
‘Where did you go, and who with?’
‘I went for a walk by myself. I did some shopping and visited a few of the main sights.’
‘Which main sights?’
‘The centre of town, the Ponte Vecchio and the cathedral.’
Virgilio kept his voice studiously neutral. ‘You visited the duomo at what time?’
She didn’t need to stop and think. ‘About a quarter to eleven. I was only in there for a short while. There were so many people around. I didn’t want to climb to the top of the dome and I would have had to pre-book that anyway, so I just took a quick look around and then left.’
So she had been there between Angel’s arrival and the discovery of his body. Just like Hicks, this gave her the opportunity to have been our killer, too.
Our next interviewee was Emilia Cortez Garcia, who told us she was thirty-six, originally from a Spanish town called Melilla, and that at nine this morning, she had travelled into the centro storico with the others and had spent her time wandering about, seeing the sights.
I studied her carefully as she answered Virgilio’s questions.
She was unquestionably another beautiful woman, although there was a hardness to her expression that detracted from her appeal.
Her eyes were clear, and I could see no traces of grief, so she evidently hadn’t been too badly hit by Tristan Angel’s death either.
Her story of only having met him a handful of times purely for business appeared to be the truth.
Virgilio carried on with his questions. ‘Which of Florence’s sights did you visit this morning?’
‘I’ve never been to Florence before, so I started with the main sights – the Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, the duomo and the baptistery.’
Virgilio and I exchanged glances as he picked up on her words. ‘Can you remember what time it was when you visited the duomo?’
She looked mildly surprised, but she paused for thought. ‘About ten-fifteen or ten-thirty, I think, maybe ten minutes before or after.’
Virgilio carried on. ‘While you were there, did you see any of the other people from the villa?’
‘You mean inside the duomo?’ She looked puzzled, but she answered anyway.
‘None of them.’ She glanced across at Virgilio.
‘To be honest, I hardly know them, but I don’t get the impression that any of them are likely to be interested in religious monuments, do you?
’ There was barely concealed scorn in her tone.
Virgilio didn’t answer and carried on with his questions. ‘I gather you didn’t travel over with the rest of the group. Why was that?’
‘Because I’m not part of the company. I’m a lawyer, as I told you, and I live and work in Paris. I flew in yesterday, arriving here at the villa at just before one.’
‘So, yours was a business relationship with the victim?’
‘Yes.’
‘Were you his personal lawyer? I believe Mr Angel got divorced some years ago. Did you act for him in that matter?’
She shook her head. ‘No, I came here only to advise him on matters relating to his business. I believe his personal lawyers are in London, but I don’t know their name.’
‘Can I ask why he needed a lawyer to come all the way from Paris to see him?’
‘He had a number of specific queries, and he told me it would be easiest for us to meet face to face. He didn’t have time to come to Paris, so I had to come to him.
As you must already know, he was a very wealthy man, and if that’s what the client wants, that’s what he gets.
Besides, as I told you, I’d never been to Florence before and I jumped at the opportunity to come and see the sights.
I flew in yesterday and I intend to fly back tomorrow.
I specialise in international taxation, and Mr Angel and I spent most of yesterday afternoon going through a number of financial matters.
We were planning to continue today, but of course that’s all changed now. ’
Virgilio nodded a couple of times. ‘Can you tell me the sort of thing you discussed?’
I saw her look up and catch his eye. ‘You will understand that the details of what we discussed are protected by lawyer-client confidentiality, but I imagine you’re aware of the nature of Tristan Angel’s business and can draw your own conclusions.
I was helping him with everything from export and import licences for different countries to tax-efficient ways of making and receiving payment. ’
‘Can you give me an idea of the nature of the goods he was exporting and where to?’
She produced an ironic smile. ‘I’m afraid that’s out of the question – and out of your jurisdiction.
You can take it up with my employers, if you like, but I fear you’ll find yourself up against a brick wall.
We take confidentiality very seriously.’ She produced a visiting card from her bag and handed it across to him.
‘You weren’t bothered at the thought of working for an arms dealer with blood on his hands?
’ This was an aggressive question from Virgilio, but I felt sure he was trying to assess her response.
I also studied her face as she replied and I picked up a sudden tightening of the lips, but her voice was level when she replied.
‘I’m afraid I can’t pick and choose my clients.
I only joined this law firm last summer and I’m still relatively new.
’ She paused for thought. ‘If you want an honest answer, I have to tell you that, given the choice, I wouldn’t have chosen TXA Supplies as a client but, as I say, I have to do as I’m told. ’
When the interview had finished and she had left, Virgilio looked across at the rest of us. ‘Well, what do you think of the two women we’ve just interviewed – Penelope Green and Emilia Cortez? Was Angel in a relationship with either or both of them? Dini, what do you think?’
There was a short pause while the sergeant considered her response.
‘Before getting them in here and interviewing them, I had a feeling that the victim was quite possibly involved with both of them.’ She blushed.
‘I don’t mean at the same time. When I saw them at the dining table, I definitely got the feeling that there was a degree of animosity between them that could have been down to jealousy, but, in fairness, Emilia Cortez didn’t appear to have a particularly high opinion of Angel or any of the others here. ’
‘And now that you’ve seen and heard the two women close up, do you still think either or both might have been involved with the victim?’