‘He began talking about Nancy Haynes, asking if she’d told me that she had visited Chelsea Mansions once before, as a teenager, staying with her parents at my great-aunt’s hotel next door. I said no, she hadn’t mentioned it, and he told me that she had met him at the Russian cathedral the previous Sunday, and told him about the visit. I hardly knew whether to believe him, because Nancy had given no hint of it to us, but then he said that she told him she had also met my father back then, and had developed a bit of a crush on him, and even had a photograph of him. He took it out of his pocket to show me, and though it was too dark for me to make it out, I was inclined to believe him.
‘He then started talking about Nancy’s murder, and how unfortunate it would be if further unpleasant consequences were to flow from that tragic event. Well, my ears pricked up at that-from the tone of his voice it sounded like a threat of some kind, and I demanded to know what he meant. Then he told me, as calmly as you please, that he would give me one final chance to sell the hotel to him, and if I refused he had it in his power to arrange things in such a way that the police would have incontrovertible proof that I, assisted by my staff here at the hotel, had murdered Nancy.
‘Well, the idea was so preposterous, even for that megalomaniac, that I just laughed and told him he was drunk. I asked him, what would be my motive in killing her? He replied that he would tell the police that Nancy had revealed to him that my father had raped her on that visit, and she was about to make it public. He would also arrange for physical evidence of some kind to link me to the murder. He said that he rather hoped I wouldn’t agree to sell, and that he could watch me being destroyed, and my staff along with me.
‘And that’s when I realised that he wasn’t drunk, and that he wasn’t a man to make threats he couldn’t carry out. I also realised just how much he hated me, and that he would carry out his threat whether I agreed or not.’
Toby sat up a little straighter in his chair and raised his walking stick in both hands. He gave it a twist and a tug, and the handle slid out to reveal a long slender blade. He laid it carefully on the table in front of Brock.
‘My grandfather took this with him to the Boer War in 1900 as a young subaltern,’ he said, ‘although I don’t believe he ever had cause to use it. But I like to think that he would have approved of the fact that I did. It was my duty to protect my staff, and as clear a case of self-defence as if Moszynski had held a gun to my head. The man was going to destroy us. I had no choice but to respond in the only way I could.’
Brock said, ‘You’re admitting to us that you killed Mikhail Moszynski.’
‘Yes.’
It was a spellbinding performance, Kathy thought, all the more disconcerting for his utter coolness. She glanced back at Garry, standing with his back to the door, hands behind him. Was he armed? Was that why Toby seemed so unconcerned?
‘When you returned from the garden, were you aware that you were being filmed?’
‘Yes, I remembered the camera, so when I got back I asked Garry to fix it.’
‘How could he do that?’
‘Oh,’ Toby said with a careless gesture of his hand, ‘when my father built the air-raid shelter in the basement he extended it under all three of the properties the family owned. They were interconnected, so that if there were a direct hit on one house, the people would be able to escape through to the basement next door. The openings had been sealed up since then, but I remembered where they were, and we made a way through. Garry simply went into their security centre when the coast was clear, wiped the tape and switched the camera off.’
‘What about Freddie Clarke’s confession and Hadden-Vane’s suicide? Do you know anything about that?’
Toby gave a little smile. ‘It would be nice to think that I in some way encouraged the truth to come out, but I shan’t say any more than that. And it was an excellent outcome, was it not, apart from poor Nancy’s death? Moszynski dead, Hadden-Vane dead, the old witch Marta Moszynski running back to Russia and Freddie Clarke banished to who knows where. The whole damn viper’s nest cleared out, and justice served better than I suspect you would have been able to achieve, Chief Inspector.’
Kathy saw Brock glance back at Garry, still immobile and silent at the door, then reach into his pocket and take out his phone, but Toby leaned forward and shook his head. ‘No.’
‘I’m going to call for a car to take us into the station to formally record your statement. You gave it under caution. It’s already valid in a court of law and you are still under arrest.’
