I'm getting faster - two chapters in one day! Whatever next... This was just a case of one of those chapters that was overly long and needed cutting neatly into two. Usual disclaimers apply.

Chapter 19

In the silence that followed his revelation, Josh Lawrence looked at Humphrey and Camille. "I can see that Master's death is news to you. But for the few people who knew him, it wasn't a massive surprise. He hadn't exactly led a healthy life; it was amazing that he'd lasted as long as he did. According to his neighbours, he was overweight, an alcoholic, and a chain smoker. He had no close friends apart from a few mates at the local pub and the bookies – yes, he'd got into gambling again, although in a small way.

"I'd gone to see him and was told that he'd been found dead after a concerned neighbour had phoned the police. He was in the bath. The death certificate said it was a heart attack – and no, I'm not going to tell you how I know that. But I couldn't find out what the heart attack was attributed to. I got the impression that the pathologist could've put down at least half a dozen causes. I mean, there're plenty of things that could cause a heart attack…and they're not all natural, are they?

"I discovered he had a sister and that all his personal effects had gone to her. I tracked her down. I felt a bit guilty about bothering her, but she had no love for her brother. She'd been upset about the fraud conviction, but even before that, they hadn't got on. I was honest with her – I can be, you know." He gave them a knowing little smile. "I make a judgement on whether the person I'm talking to will react better to honesty rather than some false story about me being an old friend of his or something. She'd have been more suspicious if I had claimed friendship, since he didn't have any friends by the time he died. When I sat down and explained exactly why I was there, she let me have his papers and his battered old laptop – she didn't want any reminders of him anyway. She told me to destroy whatever I didn't need. So I did – I burnt whatever I didn't need. And I wiped the laptop's memory clean before disposing of it.

"I found bank statements and saw that he was receiving a fairly substantial sum of money each month. The trail was carefully hidden, but I got my 'experts' on it again and was able to trace the money right back to Jessica Law. They helped me log onto his laptop and there I found a wealth of evidence. He was blackmailing Law. He knew she'd screwed him over and although he didn't say it in so many words, he implied that he knew she was guilty of murder too. So she'd got the house for him and was paying him a kind-of allowance each month – had been doing that for years. Recently, he was after more money and their exchanges were getting pretty heated." He gave them another significant look.

"Are you saying that you think he was killed?" Humphrey asked.

Josh shrugged. "It'd solve her problems quickly enough, wouldn't it?"

"And you have the proof with you?"

He waved casually at the various notes and folders on his desk. "But that's not all. He was…he had been attempting to blackmail my father too. I found some e-mails that he'd sent not long before he died, claiming that Dad was financially involved in his illegal pyramid scheme all along and that he had proof." He frowned. "I couldn't find any replies from Dad, just some automated 'out of office' responses. Masters had had the correct e-mail address, so Dad must have seen them, surely..."

He stood up, restlessly. "That's when I decided to contact Eddie and Emilia. I didn't expect any help from Emma and I knew my father would just dismiss any allegations I might make. But my brother and sister were an unknown quantity. I hoped I would find that at least one of them might be prepared to listen to me. Emilia was."

His face dropped at Emilia's name and he looked quite stricken. "You have to believe me when I say that I would never have involved her if I'd thought there was even the slightest risk to her safety."

"What did you ask her to do?" asked Camille.

"I just wanted her to poke around for any more information that might link Law to Mum's death. I was able to get access to the official reports – on the car, the crash site and so on – but I wondered whether Dad had kept any documents in the house here, in Sainte-Marie. In particular, whether there was any connection between him and Masters. I knew I'd never get access, but Emilia could. I wanted her to search Dad's office and get into his online files if she could. She was a little reluctant at first, but she understood why." He paused, reflectively. "I think she felt sorry for me. She didn't believe it, you see. She thought that Masters had been lying about Dad's involvement, and she thought I was wrong about Mum's death, that it really was just a tragic accident. But she could see I was sincere and she wanted to help, if only to prove that there was no such evidence."

"And she found something?"

Josh paused again. "She said she had. She didn't sound very happy about it when she told me."

Humphrey leaned forward. "When was that? And how did she contact you?"

"She rang me up last Saturday – about ten in the morning. She had my mobile number. She wouldn't go into details over the phone; said she wanted me to meet her down at the tennis club in Honore that morning. I couldn't go; I was on the other side of the island tracking down the mechanic who recovered Mum's car. He's retired and quite hard to get hold of, and I was hot on the trail." He shook his head. "As it turned out, it was a waste of time. His mind's gone, he couldn't even remember his daughter's name, let alone the condition of a car that ditched over a cliff twenty five years' ago… And Emilia said she couldn't meet me that afternoon because she had to go to some party with her parents -."

