Wrongful Death

by Lynda La Plante

  ‘Don’t go so fast,’ protested Anna. ‘The other painting, by Mazzoni, where they are almost angelic, does it have the same meaning?’

  ‘Yes, it’s just the way the artist chose to depict them. So now we can see that both atropine and the genus name for deadly nightshade, Atropa bellaDONNA, are derived from Atropos.’

  Anna gazed at him, extremely impressed, and completely enthralled by his intellect and quiet authority.

  ‘Are there any flaws in your makeup or are you always so bloody brilliant?’

  ‘Funny you should mention makeup because Roman women would use atropine as eye drops to dilate their pupils in order to make them appear more sexually aroused. The word belladonna, as I’m sure you know, means beautiful woman.’

  Anna couldn’t help but giggle, because she hadn’t known what belladonna meant. He flushed, embarrassed, thinking she was laughing at him.

  Anna put her arms around him and squeezed him with great affection. ‘I wasn’t laughing at you, Don – more at myself because you blow me away with all this amazing information.

  ‘I thank you very much, and I think this whole thing with plants and poison may be beyond an obsession with Gloria: it’s more like a psychotic fixation.’

  ‘Like that woman in the old people’s home you spoke about. She thinks she’s a god who can control people’s destiny?’ Anna asked.

  Blane nodded, and picking up his pen he began to write in his notebook. ‘I believe Gloria has many of the characteristics of a sociopath, plus a deep hatred of men, including her own father.’

  Anna was not sure he was correct. ‘Then why did she get married three times and name a charity after her father?’

  ‘It isn’t about his legacy, it’s about making her look good. Xavier and Henry she married for the money and Samuel got her pregnant.’

  Anna sucked in her breath since she thought he had made a valid point.

  Blane continued: ‘Even her son Arum Joshua meant that little to her she gave him away.’

  ‘In fairness it could also be that Gloria wanted Arum to have a better life.’

  ‘Possibly, but the Arum plant is also known as the corpse tree. Is Gloria implying that as far as she was concerned he was dead to her from the moment he was born?’

  ‘That’s disgusting, but if you’re right then Gloria really is sick in the head.’ Anna sighed. ‘Could you fill me in some more about a sociopath’s behaviour?’

  Blane was on familiar territory as he described how sociopaths could appear to be absolutely charming, form relationships and even marry, but they lacked any depth or meaning as they cared only about themselves. Incapable of any true emotions, from love to shame to guilt, they could be easily angered but were just as quick to forgive. They thrived on reward and gratification and didn’t worry about the consequences of their actions because they had no conscience or moral code.

  ‘Are you saying that on face value, you can’t find anything not to like about them?’ Anna asked.

  ‘No, what I am saying is that they are extremely competent at manipulating people through their lies and deceit.’

  ‘Do you think she may have been treated for it – you know, by a psychologist or doctor?’ Anna asked.

  ‘There’s no form of psychotherapy or medication that works with an adult sociopath. You can’t change someone who has no desire to change.’

  Anna’s laptop pinged with the arrival of an e-mail, and Blane took the opportunity to put some fresh logs on the fire while she read it. He had felt unbelievably aroused when Anna hugged him earlier, so much so that he just wanted to take her hand and lead her straight into the bedroom.

  ‘I’ve got a bit of a headache – could we take some time out from the case?’ he suggested. ‘Maybe sit on the sofa and chat about something else?’ But Anna was already distracted so missed what he’d said; instead, she turned and wafted her hand towards her laptop screen. He realized they had one thing in common, which could destroy any serious relationship between them: they both allowed their work to dominate their private lives.

  ‘Wait until you read what Joan’s sent about Lord Henry Lynne. He had one son, Robert, who was married to a Maria, and they both died in a helicopter crash in Surrey,’ Anna said and made a hissing sound between her teeth

  ‘I doubt if you can put that down to Lady Lynne.’

