Fatal Slip

  By the time the taxi drove in through the unobtrusive gateway and along the narrow drive Isabella had recovered a little and was no longer weeping with such abandon.

  'Will you wait for us?' Dodie asked, and the driver nodded, glancing sympathetically at Isabella.

  'It's a peaceful car park, unlike some. I sleep until you come back,' he said cheerfully.

  They walked along broad terraces and through woodland paths. Dodie admired the immense variety of vegetation, huge trees and colourful shrubs, and everywhere a profusion of bright flowers, luxuriant camellias predominating. She didn't attempt to speak, and it was Isabella who broke the silence.

  'The Blandys are English,' she said suddenly. 'They settled in Madeira and built up many businesses. This is just one of their houses. They own hotels, and wine and shipping companies. My father might have become like them, if it weren't for me.'

  'What do you mean?'

  'If he didn't have to go home with me, so that I can hide the shame of my baby from my mother and her family!' Isabella said bitterly.

  'But he wants to go,' Dodie tried to reassure her.

  'He can't want to leave all he's achieved here. He's not an old man, he has time to do a great deal more, and my brothers can carry on afterwards, and one day our family would have been as great as the Blandys. That was my mother's dream, and I've ruined it all.'

  'Nonsense! You and your baby, and it's my grandchild, remember, are more important than that. Now you are not to worry, we'll take care of everything.'

  Isabella made an effort to smile. 'You are so good to me. I'm sorry I was so uncontrolled. My mother is always being angry with me for being so impetuous, unable to control my emotions.'

  'Your mother isn't noted for her placidity,' Dodie said sharply.

  'She says if I had learned to do so with small things, like keeping my temper, I would not have – done what I did with Jake. But she didn't believe I loved him. I knew what I was doing, truly I did, and I wanted it as much as he. I'm so guilty that because of me he was killed, and either my father or one of my brothers has that sin on his conscience.'

  'You're guessing. There's no proof.'

  'They swore they'd kill him.'

  'Who did? Your father?'

  'Not exactly. But Pedro said he would, and my mother agreed.' she broke down again, sobbing, and Dodie led her to a bench and held her tightly until she'd regained control.

  'You can't know anything for certain.'

  Isabella nodded swiftly. 'It was this morning, at breakfast. Pedro had been looking for him for days before the party, and he implied he'd had a fight with him. Today he was gloating, preening himself as though he'd done something clever, like he used to be when he won prizes at school. He and Luis kept looking at one another, as if they had a secret – and oh, Mrs Fanshaw, I'm so afraid!'

  ***

  Chapter 9

  Libby had gone out with her father and the others were sitting in the big drawing room enjoying the pale Sercial, the driest of the Madeira wines, when Jylli arrived. She accepted a glass from Bill and sank wearily into a deep armchair.

  'I'm out of condition,' she announced. 'First I spend all day yesterday walking round Funchal to find suitable backgrounds for Libby to have her photo taken, and all today scuba diving with Pedro.'

  'Wasn't it cold?' Bill asked.

  'Yes, freezing! But I do have a little information as a reward. Not much, I'm afraid, and maybe you already know it.' She took another sip at the wine, then sat up, taking her notebook out of a large bag. 'I couldn't use a tape again, it was too complicated, so I made notes the minute I got away.'

  'Good girl.'

  'Pedro was still very angry about Jake. He said he'd got what he deserved, but he didn't seem at all guilty or afraid,' Jylli went on quietly. 'I not sure he meant it, though, he was just talking to be tough in front of me.'

  That hadn't been Dodie's impression, from what she'd heard, but she hadn't met Pedro apart from on the boat. 'Do you think he and Jake had a fight earlier?'

  Jylli sighed. 'Hard to tell. He wanted me to think it was possible, but he wouldn't confirm it. He may just have been talking tough.'

  Jylli was right about the rest of her information which they already had, but it was useful to have it confirmed.

  'What about Libby?' Dodie asked after a pause during which Bill refilled their glasses.

  Jylli glanced apologetically at Valerie, then shrugged. 'That was far more informative. She really opened up, though she still didn't tell me many names. There was so much. Where shall I start?'