‘No,’ Toby repeated, apparently quite unperturbed. ‘I don’t think so. I haven’t quite finished yet.’
‘There’s more?’
‘A little piece of personal history. It’s rather painful to recall, but relevant to our situation. In 1990 I was in Riyadh, a staff officer at British Army headquarters preparing for the first Gulf War, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.’
Toby gave an enigmatic smile and, without moving his gaze from Brock’s face, pointed to the wall to his left. ‘Over there was a photograph of my son, Miles, named after my father. He also was in Saudi, an officer with the SAS. Before the main hostilities began we hatched a plan to send some units across the border to pinpoint the mobile Scud missile batteries that we knew the Iraqis were deploying in the desert. Then we got intelligence that a senior Iraqi general, a close relative of Saddam Hussein, was personally supervising the deployment in a certain area, and we had the idea of sending a raiding party to capture or kill this man. It seemed a brilliant idea, like Colonel Keyes’ commando raid to kidnap Rommel in North Africa in 1942. Some on the planning staff urged caution- it would mean penetrating deep into enemy territory, war hadn’t yet been declared and the odds were formidable. But I was gung-ho. I was also responsible for selecting the unit to go, and I wanted my son to command it. It would be the making of his career, I thought, his one great chance for glory. I should have paid more attention to history- Colonel Keyes was killed in the raid on Rommel. And my son was killed in Iraq.
‘Now, I want you to put yourself in my shoes, Brock. Imagine yourself as a father, ignoring sensible advice and sending your son to his death for a noble but doomed cause. How do you feel?’
‘There’s no point to this…’
Toby suddenly slammed his fist hard on the table, making his stick bounce. Behind her Kathy sensed Garry stir. ‘Bear with me, sir!’ Toby barked. ‘How do you feel?’
Brock stared at him. ‘Devastated?’
‘Devastated-exactly. You would never forgive yourself, would you? Now I put it to you that you are in precisely this same situation.’
Kathy drew in her breath. Brock was frowning, as if he’d decided that the old soldier was insane.
‘No,’ Brock said slowly. ‘I am not.’
Toby gave a sudden radiant smile. At least his mouth was smiling, but what his eyes were doing behind the black discs Kathy couldn’t tell.
‘The day after Nancy was murdered,’ Toby said, ‘a young man called in here at the hotel, looking for a room. I liked him. He reminded me a little of my son, the same enthusiasm, the same mischievous smile, and the same age as Miles was when he died. He was very interested in what had happened to Nancy. I assumed at first that this was just natural curiosity, but then I began to wonder. He went to some trouble to meet with you, Inspector Kolla, and to become involved in the police investigation. There was something about him that struck a chord with me, though I couldn’t quite pin it down. It was as if he were trying to find something he had lost. Then he told us that you were critically ill in hospital, Brock, and that he had gone to visit you, and had waited outside your room for some time, and I thought I understood. I had lost a son, and he had lost a father. I put it to him, and he confessed that it was true. His mother, your wife, left you when she was pregnant, did she not? She went to Canada and refused further contact except, for a while, through her sister. When John learned the truth about his father’s identity he felt compelled to come to London to meet him-you-only to discover you were now at death’s door. However, you recovered, and I assumed he would have told you about himself, but apparently he did not. I wonder why?’
Kathy had watched Brock’s expression freeze. He turned his eyes to her and she bit her lip and nodded. ‘It’s true,’ she said softly.
‘Ah, so you knew,’ Toby said to her. ‘Well, to the point. You, Brock, are in the position that I was in, though with rather more certainty about the outcome. You can go ahead and do what you believe to be your duty and arrest me, but if you do so you will know with absolute certainty, as I did not, that you will lose your son.’
‘What do you mean?’ Kathy made to get up but felt Garry’s hand on her shoulder, pressing her down. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘When he returned here last night, John became rather too inquisitive. He found something he shouldn’t, and I was obliged to take him into my custody. He’s still alive, I should think, but he probably won’t survive another
