'Not without access to their bank and investment accounts, but you only need to look at their respective addresses to realize there was an injection of cash from somewhere. Amanda bought herself a six-hundred- thousand-pound house on the Thames within months of James's disappearance and de Vriess bought himself a mansion in Hampshire shortly afterwards.'
'Do they still see each other?'
'We don't think so. De Vriess has had at least five lovers in the last three years while Amanda's kept herself to herself and remained celibate.'
'Why do you think that is?'
Streeter's voice hardened. 'Probably for the same reason she's never sought a divorce. She wants to give the impression that James is alive somewhere.'
Deacon consulted some photocopies of the press releases. 'Okay, let's talk about James's alleged affair with-' he isolated a paragraph-'Marianne Filbert. If there's no proof of its existence, why did the police accept Amanda's word on it? Who is Marianne Filbert? Where is she? What does she say about it?'
'I'll answer those questions in order. The police accepted Amanda's word because it suited them. They needed a computer expert in the frame, and Marianne fitted the bill. She was part of a research and development team working for Softworks Limited in the mid-eighties. Softworks was commissioned to prepare a report for Lowenstein's Bank in 'eighty-six, although no one knows if Marianne Filbert was involved with that. She went to America in 'eighty-nine.' He paused briefly. 'She was employed for six months by a computer software company in Virginia before moving on to Australia.'
'And?' prompted Deacon when he didn't continue.
'There's no trace of her after that. If she went to Australia, which now seems doubtful, she was using another name.'
'When did she leave the Virginia company?'
'April 1990,' said the other reluctantly.
Deacon felt sorry for him. John Streeter wasn't a fool, and blind faith clearly made him uncomfortable. 'So the police see a connection between your brother's disappearance and hers? He told her when to run in other words.'
'Except they haven't established that James and Marianne even knew each other.' Streeter's furious indrawn breath was audible down the wire. 'We believe it was de Vriess and Amanda who gave her the green light to disappear.'
'A three-way conspiracy then?'
'Why not? It's just as plausible as the police theory. Look, it was Amanda who gave them Marianne Filbert's name and Amanda who told them she'd gone to America. Without that evidence, there'd have been no computer link and no way that James could have worked the fraud. The entire police case rests on James having access to expert knowledge, but Amanda's testimony about his alleged affair with Marianne has never been independently substantiated.'
'I find that hard to believe, Mr. Streeter. According to the newspapers, Amanda spent two days answering police questions, which means she was high on their list of suspects. It also means she must have had something more convincing than just a name to give them. What was it?'
'It wasn't proof of anything,' said John Streeter stubbornly.
Deacon lit a cigarette while he waited.
'Are you still there?' demanded Streeter.
'Yes.'
'She couldn't prove a relationship between them. She couldn't even prove they knew each other.'
'I'm listening.'
'She gave the police a series of photographs, most of which were pictures of James's car parked outside the block of flats in Kensington where Marianne Filbert lived before she went to the States. There were three blurred shots of a couple kissing whom she claimed were Marianne and James, but frankly could have been anybody, and there was a back view of a man, wearing a similar coat to James's, entering the front door of the building. As I say it proves nothing.'
'Who took the photographs?'
'A private detective hired by Amanda.'
'Yes.'
'From when to when?'
'January to August 'eighty-nine.'
'You say most of the pictures were of James's car. Was he in it when they were taken?'
'Someone was, but the quality of the photographs isn't good enough to say whether or not it was James.'
'Perhaps it was Nigel de Vriess,' murmured Deacon with an irony that was lost on the other man. He was beginning to think that John Streeter's obsession to prove his brother innocent was even greater than Amanda's to establish Billy Blake's true identity. Did the seeds of paranoia find fertile ground in the aftermath of betrayal?
'We certainly believe the man to have been de Vriess,' said Streeter.
'So they were deliberately setting your brother up as a fall guy?'
'Yes.'