  'The visit to the Casino?' Dodie suggested. 'It's all right, I've told Bill and Valerie, and sworn them to secrecy for the moment. Libby won't know you've told us.'

  'Right. Jake got her in on a false passport, she hadn't a clue where it came from. Then he wanted her to go back to the house with him, and she got frightened, and began to struggle. This was outside, afterwards. That was when she clammed up, but I gather there was a fight. Somebody else intervened, but she wouldn't say who. I'm sure she knew him, though. Then she got away and went home.'

  'I suppose that could have been anyone she's met here, and no one has mentioned it,' Bill said.

  'Someone who either wanted to protect Libby, or who doesn't want it to be known he's had a fight with Jake. That could have been Pedro. Or it could have been a complete stranger. That opens it up.' She thought for a moment. 'There must be a doorman at the Casino?'

  'Yes, there will be.'

  'I went and asked him, last night, but he said he didn't know, and anyway might not have been on duty, and I didn't know exactly which day it was,' Jylly said with regret.

  'So that gives us another unknown,' Dodie fretted. 'What else? The ransom?'

  'She won't say any more about that, just that it was a crazy scheme to force her father to give her the money for drama school. And she knew something about Emma,' Jylli said quietly. 'She saw Emma coming out of an hotel. Libby said she looked furtive.'

  'That could have been Libby's imagination. There are all sorts of innocent reasons why Emma might have been at an hotel,' Bill said.

  'Emma could have been meeting Jake there, I suppose,' Valerie said doubtfully.

  'She said it was a sleazy place, not the kind of hotel she'd have expected Emma to be seen dead in.'

  Dodie heaved a great sigh. 'Ye Gods! It gets more complicated every day!'

  'Does it get us any further?' Bill asked when Jylli had gone. 'Who's the main suspect?'

  Dodie groaned. 'Almost everyone,' she said despondently. 'I can't narrow it down, because practically everyone had the opportunity, and it looks as though practically everyone had good reason to hate the man.'

  'Poor Dodie,' Valerie sympathized.

  'Let's make a list of all the people we know Jake had met.'

  Bill fetched a pad and Dodie scribbled for a moment.

  'It gets worse,' she sighed after a while. 'There's both of you, for a start.' Dodie laughed. 'Oh, I'm not serious, but he did try and blackmail Bill, and either of you might have been so angry, or afraid, that you took the opportunity so neatly presented.'

  'We didn't, though.'

  'I know.'

  'Who next?'

  'Bruce?' Valerie asked tentatively. 'If he thought it was Jake who mugged him?'

  'It's possible, but I just don't know. He or Emma.'

  'What about Theo?'

  'The Macleans and Caritas have the best motives, and while I can see any of the other men killing Jake, even Maria in a fit of temper, I don't believe Theo would have.'

  'Could the boys have tipped him over for a prank?' Valerie asked hesitantly. 'They might have thought it would serve him right to get a ducking, without intending any harm.'

  'We keep calling them boys, but they're grown men in their late twenties. There was quite a gap before Isabella was born,' Bill pointed out. 'And he hit his head on the boat? It's possible.'

  'I suppose that could have been anyone's motive, rather than murder,'
Bill agreed.

  'And now, they're afraid to admit it,' Valerie said eagerly. 'You know, I can believe that more easily than I can see anyone deliberately killing him.'

  'Gloria had a pretty powerful motive,' Bill suggested.

  'But I don't think she'd be strong enough to tip him over the side. He was a big man, and she's not very tall, as well as being old and skinny. I think if she'd managed it she'd have been showing her aches and pains for weeks afterwards.'

  'She didn't go out much for several days,' Bill said.

  'Too ashamed to think everyone knew what games she'd been up to. As if we hadn't guessed long before she took up with Jake,' Valerie almost snorted.

  'He could have woken up and wandered off the boat, though I don't think it likely if he was as sloshed as everyone says. Of course, it might have been the punch that sent him to sleep, and he soon recovered from that. It might even have sobered him. Then I'd be prepared to believe Gloria just shoved him off a convenient gangplank.'

  'Alex could have tried to finish off what had been started. Jake had insulted Libby.'

  'And Libby had been playing hooky with Jake.'

  'You're not suggesting she might have done it?' Valerie asked, horrified.

