Chapter 2

When I looked more closely at his Italian passport, he had spent a couple of weeks there starting about five months after his wedding to Susan. It was almost every month for about four months. After the wedding, it picked up at the same rate, once more, until around two months ago, when he was shown entering and exiting the country. If he was hiding his other life by claiming business trips, Silvana would be getting worried by now.

I turned my attention to the few photos on his desk. I had taken them to be from his wedding with Susan. There was one, taken outside an older church, probably local. It had him and Susan, flanked by two couples, which would be both the parents. The other one, now that I looked closely, was him with another woman. She was the spitting image of Susan. There was only one set of parents, both very well dressed. The mother was smiling, the father had a stern face. They were in front of a villa, and I could see men in dark suits in the background, along with some waiters.

There was one striking similarity between the two brides, other than being almost interchangeable. It was that both had opted for flowing dresses that started from under the bust line. I knew that Susan was three months gone, I wondered if Silvana was at the same stage.

I went back to the bedroom and pulled the large roller case from the top of the wardrobe and had a look inside. Wherever he had gone this time, he hadn’t taken his clothes. There was a pocket for small items which had an e-ticket for a flight out of Stansted to Naples which he should have been on, a week ago.

This gave me the time when he had been stopped at between the time he left here, three weeks before, and before the flight. Sometime, within about ten days, he had disappeared. One thing I was certain of, and that was if the Guiliano family had wanted him dead, they would have waited until he was with them to make it happen.

Back into the filing cabinet with the personal papers I examined everything with great care. There was all the paperwork for this house and land, all marked as copies. I expect his parents had the originals. Then I found a single piece of paper with some details in Italian. It was only a telephone account for two mobile phones. If he had one for use in the UK, there should be another waiting for me to discover. That one was with a big bunch of utility accounts in the bottom drawer.

I tried ringing the UK one and got the message that the caller was out of range, or the phone was turned off. I didn’t try the Italian one as I didn’t want to speak to the wife just yet. I had the one here to break some bad news to.

I looked in my contact list on my phone and called someone who may be able to help. Henri had been with the French police and had given some lectures on working with Interpol at Hendon. Although we hadn’t gone to bed, we had become friendly. When he answered I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Henri, it’s Maxine Fawcett. You gave lectures at Hendon when I was there.”

“Maxie! So good to hear from you. Are you a sergeant yet?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Henri. They chucked me out for a moment of madness with another officer. I’m a Private Investigator now.”

He laughed and faked an American accent.

“So, you’re a gumshoe, baby. Wadda ya’ want?”

“I’m looking into a missing husband, and I’ve discovered that he has a second wife in Naples, she is the daughter of Salvatore Guiliano. He’s gone missing but I have no record of him leaving England.”

“So, he’s unlikely to be fish food in the Bay of Naples. That family was supposed to have broken up after Erminia was put away. It still carries on but is now just an offshoot of another family. Another brother, Nunzio, spilled his guts for the authorities so nobody trusts any of them anymore. How can I help?”

“You just have, Henri. How are you getting on?”

“Comme-ci comme-ça. I’ve retired now, all in one piece, thank goodness. I’m going back to France in a few weeks and putting my feet up, just growing flowers.”

“That’s wonderful, Henri. I wish you all the best.”

“Merci, ma Cherie. You look after yourself. That family may be cut off at the knees, but their hands can still hold pistols.”

When I had ended the call, I sat at the desk and considered my next course of action, I picked up the two wedding photos and went back to see Susan. I put the one with her on the kitchen table.

“I expect that the others are his parents and yours?”

“Yes, it was a nice day and we got married in one of the local Catholic churches. Where did you find this?”

“On his desk.”

“It was nice that he kept it in full view. I didn’t expect that.”

“Not so nice, Susan. This one was beside it.”

She picked up the other one and looked closely at it.

“I didn’t know he had been married before.”

“Actually, Susan, that was taken some months after your wedding. The girl is Silvana Guiliano, the daughter of Salvatore Guiliano, the stern looking man beside her. The guys in the background are armed bodyguards. The family is part of the Camorra, the local Mafia in Naples. Her grandmother had been the leader of the family before she had been arrested.”

She looked at the picture and tears started flowing. I went and held her while she sobbed her heart out. We became more than old schoolmates over the twenty minutes while she let all of her grief for her failed marriage end up in a sodden tissue.

