Chapter 16

16

TUESDAY MORNING

Neil Vaughan was on the launch when it arrived at the jetty and I saw him talking to the deckhand at the wheel. As a result, the boat moored up and Vaughan climbed out. We shook hands and he outlined what he wanted to do.

‘The launch will wait for us. I'd like to find a quiet spot around here where you and I can sit down and talk first without being overheard. That damn yacht is far too claustrophobic. Everybody knows everybody else's business.'

As we headed for a waterside café, I deliberately didn't mention the recent murder, hoping to make it look as if I had had little or no contact with the Carabinieri and their investigation. It didn't take long before Vaughan broke the news of Schiller's death to me and I made sure I looked suitably shocked before asking if he had any details of what had happened or any suspicions as to who might have done it. He waited until we'd found a table at the far end of a café terrace with nobody around us before he answered.

‘It happened last night after dinner and the police were all over the yacht until past midnight. The deckhand who found the body said the victim had his throat cut.'

‘And you have no idea who might have done it?'

He shook his head. ‘I just don't understand it. If my theory that Jerome might have been murdered because he was about to unmask the person who's been stealing from the company is correct, then what possible involvement might the deckhand have had?'

I decided that it wouldn't do any harm to voice the possible blackmail scenario Guido and I had been discussing. I ran through this quickly, pretending it had just struck me and ending up with the words, ‘So if this latest victim had identified Van der Groot's killer on Saturday night and was trying to blackmail him or her, the murderer might have killed him instead of paying him off.'

Vaughan looked appalled. ‘So this means that I'm living on a yacht with a serial killer!' His face paled. ‘God knows who'll be next.'

I tried to offer some comfort. ‘Try not to worry too much. I'm sure the Carabinieri are on the case and the lieutenant struck me as a good man. You never know, maybe my inquiries into the financial irregularities you mentioned will result in some information that might help him unmask the perpetrator.' I waited until a waitress had taken our order for two coffees before pressing Vaughan on the subject of the company's finances. His answer was fascinating.

‘Everybody had it in for Jerome, and I'll admit that he wasn't the most pleasant of characters. The simple fact of the matter, though, is that the company's now in dire financial straits, but it certainly wasn't all down to poor decisions on Jerome's part.' He looked up and caught my eye. ‘Like I told you on the phone, I'm virtually certain that somebody's been stealing from the company – and not just a few pounds here and there. I've been looking back through the accounts for the past twelve months and I've discovered a number of payments to an anonymous account in the Cayman Islands totalling somewhere in excess of two million pounds. There might be more. I would need to spend quite a few days going through everything line by line, but you can't syphon off two million pounds a year from a company our size without it having a huge impact on our solvency.'

I gave a little whistle. ‘Wow, that's serious embezzlement. And you have no idea who might be behind this?'

Although we were hundreds of metres from the yacht, which was still lying at anchor out at the mouth of the bay, and there was nobody close enough to hear what we were saying, he still looked around apprehensively before answering. ‘Jerome was the CEO and he had overall control, and Company Secretary and head of Accounts is Edgar, Edgar Beaumont. Both would have had full access, but there are two other people as well who could have done it.' He gave yet another cautious look over his shoulder. ‘And they're both on this cruise too. They're Adam Phillips and Louise Challenger. Like me, Adam works under Edgar in Accounts and Louise is the payroll specialist. They both know all the passwords and have full access.'

I was scribbling in my notebook as he produced these names and I recognised Adam Phillips as Mr Muscle and Louise from Payroll as the woman who had apparently slapped Martin Grey after allegedly being groped by him at the pool. When I had finished writing, I looked up. ‘Might there be anybody else, maybe somebody not on this cruise?'

‘No, even producers like Tamsin don't have access to the accounts. I'm afraid it has to be one of those three…' He hesitated for a moment before giving me a nervous smile. ‘And me, of course. That's four people.'

