Chapter 19
SUNDAY MORNING
The inspector, the sergeant, and I installed ourselves in the dining room on one side of the long table, with Oscar slumped on the floor at my feet.
We had barely taken our places when there was a knock on the door and a constable ushered Alice inside.
The inspector did the talking while I translated what she said, and what Alice said in response. Giulia started gently.
‘You have a beautiful house, Miss Graceland. You’ve managed to convert what was a very run-down set of buildings into a comfortable, modern home without losing the authentic feel of the place. How long have you been living here?’
Alice looked weary but she replied readily enough. ‘I bought the island two years ago, and the building work was finally finished just before Christmas. I’ve been here since then.’
‘Writing your autobiography?’
‘That’s correct.’
‘Mr Armstrong here has been telling me how the contents of the book and the cards you prepared for your murder mystery would appear to reveal that some of your guests have been carrying deep, dark secrets. I understand from him that your intention in inviting these people here was in the hope of receiving an apology from those who’ve behaved badly towards you. Is that correct?’
‘Yes.’ Alice’s voice was expressionless, and I saw Oscar get up and trot around the table to position himself alongside her.
The inspector continued. ‘What sort of apology were you expecting to get from the victim, Lucy O’Connell? What had she done to you?’
‘Nothing at all. She was a friend, a good friend.’ Alice was sounding more forceful now.
‘So you’re sorry she’s dead?’
‘I’m not just sorry, I’m broken-hearted.
’ Alice’s voice faltered for a moment and tears appeared in her eyes once more.
‘If you’re asking me whether I had anything to do with her death, the answer is no, in the no uncertain terms. Like I say, she was a very close friend, and her death is a tragic loss. ’
The inspector gave her a few moments to compose herself. ‘I’m sorry I have to ask you these difficult questions, but I’m sure you’re as keen as I am to get to the bottom of what happened. I have a number of questions for you about some of your guests. In particular—’
Before I could even start translating, the door was suddenly thrown open and one of the uniformed officers from last night appeared, looking flustered. The inspector shot him an exasperated glance.
‘Yes, Piave, what is it?’
‘I’m sorry to interrupt, ma’am, but you need to see this.’
‘To see what? I’m in the middle of something here.’
‘There’s been another death.’ The constable took a couple of quick breaths. ‘I’ve been going around making sure that all the guests leave their rooms and collect on the terrace and when I got to room ten, I found the occupant inside stone dead.’
Giulia jumped to her feet and glanced at me. ‘Dan, please would you apologise to Miss Graceland and tell her I’ve finished with her for now, but that we’ll pick up this interview later?’
I repeated her message to Alice and then stood up as well and followed the inspector and the constable out of the door.
Oscar seemed happy to stay with his new best friend, which was probably just as well if we were going into yet another crime scene, so I left him there with his nose on Alice’s knees.
For her part, she didn’t say a word. She just sat there with an expression of intense grief on her face as she absently stroked Oscar’s head.
As we hurried along the line of bedroom doors, I was trying to remember who had been the occupant of room ten, but it escaped me.
I didn’t have long to wait until I found out.
Another officer was standing guard outside the open door, and I couldn’t miss the bulky, yellow-clad shape lying on the bed.
Jack Sloane, casting director and alleged rapist, was dead.
I followed the two police officers inside and stood by the door while Giulia checked that the victim was indeed dead and searched for any clues.
I let my eyes roam around the room. The first thing I noticed was that the bed quite obviously hadn’t been slept in, and the body was sprawled across it, face down.
A few inches from his outstretched right hand was a copy of Alice Graceland’s autobiography, also face down, and open.
I glanced at the young officer beside me.
‘Do you have a spare pair of gloves by any chance, Constable?’
He reached in his side pocket and handed me a pair of surgical gloves.
Pulling them on, I went around to the other side of the bed and turned the manuscript over.
I bent low and checked the text. It came as no surprise to see that this was the chapter in which Alice had recounted her ordeal at the hands of the heavily overweight character over ten years older than me.
Of course, I reminded myself, this might be pure coincidence, but I doubted it.
It would appear that Sloane had identified the reference to himself, so might this mean that he had decided to take his own life rather than face humiliation or worse?
Leaving the manuscript there, I walked back around to where Giulia was studying Sloane’s bedside table.
The light was still on and a half-empty bottle of single-malt whisky and a glass were resting there.
I very carefully picked up the glass and studied it against the light, immediately spotting what looked like tiny specks of dust lying at the bottom of it.
I set it back down again and, as I did so, the inspector caught my eye.
‘You’ve seen that as well, have you, Dan?
What’s the betting he was poisoned with the same substance that killed the first victim?
