Suffocating Sea (21 page)

Horton thought that would be enough.

‘Good to see you, my boy,’ he greeted Horton cheerfully, and nodded at his son. ‘Though I wish it wasn’t in here. Still it gives me the chance to eye the pretty nurses, and where else could I have such beautiful handmaidens pandering to my whims, at my age?’ He winked at a petite black-haired Philippine nurse hurrying past, flashing him a smile as she went. Her eyes swivelled to Horton, and her smile broadened.

Where indeed? thought Horton.

Toni followed Horton’s gaze. ‘I don’t blame you, Andy, especially as Barney tells me you and your wife have split up.’ He leaned forward. Barney looked set to have palpitations, as the tubes moved with him and the heart monitor beeped alarmingly.

‘Dad—’

‘And that nurse isn’t married,’ Toni added in what he obviously considered to be a conspiratorially whisper but Horton thought loud enough to reach the hospital’s main entrance, about a mile of corridors away. ‘Neither has she got a boyfriend. What is wrong with the men today to let a pretty girl like that slip through their fingers? It wouldn’t have happened in my day—’

‘Dad, we’re not here talk about your misspent youth.’

‘No, hang on, maybe we are,’ Horton interjected, turning his eye away from the nurses’ station and back to the old man.

He saw Barney roll his eyes and added with a smile, ‘But not too far in the past, and not your youth, Mr Cantelli, but someone else’s. Barney tells me you knew Terry Gilmore and his sons.’

‘Ah, so that’s it? Didn’t think you’d come to pass the time of day with a sick old man. It’s all right, son,’ Toni added hastily, seeing his son’s frown, ‘I’m only kidding.’

‘I want to know everything you can remember about them.’

Horton removed his sailing jacket before he melted in the heat of the ward, and slung it over the back of the easy chair. The air was stifling and he could feel his shirt sticking to his back.

‘If it won’t tire you too much.’

‘Son,’ Toni hailed Horton affectionately, ‘at my age if you ask me what I had for dinner yesterday I couldn’t tell you, but ask me what happened back in 1941 and I’ll give you chapter and verse. And as for tiring me, do I look tired? This is the first rest I’ve had in decades. At least the wife hasn’t got me up a ladder cleaning windows. Talking of which she’ll be in soon with Charlotte, so I’d better spill the gory bits before they get here. What do you want to know?’

‘Tell me about Sebastian Gilmore and his brother Rowland.’

The old man settled back on his pillow. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, as he gathered his thoughts or maybe his reserves of energy. Then he threw open his eyes and said, ‘I only know the family because I had an ice-cream van in Old Portsmouth in those days, and one on the Camber before all those fancy houses got built. Back then it was fishing and engineering and damn all else down at the harbour, except the pubs of course. There weren’t the tourists like you get now, sailors maybe. Used to see them in uniform, French, American, it was a fine sight, and the girls thought so too . . . All right, son, I’m coming to it. You’ve got no patience.’

Horton saw Barney roll his eyes.

Cantelli senior continued. ‘I wasn’t in the vans myself; by then I’d started the milk parlours and cafés, but young Tony was selling ice cream. Barney put his foot down though and refused to work in the business, he only ever wanted to be a policeman and nothing else, like his granddad on his mother’s side. I can remember him as a kid—’

‘Dad, the Gilmores,’ Barney prompted gently.

The old man smiled. ‘I came across Terry Gilmore many times on the quay; we were the same age and both businessmen so we often got talking. In those days it wasn’t difficult to earn a living being a fisherman, a bit different now by all accounts.

They say cod’s running out, and tuna. I like a nice bit of tuna with pasta and a bottle of Chianti—’

‘Dad . . .’

‘It’s no good looking at me like that, Barney boy. I’m not one of your suspects.’ But Toni Cantelli smiled lovingly at his son. ‘Now where was I? Yes. Seb was the eldest. He was a restless, impatient young fellow. Tall, dark and handsome with those film star looks, a bit like Robert Mitchum and the swagger to go with it, whereas poor little Rowley wouldn’t say boo to a goose. He was a quiet boy. He didn’t look right in fisherman’s overalls. Hardly got a word out of him. His father despaired of making him a fisherman. “Why can’t he do something else?” I suggested one day. Well, you’d have thought I’d blasphemed. Gilly, as we called the old man, said,

“My boys are born and bred fishermen,” and there was a lot more of that rubbish. Did I give you grief, Barney, when you announced you were going to become a policeman? Or Marie when she went into teaching? No. Kids have to find their own way in the world, and you’d be best to remember that, Barney, with your five and you, Andy, with your girl.’

