And the third part! Usual disclaimers apply.

Chapter 25

Humphrey rubbed his hands over his face, wearily.

There were times when finding the solution to a mystery gave him great satisfaction. This was not one of those times.

He looked at Clive and Eddie Lawrence. The father and son looked utterly broken; their family ripped apart. Sir Selwyn watched them, sorrow etched into his face. Even the hard-faced Jessica Law looked subdued.

Josh had been contemplating his hands. After a moment, he looked up suddenly, breaking the silence. "So, was Ernest Nieto also responsible for my mother's death?"

Humphrey opened his mouth to reply, but Jessica Law beat him to it. "Not due to me. Whatever you may think of me, I never ordered anyone's death."

Patterson glared at her, but Humphrey nodded in agreement. "You didn't, that's quite true…although I suppose that in a way, you were still responsible for her death." He raised his hand as she opened her mouth to protest. "No wait, hear me out. We've been through the old telephone records and we found that Donata had indeed phoned Sir Selwyn from home on that day. As we know, the Commissioner was in a meeting, but one of his assistants took the call. Donata said she was on the way to meet him but she never made it."

He looked at Patterson. "You thought that it was unlikely that Donata knew of Clive's involvement in Masters' scheme, because if she had, she'd have spoken to Clive first before bringing her evidence to you. That's probably true, and when she phoned your office, she really didn't know. But what you don't know is that after she put the phone down and just before she left the house, Donata took another call. It was from Jessica Law."

He looked at Jessica. "Do you remember that call?"

The woman paused but then nodded her head, reluctantly. "I told her to leave me alone. I…implied that her husband might not be as ignorant about Jonathan's fraudulent activities as he seemed to be. But she didn't believe me; she told me in no uncertain terms not to try to contact her again."

Humphrey nodded. "She probably didn't believe you – her initial reaction would have been that you were making it up just to scare her. However, Donata was no fool. When she first left the house, she would have been focused on the evidence she had that you had stolen money from Masters' accounts after his arrest. But while she was driving along, her mind would have been on what you had said. She would have been considering the evidence and she may have realised that there might, after all, be some truth in your words. She would have been distracted. She certainly wouldn't have been as focused on a difficult stretch of the coast road as she should have been."

He looked at Josh seriously. "I'm afraid we'll probably never know for certain if your mother's death really was an accident…but there's no evidence that it wasn't. One thing we do know for certain – Nieto was not there. We have proof that he was on Guadeloupe working on a business transaction for Jessica Law at the same time. Although it does seem that he had been following Donata around, possibly to intimidate her or simply to monitor her activities, he definitely wasn't on that day. I'm sorry that your investigations have come to nothing."

Josh gave him a grave look before turning towards his father and half-brother. "I'm sorry too…but not for that reason. If I hadn't got involved in the first place, Emilia might still be alive."

Humphrey didn't try to deny it. Josh didn't look like the type who would accept false platitudes. He would take the guilt he felt for Emilia's death to his grave. Humphrey only hoped he wouldn't allow it to embitter him or to stop the good work he could do. Idly, he wondered whether Josh would ever consider a change of career. He was a good man with a strong sense of justice and an excellent investigator. They could do with a man like him on the team…

He glanced at Camille, wondering whether she had the same thought…and was struck by the warmth in her eyes as she gazed at him. He felt an answering glow in his chest even as he began to feel the events of the past few days catching up with him. That hospital bed suddenly seemed very inviting. He wasn't even tempted to try checking out of the hospital this time.

"Wait a minute though," Jessica said, suddenly. "You said you'd tell me who it was who tried to kill me earlier – and so far you haven't. It couldn't have been Ernest if you already had him in custody."

Humphrey felt an odd urge to laugh. "That's true - I haven't, have I? I do apologise. In all the excitement, we haven't had a chance to look at the CCTV or speak to the security guard at the gate yet, but Fidel and Dwayne will be onto it, just as soon as they've made Nieto and Emma comfortable in the cells at the station. And that's why I told Emma that there might be other charges. You see, I think we'll find that the images will show that it was her driving the car that nearly hit you."

Clive dropped his hands and looked at Humphrey incredulously.

