‘It isn’t about his legacy, it’s about making her look good. Xavier and Henry she married for the money and Samuel got her pregnant.’
Anna sucked in her breath since she thought he had made a valid point.
Blane continued: ‘Even her son Arum Joshua meant that little to her she gave him away.’
‘In fairness it could also be that Gloria wanted Arum to have a better life.’
‘Possibly, but the Arum plant is also known as the corpse tree. Is Gloria implying that as far as she was concerned he was dead to her from the moment he was born?’
‘That’s disgusting, but if you’re right then Gloria really is sick in the head.’ Anna sighed. ‘Could you fill me in some more about a sociopath’s behaviour?’
Blane was on familiar territory as he described how sociopaths could appear to be absolutely charming, form relationships and even marry, but they lacked any depth or meaning as they cared only about themselves. Incapable of any true emotions, from love to shame to guilt, they could be easily angered but were just as quick to forgive. They thrived on reward and gratification and didn’t worry about the consequences of their actions because they had no conscience or moral code.
‘Are you saying that on face value, you can’t find anything not to like about them?’ Anna asked.
‘No, what I am saying is that they are extremely competent at manipulating people through their lies and deceit.’
‘Do you think she may have been treated for it – you know, by a psychologist or doctor?’ Anna asked.
‘There’s no form of psychotherapy or medication that works with an adult sociopath. You can’t change someone who has no desire to change.’
Anna’s laptop pinged with the arrival of an e-mail, and Blane took the opportunity to put some fresh logs on the fire while she read it. He had felt unbelievably aroused when Anna hugged him earlier, so much so that he just wanted to take her hand and lead her straight into the bedroom.
‘I’ve got a bit of a headache – could we take some time out from the case?’ he suggested. ‘Maybe sit on the sofa and chat about something else?’ But Anna was already distracted so missed what he’d said; instead, she turned and wafted her hand towards her laptop screen. He realized they had one thing in common, which could destroy any serious relationship between them: they both allowed their work to dominate their private lives.
‘Wait until you read what Joan’s sent about Lord Henry Lynne. He had one son, Robert, who was married to a Maria, and they both died in a helicopter crash in Surrey,’ Anna said and made a hissing sound between her teeth
‘I doubt if you can put that down to Lady Lynne.’
Anna clicked on a web link Joan had sent from a newspaper article with the heading ROBERT AND MARIA LYNNE IN HELICOPTER TRAGEDY. What she read next made her jaw drop. Lady Gloria Lynne spoke of her sadness at the loss of her stepson and daughter-in-law, and of her and Lord Henry’s love for them, and how in some ways she felt responsible for their tragic accident, as she had invited Robert and Maria to Lynne House for lunch. Anna felt her heart pounding; she couldn’t believe what she was reading. ‘If what I’m thinking is right, Don, then Gloria is more evil than either of us imagined. They had lunch at her home, where she could have poisoned them, then they left to get into the helicopter-’
‘Anna, you really need to think twice about where you’re going with this as you’ve no evidence to support-’
‘There’s a member of the public who said that the helicopter was swerving from side to side but no smoke or unusual sounds were coming from it.’
‘The important factor is what an Air Accident Investigation concluded,’ Blane said sharply. He leaned over Anna’s shoulder to search the Internet for details. ‘Here it is, conclusion was pilot error and he’d been drinking.’ Irritably, he went to get the wine bottle to pour himself another glass and offered some to Anna, but she declined as she read on.
‘It says here, Gloria Lynne told Air Accident he’d only had two gin and tonics all afternoon.’ She jumped up, clapping her hands. ‘Gloria poisoned Robert Lynne with atropine before he got in that helicopter; she knew it would gradually subdue him, he’d crash and everyone would think it was an accident. Everything in Lord Henry’s will passed to Gloria. Then three months later he pops his clogs as well.’
Blane now read the article in more detail. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, he was beginning to think Anna was possibly right.
‘Lord Henry was so ill Gloria dealt with all the funeral arrangements and Maria and Robert were, guess what…?’ Anna asked excitedly.
‘Both cremated,’ Blane replied and rested his arms around her shoulders, thinking about kissing her, but she broke away from him.
‘She also organized everything for Donna after Josh’s death, including his funeral, and he was cremated as well. Lucky Pete Jenkins still has his blood sample.’
‘Just calm down, think it through, because if you do find atropine in it we know it was Gloria, but not how and when she administered it.’
Anna nodded and then told him about Curtis Bowman’s evidence that a man, believed to be Samuel, went to the Trojan on the afternoon of the fifth and spoke with Josh.
‘So let’s just imagine that Samuel told Josh the truth about his real birth parents. He’d feel very depressed, you agree?’ Anna asked him.
‘And the only other person who could confirm or deny it was Gloria.’
‘Yes – my God, I know I am right, because that would explain the route he took in the Ferrari out of London on the A40 and the A3 coming back in. I am certain that Josh drove out to Weybridge to confront Gloria,’ Anna said.
Blane nodded and observed that if Gloria knew that Josh was now aware of her past it would be a reason to want him dead and kill Samuel as well. What he couldn’t get his head round was if Gloria had already given Josh poison, how had he ended up shot in his flat?
‘Unless Gloria knew the atropine didn’t work and had to finish the job off so drove Donna’s car to his flat,’ Anna suggested.
‘I think that could be it, but it’s all speculation, Anna, you need some hard evidence,’ Blane said, trying to be realistic, and by now feeling exhausted by all the speculation they had been tossing around. Anna, however, appeared to be on a roll yet again as she started looking through the Charity Ball photographs to see if Gloria was absent from the shots taken between the times she knew Donna’s Mini was missing from the hotel car park. A wave of despair came over her as Gloria’s smiling face beamed out from a number of pictures, and she slapped the images with the flat of her hand.
‘Gloria didn’t leave the ball. Shit. Shit. I feel totally confused with this whole bloody case,’ Anna said.
‘Let’s give it a rest for tonight, clear our heads and look at it all again tomorrow,’ Blane said, reaching for her hand with every intention of guiding her into his bedroom.
Anna withdrew her hand and rubbed her head; although she was frustrated – not as frustrated as Blane now was – she wouldn’t give up.
‘Okay, we know that someone went off in Donna’s car, we know from the photographs it wasn’t Donna or Gloria and Samuel has no driving licence, so logically that leaves only one other person,’ Anna said, almost as if talking to herself.
There was a brief pause before her eyes lit up and she looked at Blane. ‘Aisa, my God, Josh Reynolds was having an affair with his other half-sister and using Esme’s flat as a love nest!’
‘It’s a possibility…’
‘I’m right, I know I’m right, it has to be Aisa. She also had access to the Lynne Foundation charity accounts that money was stolen from.’
‘Wait, wait, don’t jump the gun, is there any evidence to support an affair?’ he asked.
‘Fuck it, I don’t think so because Donna looked at Josh’s emails and texts but never found anything and neither did our Technical Support Unit.’