"Wait a minute," Humphrey interrupted. "How did she sound on the phone?"

"It's hard to say for certain as I don't know her that well…but I would say she sounded a bit disturbed. Confused. She'd certainly found something that worried her. And she was talking quietly – she didn't want to be overheard by anyone."

"And later? When you did meet? Why did it take so long?"

"Well, as I say, she had to go to this big party at the Residency – said she couldn't get out of it without her parents being suspicious. I'd managed to make contact with a man who'd worked for Law at the time of my Mum's death. Someone told me he had a grudge against her because she'd dismissed him without notice. I was hoping I might be able to bribe him into helping me infiltrate her organisation. He left a message telling me to meet him at that party, so I suggested that Emilia turn up there as well. I didn't realise it'd be such a dive, I wouldn't have suggested it if I had."

"What's the name of the man you arranged to meet?"

"Well, in theory, his name is Pascal Combierre, but in reality – who knows? He wasn't the only one bearing a grudge against Law – she's in the habit of dismissing people for apparently minor transgressions. She seems to have an extraordinary ability to make enemies. In terms of appearance, he was Black, about mid-forties, a small, skinny kind of guy. No more than 5 foot 5, I would say. Put me in mind of a rat - cunning and a bit sneaky – you know?"

Humphrey and Camille exchanged glances. For a minute, he'd had had a notion that Nieto could be conveniently placed at the same location and time of Emilia's death, and clearly Camille had had the same idea. But if Josh's description was accurate, 'Pascal' couldn't be him.

"Anyway," Josh carried on, "- the guy messed me around a bit. He wasn't even at the party and when I rang him, he kept telling me to meet me somewhere else. When I finally ran him down, he was stoned and uncooperative anyway. I could tell it would be a waste of time; even when sober, he'd probably just take my money and run. So, I returned to the party and texted Emilia again. I think it was around six then – I seem to remember noticing the time on my mobile and being surprised because I didn't realise I'd spent the entire night running after that lowlife."

He paused for a long moment, staring at his hands. In the end, Camille prompted him. "So, you met her then? And she wasn't happy about being kept waiting all night?"

Josh grimaced. "No, she wasn't, and I don't blame her. I'm just amazed that she waited that long without giving up on me. She must have been really worried about whatever it was that she'd found. But I didn't even get a chance to find out what. She laid into me, accusing me of trying to implicate our father in my mother's death." He shook his head. "She – she was almost wild. Came up with the most extreme accusations. That I'd planted fake evidence, that I had a pathological hatred of my father and wanted to destroy him. She wasn't behaving like the Emilia I knew at all. It was almost as if she was under the influence of a drug or something – oh God…" He trailed off, a look of horror on his face. "Had she been drugged before I met her?"

Humphrey gave Camille another look. "Quite likely. We believe the type of drug was slow–acting. Did she show any particular symptoms?"

Josh dragged a shaking hand across his mouth. "I'm no expert on the effects of drugs, but… it might explain things. She was sweating a lot and her eyes were kind-of unfocused. I didn't get the impression that she was even hearing what I said. She – she just laid into me for about ten minutes and then screamed at me to leave her alone. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen, so in the end I left. I thought – well, to be honest, I did think she'd taken drugs or alcohol or both. I was surprised and a bit disappointed because I didn't think she was the type, but then I didn't know her all that well. For all I knew, she could be a hard partier when she had the opportunity. It never occurred to me that there might be another reason. She didn't seem distressed, just majorly pissed off.

"I – I wish I hadn't left her. If I'd stayed a bit longer…well, I might have noticed that there was something wrong. But my presence seemed to be making her worse. And also she'd said that Eddie was there and threatened to call him – not that I was scared of him, but I didn't want some massive row that would get back to Dad and Emma. I was still trying to keep my presence on the island a secret. I thought it might be best to leave her alone and contact her the next day, when she'd calmed down a bit. But now I really wish I hadn't made that decision."

He sounded wretched, and Camille leaned forward and touched his hand briefly with instinctive sympathy.

"You mustn't dwell on it, Josh. Even if you had been there, you might not have been able to do anything. The pathologist thinks that she died very quickly and probably without much warning." Her voice was gentle but determined. "What you can do for Emilia now is help us find her killer. You may have seen something at the party that can help us."

