‘The trip was arranged through a contact of mine. I had to be there.’
She ignored that. ‘This has all worked out very conveniently for you, hasn’t it? From the beginning you wanted to run both inquiries yourself. You managed to get the Rupert Hope case brought back from Bristol on very dubious grounds.’
‘With your blessing,’ he put in.
‘With my compliance. You shoehorned our Bristol colleagues into the same incident room as the skeleton inquiry.’
‘Only because you wouldn’t provide a second room.’
‘And now you want carte blanche to roll up your sleeves and go to work on the case.’
‘Someone has to do it, ma’am.’
‘What about John Leaman?’
‘He’s needed to take care of all the other stuff that comes up, knife crime, drugs, domestics.’
‘You’ve got an answer for everything.’
He nodded, and he’d let Georgina have the last word. All in all, he’d come out of it better than he expected.
Downstairs, the team were excited at the possibility that the skeleton had an identity at last. Ingeborg was checking every database she could think of. Others were on the phone trying to prise information from the benefits office, medical practices and women’s refuges. Each hoped to be the one who shouted, ‘Found her!’
All this energy lifted Diamond’s spirits. ‘Ukrainians are strong church-goers,’ he said, airing his new-found knowledge. ‘She may have gone to one of the churches here and asked for help.’
‘But which?’ Ingeborg said. ‘There’s no Ukrainian Orthodox church in Bath that I know of.’
‘Catholicism is strong over there. She might have looked for a Catholic church.’
DC Paul Gilbert, the rookie in the team, piped up, ‘St John’s in South Parade, or St Mary’s in Julian Road.’
‘Are you a Bible-basher?’
‘No, guv. I just happen to know.’
‘Your job, then. Seek and ye may find.’
From across the room one of the Bristol detectives said out of the side of his mouth, ‘Thus spake the Lord.’
Diamond didn’t hear. He was looking over Ingeborg’s shoulder, trying to make sense of what was on the screen.
‘Just thought I’d check the churches,’ she said. ‘He’s right. St John’s and St Mary’s.’
‘Worth a go,’ he said. ‘You’re a young woman. Put yourself in her situation. She manages to escape from a vice ring in London. She’s unlikely to have much money. Gets on a train at Paddington and ends up here. The first question is why – what’s the attraction?’ ‘Why did any of us end up here? It’s a nice place to live.’
‘She was desperate. I doubt if she was making that kind of choice.’
‘She knew someone, then. She planned to join them, thinking they might help her get a new start.’
‘That’s more like it.’
‘But I’ve tried looking for Ukrainians in Bath, and found nobody. I expect some came, but there’s no record of it.’
‘This is where the computer lets you down,’ he said. ‘It stores all those gigabytes of data, but if someone hasn’t kept a record of what you want, it’s no help. People who stay with friends don’t get on computers.’
She laughed. ‘Good thing. It would lead to no end of trouble.’
‘But you know what I’m getting at? You put a lot of faith in this as an information tool but nothing has yet been devised that gets even close to word of mouth. We’re going to have to get out there and ask people questions.’
‘About something that happened twenty-odd years ago? Are memories that reliable?’
‘Nadia was different. How many Ukrainians have you and I met? I’m sure I’d remember.’
‘True.’
‘I have a description from Vikki. Average height. Blue eyes, widely spaced, straight nose, even teeth, good legs, straight, long hair that could have been any colour because she changed it often.’
‘Don’t get me wrong, guv,’ Ingeborg said, ‘but half my friends look like that. An e-fit might work better.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘It depends how good Vikki’s memory is and if she’s willing to do it.’
‘I promised to leave her alone in return for the information I’ve just given you.’
‘We’re not asking her to incriminate herself.’
‘I’ll ask Louis if he can fix it. Personally, I never had much faith in photofits and e-fits aren’t much better. They all look like extra-terrestrials to me.’
‘It’s something to show. The public respond to visual images.’
‘I’ll get it organised.’ He got back on track. ‘Any other reason she might have chosen Bath?’
‘She heard about it from one of the punters?’
He snapped his fingers. ‘Good thought, Inge. Here’s a scenario. The guy lives here and visits London on business. Likes to have sex when he’s away from home and gets to know Nadia. He’s rich and treats her kindly. She thinks if she can find him he may set her up, but it doesn’t play like that. He has a wife and a career and a respectable life here. When she traces him, he gets in a panic. He agrees to meet her late one night on Lansdown and kills her.’
‘Not bad,’ she said. ‘Difficult to prove. How would we ever find him?’
A voice behind said, ‘And where’s the connection with Operation Cavalier?’
He turned to find Septimus had crossed the room.
‘Rupert Hope,’ Septimus said, as if memories needed jogging.
Diamond was at his best when a little bluffing was necessary. He hadn’t forgotten how important it was to keep both strands of the enquiry linked if possible. ‘For businessman read lecturer. Rupert was around in the early nineties, wasn’t he?’
‘But making regular trips to London?’
‘Researches. The British Museum. The Imperial War Museum. The British Library.’
Septimus grinned. ‘Quick thinking.’
‘It’s only a theory. How’s your side of the investigation going?’ ‘We’ve been working on the days between the re-enactment and his death. We traced a few more witnesses, dog-walkers and car-booters. They all agreed he was acting strangely.’
‘From the blow on the head?’
‘It sounds like it. He could talk, but he had no idea who he was, or what to do, except he stole food when he was hungry. He slept rough and wandered about the down until his killer caught up with him and finished him off.’
‘You’re assuming both attacks came from the same individual?’ ‘It’s the most likely explanation. Similar injuries.’
‘And in each case the attacker didn’t leave the weapon lying about nearby. Is the search of the cemetery complete?’
‘All done. A few objects were picked up and sent for testing, but the result was negative. I think the killer was smart. He took the weapon away with him.’
‘We’re still talking about a blunt instrument, right?’
‘Something clean, that left no traces in the head wound. Heavy enough to split the skin and dent the skull, but not to cleave it. Yes, blunt is right.’
That evening Peter Diamond stood in shadow at one end of a disused aircraft hangar watching and hearing the clash of pikes as three pairs went through their movements. The ash-wood weapons, some sixteen feet in length, looked and sounded dangerous, even though the moves were being choreographed by an expert, an officer of the Sealed Knot. Knowing Ingeborg’s steely resolve to be at least as capable as any man, Diamond wasn’t surprised to see her wielding her pike with gusto. Like the others she was wearing casual clothes except for a metal helmet and leather gauntlet gloves.
‘We’ll try that again,’ the officer said. ‘First positions. Pikes at the advance.’
They stepped back, hoisted the cumbersome staves to waist height and rested them on their shoulders.