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He brought the Harley to a stop at the quayside where the police launch was waiting, retrieved his phone and called Trueman.

‘Check the passenger lists of the ferries from France and Spain. I think you’ll find Sharon Piper booked on one that arrived some time just before her aunt’s funeral. She probably travelled under the name of Carol Palmer, but she might have used her real name. It’ll be interesting to see if she came by car and if she booked a return passage.’

‘I’ll get on to it now.’

Horton headed out of the harbour on the police launch. It had grown overcast but the heat was as oppressive as ever. Elkins foretold a thunderstorm. ‘I always get a headache when thunder’s on its way,’ he grumbled, ‘and I’ve got thumping great one now.’

‘And there’s me thinking you were some kind of weather guru.’ Horton asked if there had been any movement from Ballard.

‘Still in the marina at Guernsey on his boat.’

Or at least his boat was, thought Horton. Ballard could be anywhere on that island, which was smaller than the one they were heading towards across a darkening grey and eerily calm Solent. He turned his thoughts to Foxbury. If Reggie Thomas wasn’t their killer could it be Foxbury? He couldn’t see how Foxbury could have got that photograph to Woodley, unless he knew a relative of an inmate, and that was possible. And the motive for wanting Sharon Piper dead? Perhaps she’d seen him up to some illegal activity in his boatyard years ago; Danby had mentioned he’d once been suspected of smuggling. And perhaps Sharon had returned to blackmail him, especially since he’d come into a great deal of money. But why kill her at his old boatyard? Why not take her out on his boat and kill her in a remote bay or toss her body into the sea?

And if Foxbury had killed Sharon out of revenge for her killing Ellie Loman that meant Foxbury must have been infatuated or in love with Ellie. If so why hadn’t Foxbury told the police? Unless Foxbury had killed Ellie because she’d rejected him. Or was there a connection between Foxbury and this Marcus Piper, Sharon’s late husband whom Patricia Harlow had told them had thrown himself off his boat? Had he, though? Had Sharon pushed him and had Marcus been a friend of Foxbury’s?

Whichever way he looked at it the answer lay in Parkhurst Prison. And although it pained him to admit it, as far as the prison being critical to the investigation, DCS Sawyer had been right after all, it was the key to both Woodley’s and Sharon Piper’s deaths. He only hoped that Garvard wouldn’t be as close-mouthed as Stapleton. He wanted the bugger to talk.

NINETEEN

‘You’ll be lucky. He’s not here,’ Geoff Kirby said when Horton was once again sitting in his office.

‘What do you mean?’ Horton cried, annoyed he’d had a wasted trip.

‘And I doubt you’ll get him to talk because he’s in St Mary’s Hospital across the road, cancer. It’s terminal. He’s only days to live.’

Horton cursed. Would the answers to the investigation die with Garvard? He needed to see him. But he curbed his impatience. Kirby could give him some information on Garvard that might help, and it might be all he’d get if Garvard was in no fit state to talk when Horton reached the hospital. Swiftly he told Kirby they’d traced the identity of the woman in the photograph found in Woodley’s cell back to Garvard.

‘I never saw him with it,’ Kirby quickly replied, surprised, ‘and he has never mentioned a woman, not even after he was diagnosed with cancer or when he went into hospital two weeks ago.’

‘This one gave him up to the police.’

‘Ah.’

Horton could see Kirby’s mind racing to work out the implications of this piece of news. It didn’t take him long. ‘You think Woodley was paid to find and kill her.’

‘It’s one possibility but there’s still a great deal unexplained and I was hoping Garvard would explain it.’

‘You might not have much joy. He’s slipping in and out of consciousness and it’s likely that soon he won’t come out of it.’

Horton would have to try, though. ‘What’s he like?’

Kirby didn’t even pause to consider his answer. ‘Clever, manipulative, shrewd, genial, charming.’ After a moment, he added, ‘And embittered. Yes, I’d say embittered. And now I know his girlfriend shopped him that explains a lot about his manner.’

‘How?’

Kirby’s forehead creased in a frown as he seemed to weigh up his answer. ‘When I say embittered, I don’t mean he went around swearing to get revenge or was outwardly cynical but you got the sense that something was going on inside him that you would never get him to reveal, it was as though he was hugging a secret, and not a happy one. It was a silent bitterness if that makes any sense.’

Yes, Horton thought it did.

Kirby continued. ‘Garvard was clever, or I should say is clever, he’s not dead yet. Outwardly he was no trouble but you got this feeling between your shoulder blades that he was somehow always one step ahead of you, that he knew more than you did and what he knew was far more important than what you’d ever know.’

Horton had known other villains like that. And the profile Kirby was painting fitted that of a con man. ‘How did he interact with the other prisoners?’

‘He never caused any trouble and they never gave him any trouble, but. .’ Kirby paused again to consider his reply. ‘You couldn’t pinpoint it but you had this feeling that whatever was going down he was behind it somehow.’

Horton quickly read between the lines. ‘The attack on Stapleton?’

‘Nobody said anything and there was never any proof that Garvard was behind it, which was why it wasn’t mentioned in the report, and of course I didn’t know about the woman, but yes, now I can see it is possible. He could have persuaded Stapleton’s minders to go AWOL. And, yes, he could have persuaded Woodley to attack Stapleton.’ Kirby looked thoughtful for a moment before adding, ‘This might sound daft, but it’s possible that Garvard could even have persuaded Stapleton to allow himself to be attacked.’

Horton rapidly considered this. It wasn’t so daft. ‘In exchange for what?’

‘Money. It’s why he didn’t want to be let out on licence for his remaining days in his weakened condition, in case some of the villains or victims he stitched up came after him, and it’s why we’ve got a prison officer sitting with him at the hospital. Garvard could have offered Stapleton information on where this money is.’

And Sharon might not have known where Garvard had put all the money from their scams. Perhaps he hadn’t trusted her, which would have given her another reason to grass on him. Or was this just another of his cons? Another thought occurred to Horton. ‘Could Garvard have been a gang master here instead of or in addition to Stapleton?’

‘There’s never been any evidence to suggest that, or that he had a power base, but like I said he’s a clever, cunning bugger. He must have known that even if we discovered he was behind the attack he wouldn’t be moved because he’d been diagnosed with cancer, although there was a time when we were considering transferring him to Kingston Prison in Portsmouth. He stayed in the prison sick bay there while he underwent a six-week course of radiotherapy treatment in June, last year, at Queen Alexandra Hospital Portsmouth, accompanied by a prison officer, of course. It made sense for him to stay at Kingston Prison rather than travel back and forth on the ferry, locked in the back of a prison van. And he was ill.’