He looked at her for a moment before nodding gratefully. "Thanks. The really stupid thing is that I don't normally work with anyone because I'm always conscious of putting someone at risk. I guess I got a bit desperate. And Emilia seemed like someone I could work with – which was why I was a bit shocked to see her so…out of control. It didn't seem like her."

"It wasn't," Humphrey said, firmly. "Which reinforces my suspicion that the drug was administered earlier in the evening, and she could have reacted to it at any time. She could even have died before you saw her; it was pure chance that the drug didn't cause the reaction until afterwards. The question is, is that why she was drugged – to stop her revealing what she knew to you? Or just a coincidence?"

"Also -," Camille put in, "- if the killer is willing to risk Emilia's life to stop her giving something away, wouldn't he or she be prepared to do the same to Josh? Particularly if they think that he might have that information?"

Josh ran a hand through his hair. "But what I don't get is how they linked her to me in the first place? We've been very discreet about meeting up, especially here on the island. I often work undercover; I know how to avoid detection and spot when I'm being watched… as you probably noticed tonight," he added.

They were silent for a moment and then Camille spoke. "She must have given something away. You said she sounded confused – distressed even – when she phoned you on Saturday morning. And she was in a public place when she rang. Anyone could have over-heard her, and she might not have noticed."

Humphrey frowned. "Possibly. It all seems a bit coincidental though. Someone who is related to Donata's death and possibly Masters' also just happens to be in the vicinity and overhears Emilia saying something that could relate to anything…what did she say exactly?"

Josh pulled his phone out of his pocket. "You can listen for yourself. I have a device in this phone which automatically records all phone calls, just in case I need some evidence."

He tapped on the screen to find the conversation he wanted and then held it out to Humphrey, who took it dubiously. "Bit unethical, isn't it? Recording people's conversations without them knowing?"

Josh gave him a pitying look. "It happens more than you think. Just press there."

Humphrey did so and lifted the receiver to his ear. Camille leaned in and he angled the phone so that she could hear too. They listened intently to a young woman's voice. "I've done what you asked. It wasn't easy, though -."

Josh's voice cut over hers, eagerly. "Did you find anything I could use?"

There was a silence on the line. Straining, Humphrey fancied he could hear a few echoing noises in the background. There was the sound of distant voices and a door slammed.

When the girl spoke again, she sounded distracted. "Um – maybe. I don't know. I think there's something, but I can't make my mind up. You need to come here; I need to speak to you."

"Where are you?" came Josh's voice.

Another silence, and then they heard the woman slightly indistinctly, appearing to speak to someone else. "OK, just a minute…" And then, a little clearly: "Sorry, that was - never mind. Can you meet me at the tennis club in Honore?"

Now a pause at Josh's end. "I can't get there right away, I'm not in Honore - ."

"Oh, for -." Emilia sounded frustrated. "You have – I can't – look, I can't talk right now…"

"Can you meet me this afternoon?"

"No, that's not –." Again, there was a moment where she seemed to be interrupted by someone. They couldn't make out the conversation, just two voices talking, their voices rising slightly as if in argument.

"I think she must have muffled her phone to talk to someone else -," Josh began, but Camille shushed him urgently as Emilia's voice came through stronger once more, speaking very quickly.

"I can't meet this afternoon - there's a party at the Residency, and I have to go. Text me a location this evening and I'll do my best."

The line went dead before Josh could reply. Camille took the phone from Humphrey, fiddled with it and listened to the conversation again. She walked away from them out onto the balcony to listen more carefully.

Humphrey watched her leaning on the rail, her back to him as she focused. He could tell by her stiff posture that she was focusing carefully. She took the phone from her ear and reset the call before listening again. He spoke quietly, not wanting to distract her. "It certainly sounds as if one person at least was there, and she didn't want them to listen to her conversation. Sounds as if they might have been arguing too – but that might be unrelated."

"It's a female voice, the other one," Camille confirmed as she came back into the room, returning the phone to Josh. "Definitely. Quite high-pitched, although that might have been from anger or some other emotion."

"One of her friends?"

"Maybe." But Camille didn't sound too convinced. She was frowning and staring into space, distracted.

Humphrey looked at her for a moment, but nothing else seemed forthcoming. Sometimes it was wise to leave Camille to think something through without interruption, so he turned to Josh and ushered him out onto the balcony.