"I believe -," Humphrey went on, "- that Emilia's death was the last straw for Emma. She'd managed to carry on somehow after Masters' death, but it must have been a terrible strain. She's no hardened criminal like Ernest Nieto and although she was probably glad to be rid of Masters, I suspect she felt pretty guilty too. And she was probably terrified of Nieto. He would be able to hold what she had done over her for the rest of her life. At any time he could have threatened to reveal their little arrangement. And that was assuming that no one else found out.

"When she was told about Emilia's death, she must have known immediately that it was murder. She knew that her daughter would never have experimented with drugs. She didn't know that Emilia had died in exactly the same manner as Jonathan Masters, but she must have been at least suspicious. But what could she do? There was no sign of Nieto. Did she try to contact him later on Sunday? We can probably try to find out. But she certainly knew that Josh was involved in some way with Emilia's death and she needed to know who was responsible."

He paused for a moment and looked at Camille. "We'll know more when Camille takes Emma's full statement tomorrow, but what I think happened is this. Emma didn't know that Nieto had overheard her conversation with Emilia. She probably thought that Josh had uncovered some information about Jessica Law, and that Jessica was paying Nieto to kill both Emilia and Josh. For all she knew, Josh was already dead or would be soon. And she didn't know whether or not Emilia had given him the information that implicated Clive before she was killed. She was terrified that the information would end up in Jessica Law's hands if Josh was also murdered.

"She had to act quickly. She had no idea where Josh was staying, but I imagine she knew about Julien's bungalow in the grounds of Jessica's hotel. She may even have visited it with you sometime, when Julien was staying there?" He looked at Clive, who nodded his confirmation.

"I thought so. It was a gamble, but yesterday evening, she slipped away from the house, probably on the pretext to needing to be by herself for a while. You keep a speedboat in the harbour and she took it out – that in itself wouldn't necessarily be that suspicious. She took the boat around the headland and into the bay where the hotel is located, moored it in a small quiet location and slipped into the hotel grounds. She used a moored rowing boat to approach Josh's bungalow across the lake. She didn't notice Camille, Josh and I slipping away as she approached.

"She had a gun – she'd probably purchased that out of her fear for Nieto." He looked at Josh. "I doubt she'd intended to kill you. More likely she had it for defence, in case Nieto was there. She didn't stop long – her purpose was to find any damning evidence in your possession. Once she'd rifled through the papers and realised there was nothing there, she slipped away, returned to her boat and headed home again.

"As the bungalow was open but there was no sign of Josh, she may have thought she was too late – he might have been killed and any evidence he had removed. She may have assumed that Jessica already had it. It's possible she was planning her next move after Clive left home the following morning, but then Camille and I arrived to look at Emilia's room and the study, so she was stuck. We assumed she was elsewhere in the house when we looked around the study…and she was. She was hiding in the garden, listening to our conversation.

"She heard me say something that was of great significance to her. I'm still not entirely clear what I said before I collapsed, but Camille tells me that I said 'Jessica Law' very clearly." He glanced at Camille, who nodded. "Camille took it that I meant Jessica was responsible for Emilia's murder, whereas in fact I think I had just realised that she would be the next victim. I was trying to warn Camille but it didn't come out well.

"Emma also heard the name and she came to the same conclusion as Camille. I assume she went back into the house by the kitchen door and then came running when Camille called for help, and then called the ambulance and so on. And Camille followed the ambulance to the hospital, leaving Emma alone and free to act."

He frowned. "What I'm not sure about is why it took so long for her to act. I was unconscious for a few hours, so she had plenty of time."

"I think I can answer that," Clive said, slowly. "I was worried about Emma – didn't like to leave her alone for so long. I had been at the funeral directors making arrangements for Emilia, and then I was planning to have tea with Selwyn and then collect Eddie from his friend's house. I phoned some friends of ours and asked them to ring her and try to convince her to meet them in town and go to lunch with them – take her mind off things and so on. When Eddie and I came home, she said she'd only got back a few minutes before us, having had lunch with them. I did think that was a bit odd, because it was half past five by then, and lunch couldn't have taken that long. But then your sergeant called and asked us to meet you here at the hospital, so I didn't get a chance to ask her any more about it."