She sat while I put the kettle on and made us both a cup of tea. When I had sat down, she looked me in the eyes.

“All right, Maxie. There has to be so much more to this. I knew he had been away a lot, but never thought he was shacked up with another woman.”

I pointed at the picture.

“Another woman in the family way, I think. You chose a similar dress to hide the bulge as well.”

She wanted to know what I knew, so we sat and sipped our tea while I told her about his smuggling.

“There’s a suitcase full of cigarette packets under his bed, along with one full of money. He had a ticket for Naples in his big suitcase, dated a week ago. Somehow, I don’t think he’s able to move around any longer. He may be a prisoner, but the worst case is that he has been killed.”

“Good riddance. Just find the body, Maxie, and I can get on with my life. Thank you for this. It’s worth the money to know what you’ve told me so far. Show me the case with the money and I’ll give you some now. On top of the cheque that I’ll write out.”

She stood and went to her bag, pulling out a chequebook and writing me a cheque for four thousand, as I had quoted.

“You’ll be earning that in the coming days, while we see the police and break the news to my in-laws.”

I took her into the other house and asked her if she could look in his wardrobe and think of what he may have been wearing when he left.

“The only things that aren’t here are his gardening clothes. That’s what I called them. He would wear a work shirt and jeans with tradie boots when he was going to do any dirty work. He was the opposite of me when it came to being clean. I had let it all slip, but I think that I need to tidy myself up. Show me the money, Maxie! I’ll give you some and you can take me out to dinner. The Wherry at Oulton Broad has a good menu. We’ll have time to glam up if I give them a call to book a table.”

I pulled out the small case, and she took a sheaf of pounds and told me to put it in my bag. I would have protested, but she was insistent. Anyway, it didn’t put a dent into the cash still there. She took the case with her when we went back to her house. She made the call, and we were booked for dinner at seven. That left us time to see her in-laws before coming back to get ready.

When she opened her car, it looked like a tip in the passenger footwell. I refused to even sit in it, so we went to see her in-laws in mine. The trip to the care home didn’t take long and she introduced me to them as Maxie, a friend from high school. We asked them if we could go out into the garden, where we all sat on a bench while I laid out what I knew about Clement, their son. His mother wept, and his father was stoic. I told them that the likelihood of him being dead was higher than us finding him alive. I explained that once his other in-laws found out what he was up to, his life would be measured in days, if not hours, as they had very little feelings of forgiveness.

When we left them, they were making an appointment with their lawyer to change their wills and cut Clement out of the estate. We went back to the farm where we went to our rooms to prepare for an evening out. I had brought a suitable dress with me and was able to look good when we met in the kitchen. She had used her skills from her teenage years to look stunning. She directed me to the Wherry, where we had a quiet drink before sitting down for dinner. She was very quiet for a while, then looked me in the eyes.

“Maxie, while I’ve been living on my own, I’ve got lazy and a slob. I promise that I will start to brighten myself up. I’m good at looking after the farming business, I just have to be good about looking after myself. Tomorrow, I’ll clean out my car and make it suitable to invite others to sit in it. All my early life I was told to be neat and tidy, the only problem was that the only thing I needed to make neat, and tidy was me. Can you help me learn?”

I promised her that my time was hers and we went in for our meal. It was purely a coincidence that they had live music that night. Before we knew it, we were dancing with a couple of guys, and I was enjoying myself. Susan looked like she had already shed her sadness of her missing husband. When the lights were lowered and the music slowed, my guy told me that the two friends were staying at a local motel and had a car in the car park.

In a break, I grabbed Susan and told her of the situation.

“Mine asked me too, but I told him that I would have to talk to you first. I haven’t had sex for two years, it’s about time I started living in the real world again.”

“Don’t forget to tell him to use a condom – or two.”

Back on the dance floor, my guy held me close and asked what the answer was.

“You and I can take my car, and your friend can take Susan in the other. I hope that you have separate rooms.”

“We do. We’re both sales representatives and plan our trips to meet at common calls so that we can have a night out together.”

I gave Susan a finger wave as we left. I could see that the real world was racing towards her at a rate of knots. I drove to the motel and parked. In his room we kissed properly and undressed slowly. He did have condoms, a pack of three, and used them all before we went to the dining room for breakfast.