  Anna clicked on a web link Joan had sent from a newspaper article with the heading ROBERT AND MARIA LYNNE IN HELICOPTER TRAGEDY. What she read next made her jaw drop. Lady Gloria Lynne spoke of her sadness at the loss of her stepson and daughter-in-law, and of her and Lord Henry’s love for them, and how in some ways she felt responsible for their tragic accident, as she had invited Robert and Maria to Lynne House for lunch. Anna felt her heart pounding; she couldn’t believe what she was reading. ‘If what I’m thinking is right, Don, then Gloria is more evil than either of us imagined. They had lunch at her home, where she could have poisoned them, then they left to get into the helicopter—’

  ‘Anna, you really need to think twice about where you’re going with this as you’ve no evidence to support—’

  ‘There’s a member of the public who said that the helicopter was swerving from side to side but no smoke or unusual sounds were coming from it.’

  ‘The important factor is what an Air Accident Investigation concluded,’ Blane said sharply. He leaned over Anna’s shoulder to search the Internet for details. ‘Here it is, conclusion was pilot error and he’d been drinking.’ Irritably, he went to get the wine bottle to pour himself another glass and offered some to Anna, but she declined as she read on.

  ‘It says here, Gloria Lynne told Air Accident he’d only had two gin and tonics all afternoon.’ She jumped up, clapping her hands. ‘Gloria poisoned Robert Lynne with atropine before he got in that helicopter; she knew it would gradually subdue him, he’d crash and everyone would think it was an accident. Everything in Lord Henry’s will passed to Gloria. Then three months later he pops his clogs as well.’

  Blane now read the article in more detail. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, he was beginning to think Anna was possibly right.

  ‘Lord Henry was so ill Gloria dealt with all the funeral arrangements and Maria and Robert were, guess what . . .?’ Anna asked excitedly.

  ‘Both cremated,’ Blane replied and rested his arms around her shoulders, thinking about kissing her, but she broke away from him.

  ‘She also organized everything for Donna after Josh’s death, including his funeral, and he was cremated as well. Lucky Pete Jenkins still has his blood sample.’

  ‘Just calm down, think it through, because if you do find atropine in it we know it was Gloria, but not how and when she administered it.’

  Anna nodded and then told him about Curtis Bowman’s evidence that a man, believed to be Samuel, went to the Trojan on the afternoon of the fifth and spoke with Josh.

  ‘So let’s just imagine that Samuel told Josh the truth about his real birth parents. He’d feel very depressed, you agree?’ Anna asked him.

  ‘And the only other person who could confirm or deny it was Gloria.’

  ‘Yes – my God, I know I am right, because that would explain the route he took in the Ferrari out of London on the A40 and the A3 coming back in. I am certain that Josh drove out to Weybridge to confront Gloria,’ Anna said.

  Blane nodded and observed that if Gloria knew that Josh was now aware of her past it would be a reason to want him dead and kill Samuel as well. What he couldn’t get his head round was if Gloria had already given Josh poison, how had he ended up shot in his flat?

  ‘Unless Gloria knew the atropine didn’t work and had to finish the job off so drove Donna’s car to his flat,’ Anna suggested.

  ‘I think that could be it, but it’s all speculation, Anna, you need some hard evidence,’ Blane said, trying to be realistic, and by now feeling exhausted by all the speculation they had been tossing around. Anna, however, appeared to be on a roll yet again as she started looking thr
ough the Charity Ball photographs to see if Gloria was absent from the shots taken between the times she knew Donna’s Mini was missing from the hotel car park. A wave of despair came over her as Gloria’s smiling face beamed out from a number of pictures, and she slapped the images with the flat of her hand.

  ‘Gloria didn’t leave the ball. Shit. Shit. I feel totally confused with this whole bloody case,’ Anna said.

  ‘Let’s give it a rest for tonight, clear our heads and look at it all again tomorrow,’ Blane said, reaching for her hand with every intention of guiding her into his bedroom.

  Anna withdrew her hand and rubbed her head; although she was frustrated – not as frustrated as Blane now was – she wouldn’t give up.

  ‘Okay, we know that someone went off in Donna’s car, we know from the photographs it wasn’t Donna or Gloria and Samuel has no driving licence, so logically that leaves only one other person,’ Anna said, almost as if talking to herself.

