Murder in the Caribbean. Robert Thorogood

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      The woman thought hard.

      ‘It was something about him wanting his share, I think. That’s right, he kept saying "where’s my share?" over and over. And then the three men who’d arrived together started arguing among themselves as well. It got quite heated, and it ended with the man in the blue jacket telling them he wanted them all to leave. And a few minutes later, that’s what they did. But I got the feeling the three men left with their tails between their legs. They weren’t so chatty on the way out as they’d been on the way in.’

      ‘And it was the same three men who left as who’d arrived?’

      ‘I think so. The man in the blue jacket was still in his doorway after the others had left.’

      ‘I appreciate you don’t see too well,’ Camille said, ‘but can you describe any of these men at all to us?’

      ‘I’m sorry. I think one of them had a red top. Like a T-shirt. But I couldn’t tell you anything else.’

      ‘Did you maybe see what colour their skin was?’

      ‘They were dark-skinned.’

      ‘And did they speak with local accents?’

      ‘Oh yes, very definitely. They were all from Saint-Marie. Or from an island nearby.’

      ‘So they were three dark-skinned men who you think were from the island?’

      ‘That’s right,’ the old woman said with another chuckle. ‘Which isn’t bad for someone who can’t see, is it?’

      ‘It sure isn’t,’ Camille agreed.

      ‘Then what happened?’ Richard asked.

      ‘How do you mean?’

      ‘Well, we’ve just looked around your neighbour’s house, and it looks like he left somewhat suddenly at some point.’

      ‘Oh, that was later that day.’

      ‘It was?’

      ‘I was in my kitchen when I heard a car pull up outside. I didn’t think much of it, and I didn’t even see which of the men had come back, but I saw the first man who’d arrived that day – the man in the blue jacket – step out of his house. I could see that from my window. He said something and then I saw him leave. A few seconds later, I heard a car start up and drive off.’

      ‘Did you hear what he said?’

      ‘I think he said something like, "I thought I’d never see you again."’

      ‘"I thought I’d never see you again"?’

      ‘And I’m sure he said something else, but I didn’t catch it. But he then walked from the house, and you know what? Now you mention it, I’ve not seen him since. Or any of the other three men, either, for that matter. Not that I’d recognise them, of course.’

      ‘Have there been any other visitors since then?’

      ‘No. No-one.’

      Richard looked back over the notes he’d taken, trying to make sense of what he’d just learned. Who were the three men who’d visited Pierre on the day he left prison? Where had Pierre then gone off to when one of them returned later on? And, seeing as Pierre very obviously hadn’t been back to his halfway house since then, where was he now?

      As for the identity of the three men who’d visited that day, Richard had a theory he wanted to test, especially considering how Pierre had apparently been overheard demanding to know where ‘his share’ was.

      Richard asked Camille to take the old woman’s formal statement, and while she was doing that, he drove back to the Police station.

      As he entered the main office, Fidel stood up excitedly.

      ‘Sir, I’ve got something.’

      ‘You have?’ Richard said.

      ‘I sure have, because I’ve been processing the evidence Camille bagged from Conrad’s office. And you know that chunk of concrete that was used to smash in the window? I’ve been checking it for fingerprints, and guess what? It’s borderline admissible, but I was able to lift half a thumbprint from a pebble that was buried in its side.’

      As he spoke, Fidel led Richard over to his desk and showed him the chunk of concrete. Bending down to inspect it more closely, Richard could see that it was rough–there’d be no way to lift any kind of usable fingerprints from it – but Richard could also see that a few smooth pebbles were embedded in the block, and Fidel had dusted each of them with graphite powder.

      ‘And?’ Richard asked.

      ‘The fingerprint also belongs to Pierre Charpentier, sir.’

      ‘It was Pierre who threw the rock through the window?’ ‘It was.’

      ‘Then that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.’

      ‘It is?’ Fidel asked, surprised.

      ‘Oh yes, because I think Pierre killed Conrad for a very specific reason and then left that fake ruby behind for the exact same reason.’

      As Richard went and sat down at his desk, he told Fidel that a taxi had taken Pierre to his halfway house on the morning he was released from prison.

      ‘So contact the prison, would you? Find out what taxi firm picks up prisoners, and see if you can talk to the driver who drove Pierre that day. In particular, I want to know what sort of mood Pierre was in on the journey.’

      ‘Yes, sir.’

      As Fidel started making calls, Richard logged on to the Saint-Marie Police Computer Network and called up the case file for Pierre Charpentier’s original crime. And what Richard read held him spellbound. Because, as he’d already guessed, Pierre hadn’t robbed the jewellery shop in London twenty years before alone. He’d been part of a gang of four. The men had driven up to the store on motorbikes just as a consignment of jewellery was being delivered. They’d then smashed up the shop with baseball bats until the manager handed over the delivery. Then, as they were leaving, one of the men pulled a handgun and shot a member of staff dead.

      Richard read that the man who was killed that day was called André Morgan. He’d only been with the shop for three months, but what Richard noticed at once was that André was originally from Saint-Marie.

      That would have to be followed up.

      As for the men in the gang, they’d fled on their motorbikes just before the Police arrived at the scene.

      However, the robber who’d fired the gun made one mistake. As he jumped onto the back of his partner’s bike to make his escape, his gun fell from his grasp and he wasn’t able to pick it up before the bike had driven off. This meant that although the bank robbers got away with their loot, the murder weapon was left behind at the scene, and was later retrieved by the Metropolitan Police. They were then able to lift a couple of fingerprints from the barrel of the gun. But the fingerprints didn’t СКАЧАТЬ