He believed they would agree with him when they were over the first shock. All they needed was longer to think this through, as he had. Better move on, he decided.
He had to shout to be heard. ‘Ingeborg!’
The noise reduced, giving way to interest in whether Diamond’s blue-eyed girl had just said something really over the top and the old ogre had picked it up.
Ingeborg glared back at him as if he were recruiting for the devil.
He made an effort to sound reasonable. ‘We haven’t heard from you about your visits to Wells and Radstock. How did you get on?’
Her intake of breath sounded like a blowtorch. ‘I’m trying to get over what I just heard. It’s beyond belief that any police officer would gun down three of our own. If this is the price of taking that scrap of paper seriously, I’m not sure I’m with you any more.’
‘You don’t like it, I don’t either,’ he said, appealing to everyone in the room. ‘I could be out on a limb here, but as you said a moment ago we have a duty to investigate. Now, Inge, do us the favour of reporting back, as I asked.’
She tossed her head, more to suppress the outrage she felt than in defiance. ‘There’s not much to add to what we have on file. I spent last evening with some of the lads from Wells CID. They’ve had longer to come to terms with all this than we have and they’re in no doubt that it was a random shooting.’
Nudge, nudge, he thought. He could hear murmurs of approval for the Wells lads.
‘You’ve made your point. Now what did you pick up?’
‘Only snippets. Ossy Hart came to Wells as a probationer and had just four years of service there.’
‘Where did he train?’
‘Foundation training at Portishead. Before that he was a PE teacher.’
‘In Minehead. We know this already.’
‘Sorry I spoke,’ Ingeborg said, still fractious.
‘Go on. I’m impatient — as if that wasn’t bloody obvious.’
‘I was going to say that the Wells bunch liked Ossy. He ticked most of the boxes. Reliable, good timekeeper, very fit, so hardly a day off duty, good at dealing with the public, always well turned out.’
‘Which are the boxes he didn’t tick?’
She reflected on that for a moment. ‘He was a tad too ambitious for some of them. It showed. He was looking to get promoted as soon as he could.’
‘Promoted? He’d only just completed his probation.’
‘Two years, guv.’ There was more than a hint of protest in the remark. Ingeborg was a high flyer herself, looking to get a sergeant’s stripes soon.
‘Okay,’ Diamond said. ‘I can see it would rankle with the others. What else?’
‘He didn’t like paperwork.’
‘He’s not alone there.’
‘Yes, but he skimped and got caught out a few times.’
‘Hardly a capital offence if it didn’t upset the running of the place too much. Anything else?’
‘They said he was a bit physical.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘Being strong, he’d grab people by the arm to make a point and let them know he had a firm grip. I’m talking about his colleagues, not just villains. A couple of the girls said he’d left bruises and they told him to be more considerate, but he never seemed to learn.’
‘Annoying, but not enough to make anyone want to murder him. Did he make any real enemies at Wells?’
She gave an impatient sigh. ‘If he did, no one was saying.’
‘I can understand why. And what about the nickname? Where did that come from?’
‘The “Ossy”? I didn’t find out. They said he was given it before he joined the police. He didn’t seem to mind. When he started at Wells he said he preferred Ossy to to his real name of Martin.’
‘Nobody asked where it came from?’
‘If they did, they didn’t get an answer. No one could tell me. Does it matter?’
‘Maybe, maybe not. Nicknames are usually given to people for a reason, some quirk of character they have, or an incident that happened to them. I was hoping we might learn something we don’t know already.’
‘If you really want to find out, his widow would know.’
He snapped his fingers. ‘Good thought. And she might tell us a whole lot more that could be useful.’ Then he hesitated. ‘No, I’d prefer not to approach her at this stage. I’m assuming she’s been interviewed already by Jack Gull or one of his team.’
‘A widow too far?’ Ingeborg said.
He frowned. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I’m wondering if Emma Tasker has put you off interviewing widows. I don’t mind going to see this lady if you want.’
He wasn’t amused. ‘It’s not that. I don’t intend to give Gull any grounds for complaint. He could close us down if he gets the idea we’re running a rival show.’
‘Which we are,’ John Leaman said.
‘In the interest of the truth. But let’s face it, Gull is the headquarters man and his remit is to investigate serial crimes. Ours is to assist him over the murder of Harry Tasker. We need to tread carefully.’
‘That’ll be a first,’ a voice said from the back, and got a laugh. The mood of Bath CID was still bordering on rebellion.
Diamond had the sense not to jump down the joker’s throat. ‘Inge, did you learn anything else from Wells?’
‘Not really.’
‘And you went on to Radstock and made enquiries about PC Richmond. Did he have a nickname?’
‘None that I heard about. He was Stan to everyone there. A loner, wrapped up in his folklore hobby. Always willing to talk about ancient fairs and stone circles, but clueless about the things the others were into, like football and last night’s television. He often had his head in a book.’
‘A good copper?’
‘No one had any complaints. He did the job and evidently knew the law better than most. Unlike Ossy Hart, he had no desire to be promoted. He worked his shift and overtime when required, and that was all he seemed to want. They used to joke that he was away with the fairies the rest of the time.’
‘How did he take that?’
‘In good humour. He didn’t seem to mind.’
‘He wasn’t gay?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘The fairies they meant were the little people.’
‘He didn’t make enemies?’
‘No. It was a massive shock to everyone when he was shot. There’s no question Stan Richmond was well liked. They were genuinely sad that he was killed.’ She paused. ‘They’d be amazed to hear it suggested he was shot by someone who worked with him.’
Another nudge. More like a dig in the ribs.
He was trying to stay calm. ‘Stan Richmond moved around a lot in his career. Is it possible he overlapped with either Ossy Hart or Harry Tasker?’
‘Certainly not Ossy. He only ever served at Wells.’
‘He trained at Portishead.’
‘Yes, but almost twenty years after Stan Richmond went through. As for Harry, I wouldn’t know about his service record before he came to Bath.’
Halliwell was shaking his head. ‘I’ve looked at his postings. There’s no overlap.’
‘Okay,’ Diamond said, needing to lay out the realities. ‘Let’s deal with what we know so far. The sniper uses a G36 rifle — and that’s also a police-issue weapon — with deadly accuracy. He’s well informed about foot patrols. He’s good at hiding up and escaping stake-outs. He seems to anticipate our moves and know our routines. I’m going to need a list of all personnel who served with the three victims — and I mean everyone, top brass, CID, uniform, PCSOs and civilian staff.’
Total silence.
Ingeborg was the first to speak. ‘That sounds to me like a witch-hunt.’
‘And that’s a comment that does you no credit, Inge,’ he said. ‘This is a murder enquiry, remember? “You’re next” — right? If we take it seriously — and I’m telling you that’s our duty — Harry was picked out to be shot. We must assume the others were picked, too, all serving policemen. If they were lorry-drivers or construction workers, you wouldn’t think twice about checking the career records of people who served with them. I’ve been around long enough to know that not all police officers are angels. In fact I could name several who committed murder. This may go against the grain, but it has to be done.’