  There was a brief pause before her eyes lit up and she looked at Blane. ‘Aisa, my God, Josh Reynolds was having an affair with his other half-sister and using Esme’s flat as a love nest!’

  ‘It’s a possibility . . .’

  ‘I’m right, I know I’m right, it has to be Aisa. She also had access to the Lynne Foundation charity accounts that money was stolen from.’

  ‘Wait, wait, don’t jump the gun, is there any evidence to support an affair?’ he asked.

  ‘Fuck it, I don’t think so because Donna looked at Josh’s emails and texts but never found anything and neither did our Technical Support Unit.’

  From being almost jubilant, Anna rapidly deflated, shaking her head.

  ‘There is a way – he could have been using Skype or Cate,’ Blane suggested.

  ‘We considered Skype and he didn’t use it, but what’s Cate?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Call and Text Eraser, it’s a phone app that lets someone who’s cheating keep messages from lovers invisible to their partner. It works through a PIN number and there’s no icon on the phone’s screen – only the love cheat can read the messages.’

  ‘How do you know about that then?’ Anna demanded.

  ‘The office Lothario was boasting about it, wife caught him in a hotel with another woman in the end.’

  ‘Good, serves him right.’

  She rested her head on her hands and sighed. ‘We are still left with so many unanswered questions. If Samuel was blackmailing Gloria first, why didn’t she report it to the police?’

  ‘As you said, she’s high-profile and wouldn’t want it made public. Maybe you’re looking at this case in the wrong way.’

  Anna glanced up at him. ‘The wrong way! After what we’ve been coming up with all evening, how do you mean the wrong way, for goodness’ sake?’

  ‘It’s hard to explain without going into great detail.’

  Irritably, he wished that their discussion would finish. It wasn’t that he didn’t care but he was simply finding it harder and harder to concentrate. The more interested Anna was in the case the less he felt she was interested in him.

  ‘You feeling okay?’ Anna asked, inwardly worried that he was becoming bored.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he groaned, ‘just a slight headache trying to get my head around your case. It’s like a kaleidoscope of information and trying to separate all the colours is not easy.’

  ‘I’d really like to know what you’re thinking,’ Anna told him.

  He gave a long sigh, and drained his wine before deciding to share his theory. ‘I am getting tired out, but consider this proposition: Samuel told Josh to spite Gloria. Josh then went to Gloria’s but she would of course deny it and probably say Samuel was lying and trying to blackmail her. She slips Josh some atropine and he makes it home but is unwell. The atropine makes him more and more emotional; he’s confused, trying to make sense of it all – with me so far?’

  ‘Yes, yes, go on.’

  ‘Okay, Josh calls Aisa, he loves her and needs to see her. He gradually gets more and more depressed, having discovered he was committing incest, with not one, but two women. He considers ending it all and gets the gun out the safe. Aisa leaves the Savoy Hotel and arrives at his flat in Bayswater and he tells her everything . . .’ He paused to let Anna take in what he was saying, but she was perfectly up to speed with him, nodding her head.

  ‘Yes, go on.’

  ‘This is just a maybe but what if Josh puts the gun to his head, Aisa tries to grab it, and bang it goes off, which would account for why his gun hand was in an unusual position. She panics and runs.’

  Anna frowned and chewed at her lips before adding to his theory. ‘If Samuel wrote the suicide note and stole the money, he had to have gone to the flat. So maybe he saw Aisa there, and could have seen her run off before he let himself in with his set of keys.’

  ‘Possible, and gives him another thing to blackmail Gloria with,’ Blane commented.

  ‘The suicide note would also help to lead the police in the wrong direction and suit Samuel’s purpose,’ Anna said.

  Turning to the Charity Ball photographs again, she concentrated on the pictures taken during and after the fireworks display.

  ‘Aisa’s nowhere amongst the crowd on the balcony, then twelve thirty-five, there she is back in the ballroom with Gloria.’ Anna paused, looking closely at the photos before continuing.

  ‘Aisa is wearing a different evening dress. If she went to Josh’s in the one she first had on she could have got blood on it when he shot himself.’

  She turned to look at Blane for confirmation, but he was now sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed. Slowly she went over to sit beside him, and laid her legs across his.