Susan and the other guy came in as we were having coffee. She looked flushed but radiant. All I could hope for was that it would get her going with a vacuum and duster when we were back at her home. We sat while they had breakfast, and then we both got a nice kiss and left them to go off calling on their customers.

Back at the farm, we both had showers and dressed more normally to go off and report a missing husband. Susan had a dreamy look on her face and just nodded when I asked her if she had insisted on the condom.

“It’s as if I’ve been allowed to start all over again. Only, this time, I’m a business owner with my own house, not some teenager with a sheltered upbringing. Whatever Clement gave me, other than my poor baby, he pulled me into adulthood, which I can now enjoy.”

I went into the other house and picked up a few things before we left. At the police station, we reported her missing husband to the desk sergeant. When she told him the name, he told us to sit and wait for another officer. I watched as he made a phone call. I expected that we would be seeing an Inspector, as the name may have pulled up red flags.

Sure enough, we were collected by a detective sergeant and taken to an office where his Inspector was waiting for us. Susan was asked to relate her relationship with the missing man and the circumstances of his disappearance. Neither of them seemed surprised by anything she said. The Inspector turned to me.

“And where do you fit in, young lady?”

“Susan called me to come and help her. I’m Maxine Fawcett and now work as a PI after some time in the Met, working out of Islington. Can you tell us why you’re so interested in Clement Cornwall? I have discovered some facts which may help you in your investigations. From what I’ve seen, I think we may be looking for a body.”

“Interesting. We have him as a person of interest as being part of a smuggling ring. We haven’t been able to catch him and the gang in the act, but I think that they have been bringing in cigarettes, spirits, and designer clothing to sell in markets.”

“That fits in with what I found. If Susan permits it, I think that you should have a good look at his living quarters. I can give you the keys. I did search it yesterday, wearing the proper gloves, and I have brought a few items to whet your appetite.”

I reached into my bag and pulled on a pair of detectives gloves. The two of them were pulling on theirs as Susan watched, open mouthed. I lifted out three plastic bags with the three separate passports.

“I don’t know if any of these are fakes, but they’re very good if they are. He used each one to check out and in of the different countries, so no one passport had a full sequence of stamps.”

They took the passports out and had a close look.

“Can we hold on to these?”

Susan nodded. I then reached into the bag and pulled out the marriage certificate and the picture.

“I’ve been told that he was a player, with a string of girls before he married Susan. This is a picture, taken, I believe, about five months after they married. Here is the certificate issued in Naples.”

“So, you’re saying that he’s a bigamist?”

“One who has married into a family that would snuff him out as easily as stubbing out a cigarette. Look at the certificate, the girl is the granddaughter of Pio Guiliano. The man in the picture is Salvatore, one of his sons. I expect that you will see the men in the background as bodyguards. Clement Cornwall jumped right into the lion’s den. The family business used to be cigarettes, but I expect that they have a much wider product line by now.”

We sat, quietly, while they looked at the evidence. The sergeant got up and went to one of the desks to look at a computer. The Inspector asked Susan if they could come and search. When she said they could, I reached into my bag and gave them the keys. When the sergeant came back, he just nodded when the Inspector looked at him. We gave them the address and left. Back in my car, we went back to the farm, and I told her to get the case of money to put into the boot of the Cortina just in case the police wanted to have a look in her home.

Ten minutes later, the Inspector turned up with two forensic vans behind him. We sat in the lounge while they went into the old farmhouse, coming out with bags of evidence that was put into one of the vans. We were having lunch when there was a knock on the door. The Inspector asked if the forensics guys could have a quick look through her place. We were still sitting at the kitchen table when he came to tell us that there was nothing found and put a card on the table from a home cleaning service, along with the keys to next door.

He then gave Susan a receipt for the evidence that had been collected and said that anything that she could be given back would be in due course. He also gave her his card.

“This has all the contact details to reach me, Mrs. Cornwall. Have you any idea what he was wearing when he left?”

“Maxine took me in there yesterday afternoon to look in his wardrobe. All I think that was missing was his work shirt, jeans, and boots, what I think of as his gardening clothes, although he didn’t know what gardening is. That was the first time I had been in there since this house was built, and he had never been in here.”

He then gave me a card.