"Our first priority is to discover what Emilia discovered that disturbed her so much," he said in a low voice. "Although actually, that's our second – the first is to make sure that you're not about to become the next victim. I don't think you should stay here alone."

Josh laughed scornfully. "If you think it's the first time my life has been in danger, you're quite wrong. I've coped before and I'll cope now."

"They may have tracked you here. I really think you'd be safer coming with us -."

"To where? Are you going to take me into custody? Do you think I'd be safer in prison if someone really wants to finish me off? I'd be better off disappearing."

"He has a point." Camille had come to join them on the balcony.

"Well, then, you could come and stay with me at the beach house. It'd be safer than staying here, anyway. No one knows we're here, so they won't connect you with me."

"Unless they're watching us right now." Camille shuddered as she looked around at the dark lake. The bungalow's lights were subtle, but against the black backdrop, they must stand out like a beacon.

Humphrey felt her nervousness run through his own body. "Come on, Josh. Let's get out of here to somewhere safe. We can go through what you've found out in more detail and see if we can find any more clues between the three of us."

Josh considered Humphrey for a moment before nodding. "Alright. That seems sensible and I'm not planning on staying here anyway, just in case. It's a bit too isolated. Give me a minute."

They watched as he went back into the lounge. He gathered together the notes and files scattered across the desk and stuffed them in a battered old duffel bag. He disappeared with it into the back of the bungalow, presumably to collect clothes and toiletries.

Humphrey drew Camille slightly down the side of the bungalow so they were out of the lounge's light and scanned the lake. He could see no signs of light or movement anywhere; the other bungalows clustered around the water seemed to be empty. It was eerily quiet here among the trees. Not far away, just on the other side of the hotel, the evening would just be warming up for the tourists at the beach bars, but on this side, there was nothing but silence.

Camille leaned against him; the warmth of her arm against his was a comfort. "I'm not sure about that woman's voice on the phone call," she said quietly. "It sounded familiar but I couldn't place it."

"Not Jessica Law?" he asked, but she shook her head, her hair tickling his cheek.

"I've never heard her speak. I'm not sure – I listened to it a couple more times. The other thing is that Josh assumed she was at the tennis club when she called him, but if you notice, she didn't actually say that. Just that he should meet her there as soon as possible. I've listened carefully, but I can't hear anything that suggests she's definitely at the tennis club."

"OK." Humphrey sighed. "This case gets more and more complicated. Camille, we're not barking up the wrong tree, are we? What if it was just an accidental overdose? The evidence does seem to point to Law…but it seems a bit coincidental for her to kill a girl who may or may not have found some new evidence. I'm not sure what to think."

She shifted against him, her hand slipping into his. It seemed like an almost automatic act of intimacy from her now; something had changed in the dynamic between them since the boathouse yesterday. Despite his concern, he couldn't stop the automatic thrill running through his body; the by-now familiar question: what does this mean?

"I don't think you're wrong," she said. "I know what you mean – it could be just a coincidence, but..."

Suddenly, the lights went off. All was silent; they couldn't hear Josh's footsteps coming towards them, but Camille stiffened suddenly and grabbed Humphrey's arm.

"There's someone rowing on the lake," she whispered urgently. "Listen!"

He caught a quiet splish of an oar in the water fairly close by, but he couldn't make out anything in the darkness. Instinctively, he pushed in front of Camille, conscious of her bright red dress standing out in the darkness. She grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him back along the walkway and into the shadows of the trees on the bank. They peered at the water, trying to make out any movement.

"Where's Josh?" Humphrey whispered. "Is it him on the lake?"

"No." The quiet voice came from behind, making Camille and Humphrey jump. Josh appeared in the trees, wearing a dark jacket and carrying his duffel bag. He scanned the water and beckoned to them urgently.

They slipped through the trees along the bank, trying to move as quickly and quietly as possible. At a safe distance from the bungalow, they halted and walked towards the water's edge, looking back along the lake's shore towards the balcony.

From this angle, they could see the dark shape of a boat just beneath the balcony. A single figure dressed in black jumped over the rail, landing on the balcony with a quiet thud.

"I thought I heard something," Josh told them. "So I put out the lights and then climbed through the window at the back of the building."

As they watched, the slim figure walked towards the lounge. At that moment, the moon appeared above the palm trees and shone brightly, glittering on the gun being held in a gloved hand.

"OK," Humphrey muttered. "Not such a coincidence, then."