Alex Connor - Isle of the Dead

‘So why did you come to Gaspare Reni’s gallery?’

‘I needed somewhere to hide it in London. With someone respectable. I knew the old man would never destroy it, but he would look after it until I worked out how to get it home.’

‘But you were so frightened that night,’ Nino said, remembering. ‘You were afraid of the painting when Gaspare told you the story about Vespucci.’

‘Just acting,’ she replied deftly. ‘I knew the story already. How could I not know? I just wanted to make it all look believable. And it did. When I left the gallery I contacted Eddie. He was hardly able to talk he was so excited, and when I told him about the rumour Triumph Jones had set in motion he went frantic. “When the portrait emerges, so will the man.” She smiled, cold eyes. ‘That was his excuse to kill. That’s what set Eddie off.’

‘And you didn’t stop him?’

‘Why should I? I wanted the Titian. But more than that, I wanted out. Wanted to leave my old life, leave my husband in particular – the lazy American oaf. But how could I? It was the painting that gave me the idea … I could die. Without actually dying.’

Incredulous, Nino stared at her. He was trying to match this Seraphina with the young woman he had first met in the Kensington gallery, but could find no trace of the original.

‘You let everyone think you’d been murdered. Your family, your husband—’

‘Oh, don’t waste your pity on Tom,’ she countered. ‘When he knew there was a Titian in the mix he was more than willing to go along with it. For a while I even let him think I was going to work with him. And Johnny Ravenscourt. He’d been involved in smuggling so it seemed logical to suggest we could hire him and split the proceeds.’

Nino nodded. ‘I get it … Then you plan your own death, so you don’t have to share with anyone. Except Hillstone.’

‘But I didn’t mind sharing with Eddie – he was doing most of the work, after all. It was everyone else I wanted to get away from.’

‘So the woman who was found murdered, the woman everyone thought was you – who was she?’

Her expression was composed, with an undercurrent of triumph.

‘A suicide. I’m a scientist, I work at the hospital in Venice. I knew someone who’d help me out and turn a blind eye to what was going on in the morgue one night. You can bribe pretty much everyone if you offer them enough. He identified me by the necklace ‘I’ was wearing. A sentimental present he had given to me when we first married.’ She shrugged again. ‘We took her body—’

‘And Hillstone mutilated it?’

‘Well, I didn’t!’ she replied, angered for the first time. ‘Killing was his dream, not mine. And besides, I never really believed he’d go through with it. People say all kinds of things—’

‘Not usually about killing people.’

She shrugged.

‘Maybe not.’

‘So then what happened?’ Nino pushed her. ‘You’d disappeared, so you were out of the picture.’

‘And Eddie stole the Titian from Gaspare Reni’s gallery—’

‘He attacked an old man in the process.’

‘He didn’t kill him,’ she responded. ‘It could have been worse.’

He was finding it difficult to look at her. ‘Then Hillstone hid the painting here?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, in this house, which he bought in the name of William Jex. Eddie loves to change his name. In the past he’d had to, to keep one step ahead, but he enjoys it too. And of course it made him a lot harder to track.’ She took in a slow breath, as though she was tired. ‘You found him though. That was clever. Maybe I should have thrown my lot in with you, Mr Bergstrom?’

He ignored the remark.

‘You haven’t explained the most important part – why Hillstone started killing.’

‘I told you, he’d always wanted to imitate Vespucci. When Triumph Jones put out that bloody painting, he had carte blanche,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘He said The Skin Hunter went for whores, so he’d have no shortage of victims. Then we came up with the idea of a link.’

‘A link between the women and Vespucci?’

She nodded.

‘It was inspired, wasn’t it? I remembered Rachel Pitt on that Italy trip, how she’d been talking to Eddie about The Skin Hunter. She even made a throwaway comment that she’d like to write a play about him. That set us thinking, I can tell you. Then we started looking for other women who had some connection to Vespucci … Eddie was red hot on that – he’d worked in Greyly’s library and had already found out about Claudia Moroni.’ She paused, her tone peevish. ‘I can’t believe my husband sold that painting to Johnny Ravenscourt! And now Johnny’s gloating, talking about it on the internet … I liked that picture.’

‘Any particular reason why?’

‘You mean the incest between Claudia Moroni and her brother?’

‘Nothing else?’

Seraphina paused, alert. Her intelligence was tipping her off, her cunning suspecting something more. ‘What else?’

‘Should there be something else?’

‘There is, isn’t there? Tell me! ’

‘You never examined the picture, did you?’ Nino said. ‘What a shame, Seraphina. You missed out there. Angelico Vespucci hid his trophies behind the panel on the back .’

The shock almost winded her. ‘ What? ’

‘The skins were in your possession all the time you lived in that apartment with Tom Morgan. You lived with the picture, looked at the painting every day – and never knew what it held.’ He taunted her. ‘Just think what Eddie Hill-stone would have made of that—’

‘ Shut up! ’ The colour had left her face. ‘I don’t believe it! Ravenscourt’s not put it up on his website. He hasn’t said a thing about it.’

‘Of course he hasn’t. He’ll wait until Hillstone comes to trial and then make a killing with the publicity. To have hides from The Skin Hunter’s victims – it’ll make him famous. And to think you were sleeping under them, night after night, without even knowing—’

‘ Stop it! ’

‘Oh, don’t take it badly, Seraphina. You can’t win every time,’ Nino continued, provoking her. ‘Anyway, you haven’t finished your story. I know you want to tell me what you did. I know you want to brag. So go on, tell me – who found out about Sally Egan?’

She paused, but couldn’t resist.

‘Eddie did … But I found out about Harriet Forbes.’

‘You knew he was going to kill those women, and you didn’t tell the police?’

She shrugged.

‘You didn’t think to warn them? What had Sally Egan, Harriet Forbes and Rachel Pitt done to you?’

‘You saved Rachel Pitt!’

‘ But the other two are dead . And you could have saved them.’ He stared at her. ‘Why, Seraphina?’

‘Why what?’

‘Why did you do it?’

‘Why d’you think?’

‘It was all about sex, wasn’t it? The ultimate kick for you and Hillstone?’ He paused. ‘But I don’t understand why he punished the others but didn’t judge you.’

She smiled slyly. ‘Because I was clever – and he loved me.’

‘Did you come up with the idea of your own murder?’

‘You don’t think Eddie did, do you?’

Nino smiled. ‘It was a clever move. By thinking you were the first victim it made the legend all the more real. Vespucci had killed your ancestor, so of course his imitator would kill you.’ He was trying to weigh her up, his voice wary. ‘But if you knew Hillstone had been caught, why did you come back here? Why not make a run for it?’

‘And go where? I’m dead, remember.’ Her voice shifted, taking on a gentler tone, suddenly vulnerable. ‘I was confused. I wanted to stay here to clear my name, to give my side of the story. Eddie Hillstone made me do these terrible things—’