“I checked with Islington, Miss Fawcett. The duty sergeant remembers you fondly. He told me that you were an asset to the force who had been treated badly by your superiors. If you turn up anything that would help me while you’re in the area, please give me a call.”

We sat as we heard the vehicles leave. Susan looked at me and smiled.

“Now, Maxie, this is when you teach me how to use the vacuum. If the police left the one next door, I think we had better go and see what he had been using to keep his home so tidy.”

That afternoon, we went through her house with the dusters, the vacuum, and other cleaning goods I had found in the old farmhouse. I only went in the back door as I expected that everything was more likely to be kept in, or near, the kitchen.

After we had done the house, we worked on her car. By the end of the afternoon, we were tired but now in a clean environment. I took a shower in the newly fresh ensuite, then dressed in my Max Force uniform to be taken down to Yarmouth to a restaurant that she knew of, having been taken there by Clement before they married.

The next day, I looked at her list of contacts and decided to go and see Roy, of Roys Autos. It wasn’t a big site, but full of reasonably decent cars. When he came out, he asked if I wanted to trade the Cortina on something. I asked him about his friend, Clement.

“I haven’t seen Clem for about two weeks. He brought back the Range Rover that he had been using and left in a Transit van. He would take something like the van every month, or so. I had wondered if he was moonlighting as a removalist, but that sort of hard work was never his way. He ran with a bunch of guys who had a couple of boats, they would go out and catch fish for the local restaurants, in spite of the EU rules. I think that he was delivering the catch directly to the end users.”

I asked if he had any other dealings with Clement.

“Not a lot. We were at school together. I watched as he pulled girls like he was some kind of chick magnet. I was never like that and found a perfect girl to be my wife. I did hear that he’d got married, that’s something I thought I’d never see.”

I got the details of the van, which he was starting to worry about, as he had traded it and had not got around to changing the registration. I told him that he may get a call from the police but to be truthful. He confirmed that when Clement had taken a van, he usually came back with it after a few days. He gave me the location where the friends had their shed, so I headed for the harbour.

When I arrived at the shed, it was to a row of police cars, lights flashing, that sat outside it. I was held back by a uniformed officer and asked to speak to the inspector, showing him the card I had been given. I stood by my car until he came out and beckoned me to go into the shed. I pulled on the gloves as I went in, seeing the inspector standing in the middle of the shed, watching as forensics officers worked among the racks that lined one wall.

“What do you have for us, Miss Fawcett?”

“I’ve just spoken to Roy from Roys Autos. He would lend Clement a car which was on a short-term basis. The last one that Susan had seen was a Range Rover which was taken back when he left home. He drove away in a traded Transit and hasn’t been seen since. Roy gave me this address. He thought that his old school friend was delivering fish, caught outside the EU rules, to local restaurants. I expect that he was transporting other items as well, picked up while the trawler was out in the North Sea.”

“I think that you have it right, Miss Fawcett. We got fingerprints from his house that matched a couple of other men we’ve had our eyes on. That, along with the wealth of damning evidence he left for us, brought us here. The trawler isn’t in the harbour, and I’ve got the Coast Watch on the lookout for it. There’s a load of interesting things here, quite possibly oddments from the shipments that have been left over.”

“Any link with the family in Naples?”

“Come and have a look.”

He led me into an office area. In one room was a clothes rack laden with garment bags. He told me to check them as he hadn’t had a chance to, yet. I looked in every bag to see designer dresses, all with the label marked ‘Erminia’.

“That fits with the last known leader of the Guiliano clan. She was his new father-in-law’s sister. These would fetch at least a thousand, if not two, in a good shop. That’s each, by the way.”

“Yes, that label belongs to a company run by his new wife and her sister, Anna. I have to put in a call to Naples and ask how these got here, and also tell Silvana that her husband is missing.”

“I wish you luck, Inspector.”

I gave him the details of the Transit and told him that Roy would be expecting a call. Then I left, peeling off the gloves as I got in my car. Susan had another seven days of my time. As I drove back towards the farm, I wondered if I would be doing anything more than teaching her basic cooking to go with the basic cleaning. When I had looked in her fridge, all I had seen was easy cooking packs. Mind you, if she was paying, I’d be happy to go out for a meal with her any time.

Marianne Gregory © 2024