  ‘Gloria confirmed Aisa’s alibi about being sick, which means she’s bloody well lying again. She knows exactly what happened to Josh, either from Samuel or Aisa herself,’ Anna said, nudging him.

  Blane yawned and opened his eyes. ‘Gloria is an adept liar who can think and react to any given situation very quickly. She would have primed Aisa on exactly what to say.’

  ‘And there was me thinking you’d stopped listening . . .’

  She leaned towards him as if to kiss him, but stopped before their lips met. ‘Wait a minute. Why hasn’t Gloria done more to protect Donna, fight her corner? She’s been arrested for murder.’

  ‘In Gloria’s world, sacrifices have to be made to save her own skin. She can’t say anything and risk being found out herself. As for Aisa spilling the beans, I doubt that will happen either – she won’t cross her mother and risk being cut off from her world of luxury and wealth.’

  Anna nodded. ‘It all sounds so simple, yet underneath the surface is a tangled web of deceit and lies spanning thirty-odd years. What was it Sherlock Holmes said about eliminating the impossible and whatever you’re left with—’

  ‘However improbable, must be the truth,’ Blane said, yawning even harder.

  Anna’s head was spinning with a whirlwind of information. ‘That’s the problem here, Don. My team is making a big mistake and will end up suffering the consequences. How on earth do I explain in a phone call to Mike Lewis everything we have discussed – he’ll think I’m totally delusional. Even then, because of Gloria’s standing, Mike will have to at the least go and speak with Deputy Commissioner Walters.’

  ‘You don’t make a phone call,’ Blane said matter-of-factly.

  ‘What? I don’t tell Mike anything?’ Anna asked, surprised.

  ‘You have to tell them face to face. You’re the only person who’s got a handle on this whole sordid mess. Gloria has to be arrested immediately and only you have the full knowledge of what has been uncovered, so only you can interview her and Aisa.’

  ‘You sound like you want to get rid of me.’

  ‘That’s the last thing I want to do, and more than anything I want to be with you.’ He felt somewhat relieved at finally getting his feelings out.

  ‘I feel the same way, Don. I want and need to be with you,’ Anna confessed. Then she grin
ned wryly. ‘Plus, if I walk off the FBI course and go back now, it would be the end of my career. My superiors would never forgive me for blowing a chance someone else could have had.’

  ‘We run three courses a year, and you just solved a major missing-persons case over here, so you leave it to me to speak with the FBI Director and get you on the next one.’

  He cupped her face between his hands. He had been impatient to tell her how he felt and to make love with her; now he was arranging for her to leave not just his log cabin but return to England.

  ‘There’s a late flight tonight to Heathrow and you’d be back in London by about mid morning. I can call our guys at the airport and see if I can get you on it and they will rush you through Customs.’

  ‘I could always get a flight tomorrow morning,’ Anna said, nervous of stating the obvious.

  ‘Only daytime flight is the ten a.m., and that would mean you’d get home nearer midnight on Monday. This way you can sleep on the plane and be fresher for the morning when you see your bosses.’

  ‘Okay.’ She stood up and was about to collect her things when he stopped her.

  ‘Listen, I’ve been wanting to make love with you all day. Maybe fate is playing a big part in this, because I wanted it all to be special and romantic. I envisaged us having the next ten weeks together, really getting to know each other.’

  Anna smiled, and kissed him, whispering, ‘I want that too.’ She kissed him again. ‘We do still have time, you know.’

  He hesitated for only a moment before he scooped her up in his arms in case she changed her mind and carried her into the bedroom.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Blane’s colleagues at Dulles Airport were able to secure a seat on the Heathrow flight for Anna so he rushed her back to the FBI Academy where she literally flung her clothes into her case and they raced to the airport. They hardly spoke to each other on the journey, speeding along the highway, blue lights flashing; somehow it just didn’t seem the right time or place for either of them to discuss a future together. Anna felt in many ways that Blane was a reflection of her, both in thought and working practices. She feared they were too much alike, and wondered if he might be thinking the same. Anna knew that whatever happened they would have to make sure they found a world together outside of crime investigation if there was to be anything lasting between them.