Horton had no idea what his daughter wanted to do when she grew up. At seven she had wanted to be a ballet dancer but then many girls went through that stage, or so Catherine said. Well, he’d be able to ask Emma soon.

‘It’s not for parents to foist their livelihood and desires on their kids,’ Toni Cantelli said, ‘but Gilly was from the old school of thought. Rowley hated fishing but he was bullied by Gilly and Seb into sticking it out, and he didn’t have the guts to stand up for himself. I heard Seb bought him out in the end when old Gilly had a stroke. He was only in his mid-fifties; that must have been late 1970s. If I recall, Rowley jacked it in not long after. And I know why. Not only because he despised fishing but because of Teresa. She was stunning, a real beauty.’ Toni Cantelli put his fingers to his lips and kissed the air.

Horton smiled as Barney pulled out the photograph and said, ‘Is this her, Dad?’

The old man took it with thin trembling fingers. ‘Yes, that’s her and is this her little girl?’

‘She died when she was seven, in a boating accident.’

‘My God, how awful – and Teresa?’

‘Suicide six months later.’

Toni Cantelli sat back on his pillow and closed his eyes. He looked a little paler. ‘Perhaps we should go,’ suggested Horton.

But the old man stretched out his hand and touched Horton’s.

‘No. I’m all right. It’s just sad to think of all that beauty going to so much waste. She was so graceful, a lovely girl, came from a good family too, and she fell for Rowley in a big way.

But she was Seb’s girl first.’

Was she now! Horton sat up, interested and surprised.

Sebastian Gilmore hadn’t mentioned that his brother had taken a girlfriend from him, but then why should he? Horton hadn’t asked about Rowland’s wife, and Sebastian probably hadn’t thought it relevant.

Then Toni Cantelli dropped his next bombshell. ‘Seb and Teresa were engaged to be married. It was announced and all arranged, then two weeks before the wedding she calls it off and says she’s in love with someone else who just happened to be her future brother-in-law, Rowley Gilmore.’

And what a smack in the face that must have been for a man like Sebastian! It could certainly explain why the brothers had fallen out, though. Horton wondered about that exchange between the brothers on the quayside at the Town Camber twelve years ago. Had Rowland told Sebastian about Teresa’s death? How would Sebastian have reacted? Did he blame his brother for her death? Had Sebastian still been in love with Teresa? Did the old scars still itch? If they did he hadn’t noticed Sebastian Gilmore scratching them. Could it be motive enough for Sebastian to poison his brother? But twelve years later! No. Horton was heading in the wrong direction with that thought. Sebastian Gilmore would have beaten his brother to within an inch of his life on that quayside if Teresa Gilmore had meant anything to him. He wasn’t the type to harbour a grudge or brood on past disappointments. What had he said? You move on . . .

‘How did Seb take it?’ Horton asked.

‘He put on a brave face but a man with his ego and that much pride wouldn’t have liked it.’

No, and Sebastian Gilmore had married very quickly afterwards, as if to say, ‘I’m not bothered, Teresa meant nothing to me.’

Cantelli said, ‘Do you remember a man called Tom Brundall?’

‘Course I do,’ Toni Cantelli said so vehemently that Horton could see it surprised his son. ‘He was a nice man, very intelligent, and quiet, like Rowley. We used to exchange the odd crossword puzzle, but it’s Tom Brundall I’ve got to be grateful to. He helped me to really get the business going.’

Barney’s mouth fell open. Even Horton couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, recovering first.

Toni chuckled. ‘I thought that would make you sit up. Tom was a genius when it came to money and I needed to borrow some to expand the business. I wanted to open another café at Southsea, the one Isabella runs now.’ He dashed a glance at Barney. ‘The lease was due on the building, just along from the pier, and there were a couple of people after it, but I wanted it. I knew it would be a good little earner and it is. I didn’t like to go the bank. Tom loaned me the money.’

Cantelli’s jaw dropped open in mid chew. ‘You’ve never said!’ he declared, astounded and shocked.

‘Why should I? It’s never mattered before and I hope it doesn’t now.’ He threw Horton a worried look.

Horton hastily said, ‘It’s fine.’

‘I paid it back in a year,’ Toni Cantelli declared proudly.

