Chapter 12 #2
‘As far as his personal fortune is concerned – and he mentions eleven different accounts in five different banks spread around the world – he’s leaving almost everything to his Victims of Conflict charity.
There are a number of smaller bequests, ranging from ten to twenty thousand pounds each, to what are probably distant relatives or old friends, and one larger bequest of a million pounds to the Grenadier Guards Benevolent Fund.
’ I looked up. ‘Seems like he had no close relatives or, if he did, he didn’t like them enough to leave them anything, and he certainly didn’t leave anything to his ex-wife.
This probably removes financial gain as a motive for murder as far as she’s concerned. ’
I studied the names of the beneficiaries of the smaller bequests, in case one or more might look familiar, but nothing caught my eye. ‘Certainly no question of leaving anything to anybody here at the villa.’
‘What about his shares in the company?’ Virgilio was looking pensive.
‘If I understand the legal terminology correctly, he has donated his shares to the company, and he says this is “so that the company I founded can continue to go from strength to strength”. It’ll be interesting to see if Donald Hicks’s will is similarly generous.’
Virgilio then demonstrated that he knew more about company finance than I did.
‘If, as I imagine, the company is worth hundreds of millions or even billions, I would think the remaining shareholders will be in for a healthy dividend.’ He looked across at Marco.
‘Any progress on finding out any more about the company? Who stands to benefit from these deaths?’
Marco’s smile disappeared, and he didn’t look particularly hopeful. ‘The company’s registered in Panama, but there’s been no reply to our request for information. We’ve been in touch with the Panama authorities, but they either can’t or don’t want to help. We’ll keep trying.’
Virgilio grunted, and I queried with Marco how his interviews with the residents of the villa had gone this morning. With Dini’s assistance, he gave us a quick summary.
‘The main thing I wanted to do was to establish where everybody was last night, and if anybody had heard anything. Donald Hicks took dinner with the others and then retired to his room at just before ten-thirty. Nobody admits to having seen him after that. No strange noises, no new faces, and nobody could think of a possible motive for his death – or, if they did, they weren’t prepared to tell us.
As for the AISE agents, they were fed in the kitchen and, as we thought, Rosina the cook confirms that they ate and drank liberally – make that excessively.
They’ve now disappeared back to Rome with their tails between their legs and, as far as we could establish, one spent the night sleeping on a sofa in the small lounge while the other – who was supposed to be keeping an eye on the bedrooms – was found next morning fast asleep in a spare bedroom.
The only one who seems to have been at his post was the one outside, patrolling the grounds.
The CCTV cameras pick him up on numerous occasions throughout the night. ’
Sergeant Dini added a comment. ‘And that guy was the one who suggested where we might find the source of the arsenic that caused Hicks’s death.
’ She looked up with a wry smile. ‘It’s good to know that at least one of them was on the case.
Anyway, following the suggestion from the AISE man, we checked out the greenhouse at the side of the villa and, sure enough, we found an ancient half-empty jar of arsenic rat poison.
Forensics have taken a sample, and we should get confirmation later this morning as to whether or not that was the source. ’
Virgilio’s phone started ringing and he listened intently for a minute or more before ending the call and giving us the gist. ‘That was Gianni at the path lab. Although Hicks’s killer took the trouble to try to make it look like suicide, the forensics team have checked the pill jar and the glass found alongside the body, and they’ve come to the conclusion that he was murdered.
There was no label on the jar, but they’ve found traces of normal paracetamol inside.
No doubt the killer wanted us to believe he had taken his own life by overdosing on a common medication.
Both the glass and the jar had only his fingerprints on them, but they found the plastic top of the jar under the bed and it had been wiped clean.
No prints. How did he open it without leaving his prints?
The murderer must have wiped everything clean and then pressed the jar and the glass against Hicks’s hand, but they forgot the top.
Presumably, the killer wanted us to think that Hicks had murdered Angel and then killed himself.
I definitely think this makes it more likely that we’re looking for a single killer, and he or she is definitely at the villa, don’t you? ’
We all nodded in agreement and he went on.
‘We still need to find the weapon that killed Tristan Angel, but the odds are that it’s long gone.
Anyway, the next thing on the agenda for us is to sit down and have a long talk to Vincent Archer to check out these reported arguments involving him, and to see whether he stands to gain from either or both deaths.
I wonder if it really will be Archer who’ll take over now that Donald Hicks is no longer with us.
However, seeing as your British friend is still talking to him, Dan, why don’t we have a coffee first? ’
Oscar was the first one on his feet. He doesn’t drink coffee, but he knows that coffee very often comes accompanied by biscuits.