I smiled back at him. ‘I think I can discount you for the very reason that you came to me about this in the first place. It makes no sense that the perpetrator of the fraud should bring in a private investigator to look into what he's done. But, assuming you're correct about the missing money, there are indeed four possible suspects, but you're not one of them.' I saw an expression of mystification on his face so I explained. ‘Four people: Adam Phillips, Louise Challenger, Edgar Beaumont and, of course, Jerome Van der Groot.'

‘But Jerome's dead…' The bafflement on his face increased.

‘But that doesn't mean he might not have been involved with the fraud. Any of them might have been. Tell me something: why did you come to me instead of going to Edgar Beaumont with your suspicions? He's the head of Accounts after all, or are you suspicious of him?'

‘No, no, of course not.' He hesitated. ‘At least, not really…'

‘But you knew that there was a chance he might have been involved, didn't you? What if he was in it together with Jerome Van der Groot? Suppose Edgar Beaumont decided to kill Van der Groot so as to get 100 per cent of the missing money, rather than half?'

I studied the expression on his face as he explored that suggestion, and I saw comprehension slowly dawn. ‘So you're really saying that Jerome might have been one of the people stealing from the company?'

‘It's a possibility. After all, it's not as if it's his company, is it? I presume he's on a salary like you are, maybe plus a bonus, but the excess profits go back into the business or to the shareholders. Is that right?'

He nodded. ‘Yes, it's a public limited company. We're all on salaries plus some of us get a bonus – although the way things are looking, there won't be any bonuses this year. And you think Jerome might have been working together with either Adam, Louise or Edgar to defraud the company? Surely not!'

‘Well, you know them better than I do, but money can do strange things to people. Of course, it's possible that Jerome Van der Groot did it all himself and one of the other three found out about it and was so enraged that they murdered him. What do you think of that hypothesis? I'm sure you find the idea of fraud repugnant, but do you think any of your colleagues could have felt strongly enough about a momentous discovery like that to murder the perpetrator?' He shook his head and I nodded. ‘I agree with you that it's unlikely. Surely anybody finding out that the boss had been on the fiddle would have gone straight to the authorities.'

‘Well, that's what I certainly would have done.' He looked up as the waitress returned with our coffees and waited until she'd left before continuing.

As I waited to hear what he might have to add, my eyes roamed over the beautiful scene before us. Wooded hills sloped down to the perfect ultramarine-blue sea whose colour was highlighted by the multitude of mainly white boats floating around serenely in it. Here on shore, it was getting busier and happy tourists were milling about, phones in hand, taking thousands upon thousands of photos of this iconic spot. As a location for two gory murders, it seemed incongruous.

Vaughan's voice tore me away from admiring the scenery. ‘Going to the authorities is exactly what I intend to do. Hopefully, with your help, I'll be able to identify the guilty party, and then I'll have no hesitation about going straight to the police back in the UK.'

‘I'm glad to hear it, Mr Vaughan. Now, think hard: what's your feeling about our three potential suspects for the fraud and even the murders? Don't forget, we're talking a cold-blooded killer here. Which of them, if any, do you think might have been capable of killing?'

He answered immediately. ‘None of them, surely. I can't believe it. Louise is too young, and she's a woman. There's no way she could have done something like that.' I decided not to mention any number of female murderers who had come my way over the years and I let him carry on considering the remaining two men. ‘Edgar, he can be bad-tempered and pretty tough, but it's a big leap from shouting at somebody to killing them. As for Adam, he may look like Mr Universe, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. I'm sure of that.'

‘So you're saying that you don't think any of them might have committed either murder. What about fraud? Do you think any of them might have stooped to stealing from the company?'

He had to stop and think for a few moments. ‘Murder's murder, but stealing is something else. I still can't imagine any of the three stooping so low, but I suppose in the right circumstances and if the right opportunity presented itself, one of them might have decided to take the money. Two million pounds is a life-changing amount.' He looked up again and caught my eye. ‘But I honestly couldn't even begin to guess which of them it might have been.'