Horton noticed that the old man was beginning to look very tired. Barney could see it too. Horton flashed him a look, which he knew Barney would interpret as ‘nearly done’.

‘Tom left fishing not long after Rowley; he was never really suited to it. He was a wizard with figures. Should have been Chancellor of the Exchequer, wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now if he had been, but like poor little Rowley, Brundall’s dad was a fisherman and so Tom had to become one too. Soon as he saved enough money he got out.’

The old man sank further back on his pillow and closed his eyes. Barney stood up. ‘We’ll be off now.’ He flashed a look at Horton who rose and grabbed his coat.

‘I’m not tired.’ Toni’s eyes snapped open. ‘You just made me think back down the years, that’s all, and I felt sad.’

Horton apologized. He didn’t want to leave Barney’s father feeling that way. ‘You’ve been a great help, Mr Cantelli.’

Clearly with an effort the old man stirred himself, and gave a tired smile. ‘You’re welcome, son. Only don’t you want to know about the other one?’

Horton froze. He felt a shiver of excitement run through him. ‘What other one?’ he asked his pulse quickening.

‘I forget his name. What was it?’

‘Take your time. I can come back.’ Though Horton silently prayed that he wouldn’t have to. This was new information and he knew that it was important. That sixth sense, or copper’s intuition, call it what you may, was back with him with a vengeance. He knew Cantelli could feel it too.

Toni Cantelli said, ‘There were four of them on the boat.’

Four! Horton had thought only three: Seb, Rowley and Brundall. Sebastian Gilmore had said nothing about a fourth man. Why? Horton felt his heart racing.

‘I can see him as clear as I see you, but I’m blowed if I can remember his name.’

‘What did he look like?’ asked Horton, his mind leaping in a direction that he could hardly take in. Could it have been the man he had seen with his mother on the quayside at the Camber? But why should it be? Why did he keep returning to that image? Had something in this case triggered that memory? It had to be.

Toni Cantelli said, ‘He was good-looking, dark-haired, smart dresser, restless eyes.’

That wasn’t enough to go on. The description fitted hundreds of men. Then why did Horton
feel
it must be the man with his mother? Did wishing it make it so? Shit, he was clutching at straws.

‘Don’t worry, it’ll come to you,’ Horton reassured, though he wished Mr Cantelli had remembered his name. Still, there was one man who could give him a full description and a name: Sebastian Gilmore.

Horton pressed his hand on the old man’s shoulder. ‘You’ve given us valuable information, Mr Cantelli, and I’m grateful.

We can easily get his name.’

‘When you do, tell me, otherwise it’ll worry the devil out of me.’

Barney promised he would. Horton left Cantelli with his father and thanked the pretty dark-haired nurse. When he looked back at the entrance to the ward, he frowned. Toni Cantelli looked a lot worse than when they had entered and that hadn’t been too good to begin with.

He stepped outside and switched on his mobile. There were no messages. He waited in the car watching the hospital visitors come and go thinking over the conversation with Mr Cantelli. Why had Sebastian Gilmore failed to tell them about the fourth member of his fishing crew? What was he hiding?

What had happened to this fisherman? Was he the skeleton in the air-raid shelter? Damn it, he couldn’t be, not in 1995, unless . . . Could he have returned and threatened to tell about the ‘wrong’ Rowland and Brundall had done? Had they killed him and stuffed his body in that shelter? It was possible. But what had been ‘the wrong’?

Horton let his mind go into free fall. Had Brundall and Rowland Gilmore killed his mother and this man knew it or had seen, suspected or even been involved in it? Had he tracked Rowland down some years later, and Rowland had summoned Brundall to help him deal with it? But where had this fourth man been from 1978 until 1995? Abroad? In prison?

The car door opened. Horton pulled his thought back to the present.

‘Is your father all right?’ He could see that Barney was worried.

‘I hope he’s just tired, but I had a quick word with the nurse and she said she’d check him over. I’ll call Charlotte and tell her Dad might not be up to much this visit.’

‘Stay and tell her. No, Barney, I insist. I told you that earlier.’

Suddenly Horton felt it was important that Cantelli should be there. Horton had never known his own father, and maybe that was why he felt so strongly that Cantelli should be with his.

Time, Horton recognized, was precious. He wished he’d had time to talk to his mother before she had disappeared, but then he had only been a child and he’d had no idea that when he left for school that morning, it would be the last time he would see her.