‘Not usually about killing people.’
She shrugged.
‘Maybe not.’
‘So then what happened?’ Nino pushed her. ‘You’d disappeared, so you were out of the picture.’
‘And Eddie stole the Titian from Gaspare Reni’s gallery—’
‘He attacked an old man in the process.’
‘He didn’t kill him,’ she responded. ‘It could have been worse.’
He was finding it difficult to look at her. ‘Then Hillstone hid the painting here?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, in this house, which he bought in the name of William Jex. Eddie loves to change his name. In the past he’d had to, to keep one step ahead, but he enjoys it too. And of course it made him a lot harder to track.’ She took in a slow breath, as though she was tired. ‘You found him though. That was clever. Maybe I should have thrown my lot in with you, Mr Bergstrom?’
He ignored the remark.
‘You haven’t explained the most important part – why Hillstone started killing.’
‘I told you, he’d always wanted to imitate Vespucci. When Triumph Jones put out that bloody painting, he had carte blanche,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘He said The Skin Hunter went for whores, so he’d have no shortage of victims. Then we came up with the idea of a link.’
‘A link between the women and Vespucci?’
She nodded.
‘It was inspired, wasn’t it? I remembered Rachel Pitt on that Italy trip, how she’d been talking to Eddie about The Skin Hunter. She even made a throwaway comment that she’d like to write a play about him. That set us thinking, I can tell you. Then we started looking for other women who had some connection to Vespucci … Eddie was red hot on that – he’d worked in Greyly’s library and had already found out about Claudia Moroni.’ She paused, her tone peevish. ‘I can’t believe my husband sold that painting to Johnny Ravenscourt! And now Johnny’s gloating, talking about it on the internet … I liked that picture.’
‘Any particular reason why?’
‘You mean the incest between Claudia Moroni and her brother?’
‘Nothing else?’
Seraphina paused, alert. Her intelligence was tipping her off, her cunning suspecting something more. ‘What else?’
‘Should there be something else?’
‘There is, isn’t there? Tell me!’
‘You never examined the picture, did you?’ Nino said. ‘What a shame, Seraphina. You missed out there. Angelico Vespucci hid his trophies behind the panel on the back.’
The shock almost winded her. ‘What?’
‘The skins were in your possession all the time you lived in that apartment with Tom Morgan. You lived with the picture, looked at the painting every day – and never knew what it held.’ He taunted her. ‘Just think what Eddie Hill-stone would have made of that—’
‘Shut up!’ The colour had left her face. ‘I don’t believe it! Ravenscourt’s not put it up on his website. He hasn’t said a thing about it.’
‘Of course he hasn’t. He’ll wait until Hillstone comes to trial and then make a killing with the publicity. To have hides from The Skin Hunter’s victims – it’ll make him famous. And to think you were sleeping under them, night after night, without even knowing—’
‘Stop it!’
‘Oh, don’t take it badly, Seraphina. You can’t win every time,’ Nino continued, provoking her. ‘Anyway, you haven’t finished your story. I know you want to tell me what you did. I know you want to brag. So go on, tell me – who found out about Sally Egan?’
She paused, but couldn’t resist.
‘Eddie did … But I found out about Harriet Forbes.’
‘You knew he was going to kill those women, and you didn’t tell the police?’
She shrugged.
‘You didn’t think to warn them? What had Sally Egan, Harriet Forbes and Rachel Pitt done to you?’
‘You saved Rachel Pitt!’
‘But the other two are dead. And you could have saved them.’ He stared at her. ‘Why, Seraphina?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why did you do it?’
‘Why d’you think?’
‘It was all about sex, wasn’t it? The ultimate kick for you and Hillstone?’ He paused. ‘But I don’t understand why he punished the others but didn’t judge you.’
She smiled slyly. ‘Because I was clever – and he loved me.’
‘Did you come up with the idea of your own murder?’
‘You don’t think Eddie did, do you?’
Nino smiled. ‘It was a clever move. By thinking you were the first victim it made the legend all the more real. Vespucci had killed your ancestor, so of course his imitator would kill you.’ He was trying to weigh her up, his voice wary. ‘But if you knew Hillstone had been caught, why did you come back here? Why not make a run for it?’
‘And go where? I’m dead, remember.’ Her voice shifted, taking on a gentler tone, suddenly vulnerable. ‘I was confused. I wanted to stay here to clear my name, to give my side of the story. Eddie Hillstone made me do these terrible things—’
‘No, he didn’t. You chose to do them,’ Nino insisted, knowing where she was leading.
‘But I didn’t think he’d kill them! I never really thought he’d kill them … When he murdered Sally Egan, I was so afraid, I didn’t dare say anything. If he could do that to them, he could do it to me.’
She was sliding into another performance. Snaking towards an escape route.
‘You’re lying,’ Nino replied. ‘You took a dead girl and mutilated her—’
‘Not me!’
‘You organised it! You’re as guilty as Hillstone. You knew when he carved up her body, when he mutilated her face to pass her corpse off as yours, that he was capable of anything. You relied on that. You could play him along, let him get his fantasies out of his system. After all, what did it matter to you? You’d got rid of a husband you despised and had a Titian you could sell for six million, at least.’ He paused. ‘You have no defence—’
She thought otherwise.
‘He forced me to go along with him! I lied! It was his idea to fake my death, it was Eddie all along.’ Her voice wavered. ‘Not me – I had to do what he said. I had to.’
‘I don’t believe you—’
Irritated, she dropped the vulnerable act and went on the defensive.
‘It doesn’t matter what you think. In the end, it’s Edward Hillstone’s word against mine. And who d’you think people will believe? My family will be so glad to get me back, they won’t ask too many questions—’
‘Maybe not, but the police will.’
‘There’s no proof I colluded with Eddie,’ she went on, her tone confident. ‘I made sure of that. Nothing in writing, nothing anyone saw or could have overheard. We were lovers once, that’s true, but he used my feelings for him and turned them against me.’ She swivelled round in her seat, her dark eyes holding his stare, her voice plaintive again. ‘Eddie Hill-stone used me.’
‘No.’
‘Yes.’
‘It won’t work, Seraphina. No one will believe you. You’ll be jailed. Locked up, just like you should be.’
‘Will I?’ she said, standing.
He saw her rise and took a moment to react. She was very erect, her head high, her back straight. So straight that it made her pregnancy even more obvious, the swelling of a baby growing fast.
‘Of course … Your husband told me you were pregnant.’
‘But it’s not his,’ she said, touching her stomach. ‘It’s Eddie Hillstone’s. You see, he raped me … But I want to keep the baby. That why I did what I did, Mr Bergstrom. I had to do everything he asked to save my child. That’s why I had to go along with him.’ She paused, her tone helpless, faking desperation. ‘You can’t punish me. I’m as much a victim as the other women.’
77
Edward Hillstone was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder. He was also charged with the mutilation of a corpse, fraud and theft. After the investigations had continued for another three days he was charged with the murders of Hester Greyly and Patrick Dewick. The lawyer for Seraphina Watson – Seraphina di Fattori as she was be known from then onwards – put forward a charge for the rape and abduction of his client.