I took a sip of coffee before veering off the subject of fraud. ‘Going back to Van der Groot's death, this fraud business is certainly a possible motive for murder, but what about other motives? In my experience, financial gain is a powerful motivator, but so is love or lust. Do you think there were any jealous husbands or spurned women here who might have wanted revenge on Van der Groot?'

He looked genuinely gobsmacked. ‘You mean Jerome having an affair? I think that's out of the question. After all, he wasn't the type.' Realising what he'd just said, he corrected himself. ‘No, I don't mean he was… you know…' He looked acutely embarrassed. ‘Not wishing to speak ill of the dead, but I honestly can't think of any women here or elsewhere who would have been interested in him in that way.'

‘But what about women that he might have been interested in? Being propositioned by your boss can't be a lot of fun. Might something like that have been behind his death?' I was waiting for him to repeat Martin Grey's allegation that Susie Upton had been trading sexual favours for advancement in the company, but he just shook his head blankly. ‘I can't, no, I really can't, but maybe if you speak to some of the women on board… Ask Susie, she knows everything about everybody.'

Over the next ten minutes, I got him to talk me through how he'd come to the conclusion that somebody had been stealing from the company and pressed him to name his first choice of culprit. He remained unable or unwilling to point the finger at anybody in particular so after we'd finished our coffees, I told him what I wanted to do next.

‘Let's go back to the yacht now. I'd like you to tell Edgar Beaumont the two of us need to speak to him in private. Once we have him on his own, tell him about your suspicions and tell him that you want him to take the decision on behalf of the company to engage my services to investigate. Whether he's innocent or guilty, I'm sure he'll have to agree to my starting to ask questions, and if he's guilty, I might be able to get some clues from the expression on his face when you tell him about it. Okay with you?'

He agreed and we both stood up. He called the waitress and paid for the coffees, saving the ticket and putting it into his wallet. He then enquired about my rates and I produced one of my printed sheets for him, which he read line by line before folding it meticulously in half and then in half again and tucking it safely into his wallet as well. Anna always laughs at me for having a supply of these sheets in the van, but as I often tell her, it's best to be prepared. I wasn't in the Boy Scouts all those years ago for nothing.

On the journey over to the yacht in the launch, neither of us spoke, but I had my hands full making sure that Oscar didn't suddenly decide to go for a swim. Arriving on board a luxury yacht with a wet and smelly dog wouldn't be an auspicious start to my investigation. I checked to see if the Coastguard launch was already lying alongside the Regal Princess but it was clear that Guido and his Carabinieri team had decided to give me a bit of time and space before they began their own investigation. When we boarded the yacht, I noticed that both of the grey inflatable dinghies were now back on the watersports deck. Presumably, Forensics had finished with the one with the bloodstains and had returned it ready for the yacht's departure – whenever that was going to be now that Schiller had been murdered as well. One half of the low deck had been taped off by the Carabinieri and a bored-looking officer was sitting in the shade, keeping watch.

I checked the time as we walked up to the saloon and saw that it was almost nine o'clock. There was nobody using the pool or sitting around it, but this was probably as a result of the events of the night before. I could well understand that nobody was feeling in a cheery holiday mood after something like that. There were only four people sitting at the table having breakfast: Tamsin Taylor, looking aghast; a visibly plastered Billy Webster, who looked as though he had been there all night; Doug Kingsley, with his nose buried in a cup of coffee; and, fortunately, Edgar Beaumont. I greeted them all with a little wave of my hand but said nothing as Neil Vaughan went over to his boss and whispered in his ear. Beaumont looked puzzled, then shocked, and immediately stood up. Ignoring the curiosity on some of the faces of the others around him, he pointed towards the door leading to the guest accommodation.

‘If you'd both like to follow me to my cabin, we can speak in private.'