From being almost jubilant, Anna rapidly deflated, shaking her head.
‘There is a way – he could have been using Skype or Cate,’ Blane suggested.
‘We considered Skype and he didn’t use it, but what’s Cate?’ Anna asked.
‘Call and Text Eraser, it’s a phone app that lets someone who’s cheating keep messages from lovers invisible to their partner. It works through a PIN number and there’s no icon on the phone’s screen – only the love cheat can read the messages.’
‘How do you know about that then?’ Anna demanded.
‘The office Lothario was boasting about it, wife caught him in a hotel with another woman in the end.’
‘Good, serves him right.’
She rested her head on her hands and sighed. ‘We are still left with so many unanswered questions. If Samuel was blackmailing Gloria first, why didn’t she report it to the police?’
‘As you said, she’s high-profile and wouldn’t want it made public. Maybe you’re looking at this case in the wrong way.’
Anna glanced up at him. ‘The wrong way! After what we’ve been coming up with all evening, how do you mean the wrong way, for goodness’ sake?’
‘It’s hard to explain without going into great detail.’
Irritably, he wished that their discussion would finish. It wasn’t that he didn’t care but he was simply finding it harder and harder to concentrate. The more interested Anna was in the case the less he felt she was interested in him.
‘You feeling okay?’ Anna asked, inwardly worried that he was becoming bored.
‘I’m fine,’ he groaned, ‘just a slight headache trying to get my head around your case. It’s like a kaleidoscope of information and trying to separate all the colours is not easy.’
‘I’d really like to know what you’re thinking,’ Anna told him.
He gave a long sigh, and drained his wine before deciding to share his theory. ‘I am getting tired out, but consider this proposition: Samuel told Josh to spite Gloria. Josh then went to Gloria’s but she would of course deny it and probably say Samuel was lying and trying to blackmail her. She slips Josh some atropine and he makes it home but is unwell. The atropine makes him more and more emotional; he’s confused, trying to make sense of it all – with me so far?’
‘Yes, yes, go on.’
‘Okay, Josh calls Aisa, he loves her and needs to see her. He gradually gets more and more depressed, having discovered he was committing incest, with not one, but two women. He considers ending it all and gets the gun out the safe. Aisa leaves the Savoy Hotel and arrives at his flat in Bayswater and he tells her everything…’ He paused to let Anna take in what he was saying, but she was perfectly up to speed with him, nodding her head.
‘Yes, go on.’
‘This is just a maybe but what if Josh puts the gun to his head, Aisa tries to grab it, and bang it goes off, which would account for why his gun hand was in an unusual position. She panics and runs.’
Anna frowned and chewed at her lips before adding to his theory. ‘If Samuel wrote the suicide note and stole the money, he had to have gone to the flat. So maybe he saw Aisa there, and could have seen her run off before he let himself in with his set of keys.’
‘Possible, and gives him another thing to blackmail Gloria with,’ Blane commented.
‘The suicide note would also help to lead the police in the wrong direction and suit Samuel’s purpose,’ Anna said.
Turning to the Charity Ball photographs again, she concentrated on the pictures taken during and after the fireworks display.
‘Aisa’s nowhere amongst the crowd on the balcony, then twelve thirty-five, there she is back in the ballroom with Gloria.’ Anna paused, looking closely at the photos before continuing.
‘Aisa is wearing a different evening dress. If she went to Josh’s in the one she first had on she could have got blood on it when he shot himself.’
She turned to look at Blane for confirmation, but he was now sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed. Slowly she went over to sit beside him, and laid her legs across his.
‘Gloria confirmed Aisa’s alibi about being sick, which means she’s bloody well lying again. She knows exactly what happened to Josh, either from Samuel or Aisa herself,’ Anna said, nudging him.
Blane yawned and opened his eyes. ‘Gloria is an adept liar who can think and react to any given situation very quickly. She would have primed Aisa on exactly what to say.’
‘And there was me thinking you’d stopped listening…’
She leaned towards him as if to kiss him, but stopped before their lips met. ‘Wait a minute. Why hasn’t Gloria done more to protect Donna, fight her corner? She’s been arrested for murder.’
‘In Gloria’s world, sacrifices have to be made to save her own skin. She can’t say anything and risk being found out herself. As for Aisa spilling the beans, I doubt that will happen either – she won’t cross her mother and risk being cut off from her world of luxury and wealth.’
Anna nodded. ‘It all sounds so simple, yet underneath the surface is a tangled web of deceit and lies spanning thirty-odd years. What was it Sherlock Holmes said about eliminating the impossible and whatever you’re left with-’
‘However improbable, must be the truth,’ Blane said, yawning even harder.
Anna’s head was spinning with a whirlwind of information. ‘That’s the problem here, Don. My team is making a big mistake and will end up suffering the consequences. How on earth do I explain in a phone call to Mike Lewis everything we have discussed – he’ll think I’m totally delusional. Even then, because of Gloria’s standing, Mike will have to at the least go and speak with Deputy Commissioner Walters.’
‘You don’t make a phone call,’ Blane said matter-of-factly.
‘What? I don’t tell Mike anything?’ Anna asked, surprised.
‘You have to tell them face to face. You’re the only person who’s got a handle on this whole sordid mess. Gloria has to be arrested immediately and only you have the full knowledge of what has been uncovered, so only you can interview her and Aisa.’
‘You sound like you want to get rid of me.’
‘That’s the last thing I want to do, and more than anything I want to be with you.’ He felt somewhat relieved at finally getting his feelings out.
‘I feel the same way, Don. I want and need to be with you,’ Anna confessed. Then she grinned wryly. ‘Plus, if I walk off the FBI course and go back now, it would be the end of my career. My superiors would never forgive me for blowing a chance someone else could have had.’
‘We run three courses a year, and you just solved a major missing-persons case over here, so you leave it to me to speak with the FBI Director and get you on the next one.’
He cupped her face between his hands. He had been impatient to tell her how he felt and to make love with her; now he was arranging for her to leave not just his log cabin but return to England.
‘There’s a late flight tonight to Heathrow and you’d be back in London by about mid morning. I can call our guys at the airport and see if I can get you on it and they will rush you through Customs.’
‘I could always get a flight tomorrow morning,’ Anna said, nervous of stating the obvious.
‘Only daytime flight is the ten a.m., and that would mean you’d get home nearer midnight on Monday. This way you can sleep on the plane and be fresher for the morning when you see your bosses.’
‘Okay.’ She stood up and was about to collect her things when he stopped her.
‘Listen, I’ve been wanting to make love with you all day. Maybe fate is playing a big part in this, because I wanted it all to be special and romantic. I envisaged us having the next ten weeks together, really getting to know each other.’
Anna smiled, and kissed him, whispering, ‘I want that too.’ She kissed him again. ‘We do still have time, you know.’