Humphrey nodded. "Yes…that explains the time delay." He gave Jessica a serious look. "You were extremely lucky. It was about half past four when I sent Josh to the hotel, and you were nearly knocked over at ten to five. I imagine we will find that she took the gun with her – she had nothing to lose by then. After all, she'd been unable to protect her family and she believed that you had arranged her daughter's death. She drove through the gates and stopped near the hotel entrance, trying to decide what to do. But then you came out suddenly, and she had a sudden instinct - to put her foot on the accelerator and crash into you. It was only Josh's quick reactions that saved your life."

He watched the businesswoman taking this in; noted the instinctive shudder she gave as she realised how close she had come to losing her life. For a moment, her eyes were soft as she gave Josh another nod of acknowledgment. They hardened again as she turned back to Humphrey.

"So, what happens now? I suppose you have all the evidence you need to take me into custody – and him too," she added, nodding towards Clive.

Eddie stiffened in his seat and looked at her incredulously. "What – after all he's been through? You're really going to charge him for something that happened so long ago? I mean, the main culprit already served a sentence for it."

"We do have the evidence," Camille pointed out, but gently. "And there are victims who were never fully recompensed."

Humphrey hesitated, looking at Sir Selwyn. The Commissioner looked back at him, face perfectly neutral once more. "How many people were conned? Do we have a list of them?"

Patterson nodded. "That can be arranged."

"OK…" Humphrey looked around at his remaining audience. "This is what I suggest. We can't possibly hide the fact that Clive invested in Jonathan's scheme – that'll probably come out at the trials of both Emma and Ernest. But there's no actual evidence that Clive knew, only that he gave Jonathan money and might have assumed that it was for a legitimate business venture."

He looked at Clive. "If I were you, I should stick to that story and let's see how it plays out."

Clive hesitated, looking rather confused. "I'll do that, but… But you know the truth."

"No." Humphrey shook his head. "I didn't know for certain, I simply deduced. We haven't seen the e-mail you sent to your solicitor. Camille has only seen the ones Masters sent to you, and they're vague enough to be counted as simply a man claiming to have evidence he didn't actually possess. Your solicitor has the e-mail of course, but what exactly did you say to him? Only that you feared that Masters might have some evidence. That's not admissible in court – you could simply have felt threatened by Masters' language. I really don't think he had anything that could be used against you. Masters' sister gave his laptop and papers to Josh, and you didn't find anything concrete, did you Josh?"

Josh shook his head. "Not a thing. Just the e-mails he'd sent you, Dad. His laptop has been wiped and destroyed now."

Humphrey turned to Jessica. "That leaves you. You claimed to have some evidence, which you so kindly passed a copy of to Sir Selwyn, twenty five years ago, but it was only evidence that he unwisely gave some money to Masters. Of course, there's a risk that either Nieto or Emma will reveal something in their trials, inadvertently or not. But I think we should cross that hurdle when we come to it."

"And what do I get out of keeping quiet?" Jessica asked, with a humourless little smile.

Humphrey matched the smile with one of his own. "I won't arrest you today and charge you with embezzlement. I have enough evidence now – the amounts you were paying to Masters and the communications you have had over the years are proof enough." He shrugged. "Although, to be honest, I suspect you've more than paid for it over the years. There's one condition, though." He looked sternly between Clive, Patterson and Jessica. "Sir Selwyn will provide a list of victims who were left out of pocket and the two of you will pay them back, including a suitable rate of interest for the last twenty five years. You can arrange this through Sir Selwyn – he can explain to their lawyers that some of the missing funds were re-appropriated by chance."

Patterson looked at him for a moment, a mysterious little smile on his face. "I can arrange that."

Jessica and Clive gave each other tense little nods of agreement.

Josh shrugged, looking resigned. "That suits me. I only cared about justice for my mother, anyway, and God knows I wish I'd never even started this in the first place. I'll regret the outcome for the rest of my life. I'll pass all the information I have over to you, Humphrey."

Humphrey looked up at Camille. She was frowning, her arms folded, and he could tell that she didn't entirely approve of what Humphrey had decided. Eventually she shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

"Good." Humphrey sighed, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. "I leave it to you to sort out, Commissioner. And now, if you don't mind, I'd like to be left alone. I feel as if I could sleep for two days' straight."