This is Sloane, isn’t it? I didn’t get a chance to speak to him yesterday but I remember you telling me he was drinking heavily.
Whisky on the bedside table is a bit of a giveaway. ’
I nodded. ‘Jack Sloane, seventy-five years old, casting director and star-maker, and, from what I’ve seen of him this weekend, a serious alcoholic. If it really is poison in his glass, I wonder if he put it there or whether it was the work of somebody else.’
Giulia straightened up and stepped back from the bed.
‘How’s this for a scenario? Sloane finds out that Alice Graceland is about to reveal him to the world as a rapist, so he decides to take pre-emptive action.
The card he receives at the murder mystery party convinces him of Graceland’s intentions, so he poisons what he thinks is her drink or her fruit salad, but, because of the costume swap, Lucy O’Connell is killed instead.
Back in his room, plagued by remorse, he uses the last of his poison to take his own life. What do you think? Case closed?’
Considering that similar thoughts had been going through my head, I nodded, but I wasn’t convinced.
‘It’s definitely a possibility, but it throws up a number of questions.
Presumably, this means that, when Sloane came to the island, he already had the poison in his possession.
Apparently, rumours have been spreading around Hollywood that Alice Graceland has been writing a tell-all autobiography, so maybe he came with the express intention of committing murder.
I’ve been wondering why such an obviously unhappy man with such clear antipathy towards his hostess should have accepted her invitation. Maybe he came to silence her.’
Constable Piave coughed politely. ‘Could the poison be some medication that he was taking? Sleeping pills, maybe?’
The inspector answered. ‘It’s an interesting thought, Piave, but from the way Lucy O’Connell suddenly collapsed last night, I have a feeling we’re looking for something much more quick-acting, but I’ll get Forensics to check any medication they find here, as well as searching for the container that would have held the poison.
But what do we think about the suicide theory? Do we think he took his own life?’
The constable looked unconvinced and, the more I thought about it, the less likely that scenario sounded to me.
I did a bit of thinking out loud. ‘Firstly, I don’t see Sloane as the kind of person who would be racked with remorse.
Aggressive and vindictive, almost certainly, but I don’t see him as a candidate for suicide.
If he was responsible for Lucy O’Connell’s death, I could imagine him having another go at killing Alice, rather than trying to take his own life.
He was probably worth a small fortune so if the book were to be published, he would easily have been able to afford to hire a top-notch legal team to fight any allegations in the courts.
Another possibility is that somebody killed Lucy O’Connell and then deliberately murdered Sloane, staging the scene here in the hope that we would leap to the conclusion that Sloane killed Lucy and then himself – as you said, case closed. ’
I pointed across to the manuscript on the bed.
‘His copy of Alice Graceland’s book just happens to be open at the pages recounting her experiences at his hands.
That strikes me as a bit too obvious. I think we could be looking for a completely ruthless murderer who killed the wrong person and is now trying to cover his or her back, or one who came here determined to kill Alice and Sloane. ’
Giulia Trevisan nodded in agreement but, before she could reply, her phone started ringing.
It was a short conversation, during which she said little more than ‘thank you’ a couple of times.
When it ended, she looked across at the two of us with an expression of mystification on her face.
‘That was the lab. They’ve identified the poison that killed Lucy O’Connell, and it’s a new one on me.
Have either of you ever heard of the suicide tree?
’ We both shook our heads, and she consulted her notebook.
‘It’s native to certain parts of India and its fruit is so highly poisonous that it can stop the heart in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, hence its popularity for suicide – or murder. ’
A thought immediately flashed into my head. ‘You said India. There’s actually one guest here who’s of Indian origin. Might Greg Gupta be more than just the innocent partner of Carlos Rodriguez? Have we been too quick to exclude him from our list of main suspects?’
Giulia looked up with interest. ‘We both excluded Gupta because we couldn’t see any possible motive he might have had for murdering either Lucy O’Connell or Alice Graceland but, of course, he might have done it to help his partner, whose dark secret of the man who fell to his death at Rodriguez’s party was revealed to you by Alice Graceland.
Maybe Gupta committed the murder, or both murders, in order to protect Carlos Rodriguez or, at the very least, he procured the poison so that Rodriguez could do the killing.
Either way, I think this could be highly significant. ’
She glanced at her watch and picked up her phone.
‘It’s gone nine-thirty. I need to get Forensics back over here and I need to brief my boss.
As I told you, the questore himself is “taking a personal interest” in this case – no surprise there – so I’ve been instructed to report anything significant immediately.
If you’re happy to continue helping, Dan, why don’t we pick up the interview with Alice Graceland at ten?
That’ll give you a bit of time to give Oscar a walk, and it’ll give both of us time to do some serious thinking in the light of this latest death. See you at ten?’
‘Of course.’