  'If they quarrelled, it gives her a motive, and she's much stronger than Gloria. I'm sure it would have been no more than the intention of ducking him, and she'd be afraid to confess, but she isn't acting as though she has anything on her conscience.'

  'And there's always Isabella,' Dodie said heavily.

  *

  'I can't get any closer,' Howard said the following morning. In response to a telephone call he had come to see Dodie, who was resting on a lounger on Valerie's patio.

  'I'm grateful for what you are doing,' she reassured him.

  He smiled wanly, and took off his glasses. He was quite good looking in a quiet way, Dodie thought with surprise.

  'Look, I've drawn diagrams of every time I can remember, of where people were on the boat. But it doesn't narrow it down. Jake was asleep before the fireworks started, and no one had left before then. People felt uncomfortable, and went soon after they ended, earlier than they might have. I think some of them, especially the older ones, were afraid he'd wake up and begin to make a fuss again.'

  'Do you mind if we go through it again, as much as you remember, what he did and said? I can't help thinking something new will come out every time I go over it.'

  'But you were there. You saw.'

  'I didn't see everything. We've tried to reconstruct it, but I hoped you could help me again. I'm determined to get to the bottom of it.'

  'OK. I didn't see all of this, but it's the best I can do from what I've been told. Jake pushed his way onto the boat. He was looking for someone, but he didn't say who. He saw Gloria Neville, and – '

  'Yes, I saw that. She'd thrown him out earlier that evening, accusing him of stealing her jewels.'

  'Which he had, probably between leaving the house and coming down to the boat. Did anyone see when he left Bill's, by the way?'

  'I never thought to ask that,' Dodie said. 'I've been concentrating on the boat. Does it matter?'

  'Probably not, unless he got into some other sort of trouble between Bill's and Gloria's.'

  'And at the rate he was making enemies while he was here, that wouldn't surprise me one little bit!' Dodie said bitterly. 'It's like those wicker sleds they have, coming down from Monte on the cobbles, going faster and faster. Jake was heading for disaster.'

  'Yes, well, Theo went up to him, with Maria, and they had a bit of a tussle. Jake fell back onto the bench and it was then he called Isabella frigid – I'm sorry, Dodie.'

  'Don't worry, I know worse of my dear son. And that was when Theo tried to hit him, isn't it?'

  'Wait a minute. Theo pushed him back onto the bench first. I think that was when he moved further away from the gangplank. Bruce grabbed Theo. Then Emma came up and they took him, Theo, away. That was when Alex came on the scene, and I didn't hear what was said, but it was something about Libby and the casting couch.'

  'The blasted man was obsessed with sex! If it wasn't his own damned women it was my affairs. Do you think not having a father could have turned him into such a monster, Howard?'

  Howard patted her hand awkwardly. 'Of course not. Dodie, I haven't a clue who his father was, and I don't care, but you were only sixteen. It's clear either he couldn't or wouldn't marry you, or, knowing you, you didn't want him to. You did what was best for Jake, letting your mother bring him up. She's not a bad old stick.'

  Dodie's eyes were moist. 'I know. Her bark's terrible, but she wouldn't turn away a stray dog. Oh, hell, I'm mixing metaphors.'

  'And your father was alive. He didn't die until Jake was twenty, did he? And he was one of the old school.'

  Dodie giggled suddenly. 'He loathed my being on the wicked stage, and couldn't hide his satisfaction that his predictions had come true, I'd become a fallen woman. It was odds on he'd tell me never to darken his door again, but Ma persuaded him Christian charity was a virtue, and told him I'd have to turn to prostitution if he threw me out. Perhaps Jake thinks I did, even though I married the rest of them,' she added, suddenly serious.

  'Dodie, don't! We're all in control of our own actions. I don't believe in this psychological stuff about infant traumas turning us into moral or other sorts of wrecks.'

  'You're as nice as Bill, Howard, and you'd better look out. I swore I'd never marry again, but if you keep protecting me against myself I might reconsider.'

  'But you could never live on a boat.'

  'True. Well, back at least to the party on the boat. What came next?'

  'Alex punched him and he fell back on the seat. He seemed to go to sleep, and everyone steered clear. After the fireworks, when we looked for him he wasn't there.'

