‘Ashley had a more glamorous lifestyle?’
‘The grass is always greener.’
‘Danny took it hard, did he?’
‘Difficult to tell. As I said, he was so much quieter than Delia.
You couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I can see it must have hurt him more than any of us realised.’
‘There was no outburst at the time?’
‘I wasn’t with them, so I don’t know for certain, but from what I knew of Danny he wasn’t capable of an outburst over anything. All his upsets were internalised. Seeing what happened, I can imagine that the hurt went deep. He must have brooded on it until it became an obsession. You can criticise people like Delia for letting their emotions run riot, but the quiet ones are the dangerous ones.’
‘He seems to have cut himself off from the family after the parting.’
‘Yes. I used to ask about him and she never had any news.’
‘Even if he was angry with Delia, you’d think he’d want to stay in touch with his children.’
‘Which is what I said to her more than once. She would just shrug and say he was welcome to spend time with them if he asked.’
‘So this wasn’t a case of a father denied access?’
‘Absolutely not.’
Diamond watched a crow glide in the breeze above the weathercock on the spire of Holy Trinity. ‘Did you ever meet any of Danny’s family?’
Amanda shook her head. ‘It’s not as if there was a wedding. That’s when you meet the other parents, isn’t it?’
‘Did she speak about his background ever?’
‘I think he was from East Anglia originally. He went to college and got a good qualification. I couldn’t tell you if it was a degree, but it was in zoology or something similar. He knew all about animals and birds.’
‘Was that his job — working with animals?’
‘Not directly, anyway. He spent a lot of time at home, on the computer, which was why he was always there for the children. But if you went for a walk with him he was very knowledgeable about the countryside.’
‘Was he interested in bats?’
‘What, flying bats?’
What else did she think he was asking about — cricket bats?
‘He was, now you mention it. He’d go for a late-night stroll and Delia would tell me he was looking for bats.’
Diamond wished Halliwell had been there to hear this.
Amanda went on, ‘They give me the creeps and I’m sure Delia didn’t like them. He was self-employed, he did tell me that. It didn’t bring in a fortune, but they lived within their means, and Delia was earning as well.’
‘As a waitress?’
‘Yes. In those days she wasn’t at Tosi’s. She worked at several places, hotels mostly.’
‘The Hilton?’ he said, sensing a possible link.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Getting back to Danny and his quiet ways, did you ever get the impression that he might be depressed, or even suicidal?’
‘Never. He was quiet, yes, but never depressed while I knew him.’
‘Mentally stable, then?’
‘I would say so.’
He was silent again for a while, thinking over what she’d told him. ‘It seems to me that your daughter picked two men quite similar in some ways. They both did more than their share in looking after the children, getting them up, off to school and so on.’
‘“More than their share”?’she said. ‘You’d better get up with the times, Mr Diamond, if you don’t mind me saying so. That generation of men share the household duties and take it as normal.’
‘Not all of them,’ he said. ‘Another thing both her boyfriends had in common was that their work took up so much time that Delia felt neglected. She was a friendly, outgoing young woman.’
‘Anybody’s,’ Amanda said. ‘You can speak frankly. I knew my own daughter. It’s in the genes. I was no saint when I was her age.’
‘And she didn’t realise how deeply Danny was hurting.’
She took in a sharp, angry breath. ‘Being hurt is one thing. It didn’t entitle him to kill her.’
‘Nothing justified that.’
His firm response encouraged her. ‘And the fact that he killed himself later doesn’t make him any less evil.’
‘I understand you, ma’am,’ he said, ‘but I’m trying to keep an open mind until I’m one hundred per cent certain Danny was the killer.’
She turned to look at him, frowning. ‘Is there any doubt?’
‘My job is to make certain.’
‘Why else would he have killed himself?’
‘That’s what I have to explore. Sadly it happens often, a deeply disturbed man killing his partner and sometimes their children as well and then topping himself. It’s such a familiar pattern that it’s easy to assume this is what happened here. I can’t do that. I have to try and find evidence.’
‘You can’t know what was in Danny’s mind,’ she said.
‘He could have spoken to someone, or written it down in a diary or a suicide note. Nothing has turned up yet, but I have to investigate.’
‘And if you find nothing?’
‘Then we report to the coroner and the court decides.’
The door behind him made a sound and a child’s face appeared round it at the level of the handle. ‘Gran, we’re bored. Can we see The Invincibles?’ She was dark, with large blue eyes.
Amanda was on her feet. ‘In a minute, dear.’
The face was gone.
‘I was about to go, anyway,’ Diamond said. ‘You’ve helped a lot.’
‘That’s the six-year-old, Sophie,’ Amanda said, and there was a note of pride. ‘I expect her big sister pushed her forward. Could you see her mother in her features?’
He wasn’t going to remind her that his only sight of Delia was after she’d been dead a few hours. ‘I think she takes after you.’
‘What — outspoken?’
‘No. Up with the times.’
On the drive back to Bath he weighed what he had heard about Danny Geaves: caring, quiet, supportive, a far cry from Corcoran’s version of the jerk who’d never shown any interest. But then you couldn’t expect Corcoran to give a glowing testimonial to the ex-lover. On the other hand, it was disputed by no one that Danny had ceased to take an interest in his daughters after Delia left him. That suggested callousness rather than caring. Perhaps the truth lay somewhere between.
13
T hat evening he drove up the steep rise of Lyncombe Hill to where Paloma lived. He’d always thought of Lyncombe Vale as aloof from Bath, once promoted as a spa in rivalry to the city amenities, with a public house and pleasure garden grandiosely called King James’s Palace. A local legend persisted that King James II went into hiding in Lyncombe after abdicating in 1688, but the royal connection didn’t bear examination. Even so, in the jargon of estate agents, Lyncombe was still a sought-after residential area.
He saw at once that Paloma had a house better described as dreamed-of than sought-after, a three-storey building with a fine Georgian front and a cobbled drive in a large circle around well-kept lawns. Paloma’s silver Porsche was in front of the house and so was a blue Nissan Pathfinder. With a sudden dip in confidence he wondered if this evening would turn out to be a dinner party. She’d surprised him once before.
After ringing the doorbell he had a moment of near panic when he heard her say, ‘That’ll be Peter. I’ll get it.’ Visions of other guests in suits and long dresses. He’d gone for the casual look: short sleeves and light-coloured trousers.
There wasn’t time to cut and run. She was opening the door.
She did look dressy, in a black creation trimmed with pink chiffon. But her smile made him feel she’d dressed for him alone.
He handed her a bottle of red wine, a good one, they’d said at the off-licence. ‘Just in case you’re not into light American beer,’ he said.
‘Come in and meet Jerry,’ she said and added in a whisper, ‘He’s on his way out.’
So that was who she’d been talking to. Jerry was the son, he remembered. The personal trainer. He was standing in the room to the right, dark, with designer stubble. He was in faded jeans and a T-shirt. He had blue eyes like his mother and the same set of dimples when he smiled.