“What does that mean-‘designated persons’?” Diamond asked her.
“Close family.”
“He’s got no family. His wife died some time ago.”
“Particular friends. People he’ll recognise. Visits from close family and friends are part of the healing process.”
“I need to see him urgently. I’m Detective Superintendent Diamond.”
“I know who you are, Mr. Diamond,” she said as if it was distasteful.
“And…?”
“I don’t think it’s appropriate. Does he know you?”
“We haven’t spoken, if that’s what you’re asking, but I got closer to him than most people ever will. I gave him CPR at the scene of the accident and visited him several times when he was unconscious.”
“I doubt if that qualifies. He’s not ready to answer questions. I’ve already had to put some people off.”
“Really? Who do you mean?”
“Trying to pull rank. It doesn’t wash with me, saying they’re a public body and calling themselves watchdogs.”
Dragham and Stretch. They’d been quick off the mark.
“Going over the accident that put him here would be far too distressing,” the sister went on. “We’ll see how he copes with the visitors he knows.”
“Visitors he knows?” Diamond said in alarm. “Who are they? I told you, he’s alone in the world.”
“You’re mistaken there. Two old friends from his railway society have asked to come and he’s happy to see them. These are people he’ll respond to.”
She could only mean Jake and Simon Pool, the amiable gay couple who lived in the signal box. They were the only other members of his GWR society left alive. Decent of them to visit. But were they putting themselves in danger? It was hard to see how. Together, they ought to be safe from Pellegrini in his weakened state.
He thought about telling the sister her precious patient was a serial killer, but decided it wouldn’t sway her. They can take high moral stands, these health professionals.
He told her he would phone later. “I’m not pestering you for no good reason, sister. There are matters crying out for attention.”
“There will be no crying out in Bradford Ward,” she said. “Don’t call before tomorrow.”
Sod that, he thought. What time are you going off duty? But all he said was, “I’ll bear that in mind.”
Deep in his gut he knew more work needed to be done before he could charge Pellegrini.
“I finally finished checking the laptop and there was nothing more of importance,” Ingeborg said. “If I never have to read another sentence about old trains, I won’t feel deprived.”
They were having a brainstorming session, as Diamond had put it, at Verona. He’d started on a late breakfast and the other two were watching him eat, Ingeborg over a skinny latte and Halliwell a cappuccino.
“His online diary is as good as a confession,” Halliwell said. “Talk about a smoking gun.”
“Tainted evidence, unfortunately,” Ingeborg said. “We can’t just let ourselves into people’s houses and steal the data from their computers.”
“No problem.”
Diamond stopped his chewing to give a faint smile.
“What do you mean by that?” Ingeborg said.
Halliwell wasn’t smiling. “We can use some guile here and go through the motions of arresting him and applying for a warrant to search his house and workshop.”
“On what evidence?”
Halliwell carried on as if he hadn’t heard. “Then we can take away his hard disk and get the diary decrypted all over again and in the eyes of the law we’ve got him bang to rights.”
“You’re talking as if search warrants are discount vouchers,” Ingeborg said. “They don’t hand them out in shopping malls. There’s a small requirement known as reasonable grounds. All we can offer is strong suspicion.”
“What’s your suggestion, then?”
“Belt up and listen, both of you,” Diamond said, putting down his knife and fork and wiping his lips with the paper tissue that came with the meal. “Something is seriously wrong with our thinking. We’ve been duped.”
Some of what he revealed in the next few minutes was known to them already. His visit the night before to the new thermal bath to surprise Gerry Onslow had been relayed already by Richard Palmer. But they hadn’t heard about Onslow’s startling assertion that Maria had worked as a prostitute in Oldfield Park right up to the time of her death. And they didn’t know about Diamond’s early morning visit to Darwin Road to confirm the truth of the claim. He told them what he’d heard from the neighbour.
“Not possible,” Ingeborg said. “We know she was living in Little Langford.”
“Onslow is lying,” Halliwell said.
The pair of them were united now.
“I thought the same. That’s why I went to the house to check, and everything he told me is true,” Diamond said. He stopped to let the waitress take his plate. “But there’s more. Just as I was about to start the car I looked up at the window of number 22 and someone pushed it open and looked out. I left the car straight away and hurried over and got a torrent of abuse because she thought I was a would-be punter disturbing her sleep.”
“This was the redhead?”
He nodded. “When I said I was police she thought better of it and came down and opened the door.”
“Was she dressed?”
“I’m not going into that. I fussed her up a bit, got invited in, made her a coffee and I had no difficulty getting her version of what really happened to Maria. These two were both on the game and sharing the house, Maria upstairs, Tracy, the redhead, down. On the night Maria died, Tracy was between clients, in the kitchen having a smoke, when a young man came downstairs. He said he’d been with Maria and she’d suddenly had some sort of seizure and passed out. He’d tried to revive her, but he couldn’t.”
“A likely story,” Ingeborg said in her all-men-are-rats tone.
“Tracy dashed upstairs to check and there was no question Maria was dead. They talked about calling a doctor, but it was obvious she was past help. Everything about the young guy’s behaviour convinced Tracy he hadn’t done anything to harm Maria.”
“Sudden death syndrome?” Halliwell said.
“Beating up a whore syndrome, more likely,” Ingeborg said.
“I don’t think so,” Diamond said. “These women are experienced. They know how to spot a violent punter. There were no marks. Tracy was in tears talking about it. Anyway, they both knew calling a doctor would lead to all kinds of complications for them both, so she suggested asking for help from someone she knew. She called Onslow and he came at once and took some swift decisions. He told the young guy to scarper and say nothing to anyone about what happened. The body was naked, of course, but with Tracy’s help he got it into some day clothes, for decency’s sake, as he put it. Meanwhile he’d called for reinforcements. Maria’s body was carried downstairs and driven away in a van. The next morning a woman Tracy knew as Dilly collected all Maria’s clothes and possessions and stuffed them into plastic bin bags and drove off with them.”
“Dilly,” Ingeborg said. “The widow of that old crime boss, Bob Sabin.”
“I expect so.”
“Did you tell Tracy the body was found in the river?”
“Yes, and she was visibly shocked. She’d got along well with Maria and knew she came originally from Sofia. Tracy herself is Romanian. They were both trafficked. She’d heard about Maria’s experiences on the game in Turkey and Italy.”
“Did you ask about Little Langford?”
“Of course. Tracy knows nothing about it. She said it was impossible Maria was leading a double life. She hardly ever left the house.” A smile as broken as a snapped twig appeared on his lips. “The thing is, I believe her.”
Frowns and silence.
Ingeborg was the first to find words. “What are you saying, guv-the forensics lab cocked up?”
“Or we did,” Diamond said. “There were two different women and the hair sample I sent for analysis wasn’t Jessie’s after all. It was Maria’s.”