  'He was rude about Libby. Alex would have resented that.'

  'And Jake had just won a TV part from under Alex's nose. I've just realized, we don't know what sort of rows he had up at the house. It would be just like him to be crowing about that. It would have been natural, wouldn't it?'

  'Giving Alex another reason for punching him.' Dodie sighed. She wasn't getting very far. It was what she'd discovered before, there was nothing new. She'd have to see the people concerned again, but she doubted whether they'd be able to help any more.

  *

  'Valerie, where's Libby?' Dodie asked after dinner.

  'Emma took her out for dinner, but she promised to bring her back early. Why?'

  'I've been meaning to see her and force her to tell me the truth.'

  'Will she tell us anything, do you think?'

  'We don't know who it was helped her escape from Jake outside the Casino, nor do we know enough about this mysterious ransom. I don't believe she concocted such a plan on her own.'

  'Do you think she'd tell you more if we weren't here?' Bill asked abruptly.

  Dodie grinned at him. 'Of course she would. Do you mind?'

  'We'll find some excuse and disappear as soon as she comes home.'

  Since Libby was later than they'd expected this wasn't difficult, they merely told her to keep Dodie company, for they wanted an early night.

  Libby looked startled, but answered Dodie's questions about her evening happily enough. When she began to show signs of wanting to get away Dodie changed tack.

  'Not yet, child, we need to talk.'

  'I'm tired, I mustn't be late to bed,' Libby began to protest.

  'Then the sooner you tell me what I want to know, the sooner you'll get there. Who was it rowed with Jake outside the Casino?'

  Libby maintained a stubborn silence.

  'Come on, child, either you tell me here, or I'll ask your father to persuade you to tell the truth.'

  Libby gave her a furious look, but after a moment shrugged. 'I don't know who it was. It was a stranger.'

  'Come off it! That I don't believe.'

  'But if everyone knows it could make the police think that was the m
an Jake had it in for at the party. When he came pushing onto the boat!'

  'Then he was no stranger, if he was on Howard's boat. It's someone you care about and want to protect, isn't it?'

  She sighed. 'I would want to protect anyone from Jake in that mood.'

  'I know that adolescents believe only their own concerns are important,' Dodie said reflectively, 'but Jake had offended practically everyone he'd met here. Why should he have been looking for your father in particular?'

  'How did you know?' Libby gasped, and then bit her lip. 'That wasn't fair! You tricked me!'

  'You'll have to learn to avoid such tricks if you want to grow up,' Dodie said unsympathetically. 'It was your father then, who rescued you outside the Casino?'

  'Yes. But no one else knows.'

  'How did he know you were there?'

  'He didn't, it was pure chance. He was on his way in. You won't tell anyone, will you?'

  'I won't tell if you tell me about this ransom.'

  'How did you know about that? Did that Jylli person tell you?'

  'Never mind how I know. You were trying to extort money, and that's a criminal offence.'

  'It wasn't my idea,' she said sulkily. 'Anyway, it was from Dad, and Gramps, and was for me, not Jake!'

  'I'd take lessons in conspiracy before you try anything else,' Dodie suggested. 'So it was Jake's idea, was it?'

  Libby, thoroughly demoralized, submitted and told Dodie of the plan she and Jake had concocted. 'He was doing it to help me, because he knew how much I want to go to drama school,' she insisted. 'He wasn't going to have any of the money, and as it was from my family, I thought it was fair.'

  'You have a strange idea of fairness,' Dodie murmured. 'And I'd sooner believe wasps didn't have stings than trust my son with anyone else's money.'

  'Well, after he stole Mrs Neville's jewels perhaps you're right,' Libby conceded. 'You know, it was while I was hiding in his studio – oh, it's all right, he was in the house then, Gloria was away – '

  'Surveying her jewels and other portable valuables, no doubt. Sorry, Libby, go on.'

  'I stayed in his studio, and one day Isabella came. I overheard them in the garden, and he was horrid to her! That's when I heard her say she was pregnant, and I decided he wasn't a nice person, so I got out and went home.'

  'Does anyone else know about the ransom, or who was behind it?'

  'No. I swear not.'

  *