TWENTY
While Cantelli stopped off at the newspaper office, Horton rang directory enquiries and asked to be connected to Northover School. A woman answered. He had wanted her to sound unfriendly so he could have good cause to dislike the school from the start, but she wasn't.
After he'd introduced himself as a prospective parent he was whizzed through to the head teacher faster than a Japanese bullet train. He made an appointment to view the school in a week's time. That would give him a chance to conduct some research when he returned to his office. He learnt that the earliest his daughter could start there would be at the beginning of the new term, after Easter.
Cantelli climbed in and handed Horton a photocopy of the press cutting. 'Elms' story checks out with this at least,' he said.
Horton saw the group just as Elms had described it. It was the first time he'd seen Sir Christopher Sutton, who was hollow-cheeked with illness but still a commanding presence with his piercing eyes and slightly superior smile. Beside him was an attractive woman with mid-length dark hair and a shy smile: Arina Sutton, and next to her Horton couldn't mistake Owen Carlsson and Bella Westbury.
Cantelli added, 'Trueman phoned while I was waiting for the photocopy. He's got the crime report on the Carlssons' break-in. It confirms that Helen Carlsson reported her smashed camera.'
'Was that all that was wrecked?'
'It's all that's mentioned in the report.'
Cantelli swung the car around and headed back to the station. Horton said, 'Why didn't they steal her camera and sell it? And why did Helen leave the camera in the house? Surely a professional photographer always takes her camera with her.'
'Perhaps she was going somewhere she couldn't take it, or didn't want to,' Cantelli replied.
'Even if she was going out to eat why not lock it in the boot of the car?'
'She could have had more than one camera.'
Horton threw Cantelli a glance. He'd hit on something there. 'You could be right. If she and Lars Carlsson were killed then it could be because the killer discovered that Helen Carlsson had another camera in her car, and there was something on that film that he didn't want developed, which means we're looking for someone who Helen unknowingly photographed here on the island in 1990.'
'Bella Westbury?'
Horton considered it. 'Possible. I don't for a moment believe all that stuff about nursing a sick husband.' Then he frowned, puzzled. 'But why didn't she take or destroy that photograph of herself in Northern Ireland?'
'Because she didn't break into Thea's apartment but got lover-boy to do it for her and he cocked up.'
Horton cheered up at that. 'Danesbrook probably wouldn't have recognized her in that photograph. Though Trueman can't find any record of either of them travelling to Luxembourg.'
'Danesbrook probably used a false ID. Fixing something like that would have been child's play to Bella Westbury.'
Cantelli was right and that posed a problem. Gloomily, Horton said, 'If it is Bella Westbury then I doubt we'll ever be able to confirm what she was doing here in 1990; it'll be hushed up.'
He fell silent, seeing the case slip through their fingers. Europol would be called in, which would make Uckfield livid. Horton would be too. And he doubted Europol would get any further forward than them. Slowly and quietly the case would be sidelined and Thea Carlsson would remain 'missing', just like his mother, until her body turned up somewhere — if it ever did.
Cantelli said, 'Maybe Owen discovered who his mother photographed. It would explain why he was killed. But not Jonathan Anmore.'
'Anmore's death could still be unconnected with the others. If only we could find out where Helen Carlsson went and what she did while on holiday here, unless…' Horton swivelled his gaze to Cantelli. He wondered. 'Barney, what do you do when you're on holiday?'
Cantelli flashed him a glance before putting his eyes back on the road. 'Eat too much, drink too much and-'
'Apart from that,' Horton said impatiently. 'You're away in sunny Italy, or in Blackpool, and you want to tell your sister you're having a great time-'
'I'd text her,' Cantelli said with a grin. Horton knew he was being deliberately obtuse. He'd got the point all right.
'In 1990?'
'Yeah, I know. How on earth did we manage? I'd send a postcard,' Cantelli grinned.
'Precisely. And Helen could have sent a postcard to her son and daughter; here we are having a great time at The Needles type of thing.'
'So what if she did? That doesn't tell us anything. And Owen was at Southampton University so she'd hardly send a postcard to him when he was just across the Solent.'
Cantelli was right. The postcard idea was crap. But Cantelli had sparked another idea. He said, 'Owen could have travelled here to see his parents, or even to stay with them.'
'And? I don't get what you're driving at, Andy.'
'Nether do I,' Horton said, deflated, but for a moment he felt there was something there. Something his subconscious had caught but which had slipped away. He tried again. 'Let's say Owen was told about the break-in by one of his parents. He comes rushing over here after it had happened to console them.'
'I doubt a twenty-year-old student would have given it a second thought.'
'OK,' Horton grudgingly admitted. 'But his parents didn't live in England and they were practically on his doorstep. Even if he didn't come because of the break-in he wouldn't have missed the opportunity of seeing them.'
'Maybe not. But the Carlssons could have visited their son on their way here, in Southampton. You're not thinking he could have something to do with their death?' Cantelli said, clearly bothered by the thought.
Horton hadn't but now that Cantelli had mentioned it he said, 'Children have killed their parents.' The thoughts tumbled their way through his mind like leaves in a hurricane and he didn't much like where they were taking him.
Cantelli said, 'Why would Owen do that?'
After a moment Horton answered. 'Money. Perhaps Owen was in debt and saw an easy way out. Or perhaps he's mentally disturbed.' The picture of Owen's house flashed before Horton's eyes, the neatness of the place except for that chaotic study. Did that portray a personality in conflict? He said, 'We don't know enough about Owen Carlsson. In fact we know nothing.' But that wasn't true. He recalled what Peter Bohman had said about Owen. Owen had never asked Bohman about his parents' death or had seemed worried or curious about it. He said it was the past, best to forget it. He was like his father, focussed on the present. Maybe he'd never asked because he already knew what had happened.
He said as much to Cantelli.
'If Owen did have a hand in his parents' death and Thea found out then she-'
'Could have killed him, or arranged to have him killed, yes.' Horton's heart sank. He knew it was highly probable given Bohman's information about Thea's disturbed background. And that was one more feather of doubt fluttering down on the scales against her. He much preferred Bella Westbury and Danesbrook as their killers.
Quietly Cantelli said, 'So we could be back to thinking Thea got Anmore to kill Owen and then she killed Anmore.'
Horton gazed up at the black-clouded sky through the windscreen, not wishing to examine his feelings. This was looking bad. If Thea had sought revenge on her brother, then where was she now? How had she known about Owen's part in his parents' deaths, if he had killed them? Had he finally told her? Horton recalled what Strasser of the Luxembourg police had said about Thea being distracted on her return to work in the New Year. And who had ransacked her apartment? Had she done that herself to make it look as though an outside force was at work? Did it mean Arina Sutton's death was an accident? Why had Owen visited Dr Nelson?