She was still unwilling to concede much. ‘I suppose I was surprised when we had to leave the restaurant in such a hurry.’
‘Did he say why?’
‘It was something to do with the phone call. Someone was being a nuisance, he said, and we’d better not stay.’
‘That was me,’ Diamond said. ‘The ultimate pain in the butt. Before he got the call was he acting normally?’
‘I thought so. He was being nice.’ Her look suggested that present company could take lessons from Monnington.
‘Did he talk about himself at all? His work?’
‘He told me all about that the first time. He’s a sales rep and he comes through Bath every month. What do they call those things? Jacuzzis. He said he could get me one at a knockdown price if I wanted, but he wasn’t pushing or anything.’
‘To sum up, then, there was nothing to cause you any concern in what he was saying?’
She shook her head. ‘What’s he supposed to have done?’
Out on the drive, Halliwell opened the boot of the Mondeo with the air of a conjurer producing the rabbit. ‘How about that?’
Diamond was prepared for something special, but nothing so special as this. His heart thumped against his ribcage.
‘The same, isn’t it?’ Halliwell asked.
After a long hesitation he found words. ‘Looks like it to me.’
‘What do you reckon? Twenty-five feet?’
‘Thirty, more like.’
‘Enough, anyway.’
They were looking at two lengths of white plastic cord, loosely coiled. The last time they’d seen anything like that, it was tight round Jocelyn Steel’s neck and she was hanging from it.
43
O f all his colleagues, Diamond least wanted to see Georgina when he returned. At this time in the evening she should have been off the premises, singing her socks off in some rehearsal hall. Instead she stood with a commanding view of the staff car park at the back of the nick. The bust that wouldn’t be ignored was straining the silver buttons again. No way could anyone slide past and pretend she wasn’t there.
‘You’ve got things to tell me, Peter,’ she boomed.
‘Not really, ma’am,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit premature.’
‘But you arrested a man for the murders. They brought him in twenty minutes ago.’
‘On suspicion.’
‘He’s the killer, though?’
‘Put it this way. I want the truth out of this scumbag before it’s too late.’
‘No violence, Peter.’
‘We haven’t found Martin Steel. His chance of survival is running out minute by minute.’
‘I’m serious about that.’
‘I thought it was one of your choir nights tonight.’
‘It is, but I’ve sacrificed it. What have you got on this man?’
‘Can I tell you later? There’s a heap of work to be done, people to see, things to check.’
‘Be mysterious, then,’ she said, pink with annoyance. ‘Personally, I’ve always believed in holding nothing back.’ Her chest swelled even more.
Diamond averted his eyes.
‘Things have been happening here,’ Georgina went on. ‘I’ll walk upstairs with you and fill you in.’
‘If you like.’
She made just enough space in the doorway for him to ease past without physical contact. For a moment they were toe to toe and he had a memory of the ladies’ invitation waltz at Jim Middleton’s tea dance with little Annie steering him with her thighs. With practice he might take to ballroom dancing. Maybe Georgina saw the look in his eye because she set off along the lower corridor as if pursued by a bear. He had to wait for the stairs at the end before she spoke again. ‘This afternoon it was all Harry Lang.’
‘At this stage I’m ruling no one out.’
‘And he ended up in hospital.’
‘His own fault, ma’am. Has he recovered consciousness?’
‘Allow me to finish, Peter. You’re like a coiled spring. He’s still too confused to interview, but the doctors are optimistic. Quite properly — and I give credit when it’s due — you ordered forensic tests on the Ballance Street flat and they are still going on. I can tell you that the early results are promising.’
‘Oh?’ She’d surprised him. He’d been on autopilot up to now. The evidence against Monnington had pushed Harry Lang way down the list of priorities. Now a sliver of doubt pierced his thinking.
‘Yes,’ she said in a throwaway voice, ‘the fingerprint team gave me a call. They lifted a mass of prints from the living room and kitchen area and some of these have been compared with the national database. They found three good matches.’
‘Anyone I know?’ Diamond said, trying to sound cool about it.
‘Two of them are cousins, little more than juveniles.’
‘From Kosovo?’
‘I don’t think so. They sound quite British to me. Craig Curly and Hugh Short.’
‘Or Short and Curly?’
Georgina clicked her tongue and let out a sharp, angry breath. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose they could be made-up names.’
He thought so, too. He wouldn’t mind betting they were also known as Romney and Jacob, those woolly extras in Operation Fleece. Someone in this scam had a twisted sense of humour. ‘You said there was a third?’
‘Gary Jackman, who runs a car repair business. He did a six-month stretch for changing the plates on stolen cars.’
Young Paul Gilbert’s unreliable informer. Georgina had wandered into a minefield. How much did she know? ‘He’s known to us already. Pondlife.’
‘The point is, Peter, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to tell us that Ballance Street was being used to plan robberies. We haven’t yet discovered Harry Lang’s true identity, but we now know why he took flight when you arrived with a squad car.’
‘You’re thinking these are the ram-raiders?’
‘It adds up, doesn’t it? Lang clearly has a source of money. He owns a good car. You don’t expect a council-house tenant to be driving a brand new Subaru.’
‘Ill-gotten gains?’
She nodded. ‘I’m not against immigration. It brings this country many talented and decent people, but you’re going to get some crooks as well. Lang could be the ringleader. We can’t be certain until we question him. Meanwhile Gary Jackman will do for starters.’
He swallowed hard. ‘You want to question Jackman?’
‘He’s waiting downstairs.’
‘What — have we pulled him in?’
‘On my authority. Don’t look so alarmed, Peter. I’m not taking over. Which of you is running the ram-raid inquiry now?’
He had to think. ‘DI Halliwell, ma’am. He’s been helping me this afternoon, seeing that not much was happening on the ram-raid front.’ Halliwell knew Jackman was on the payroll. He’d handle this with kid gloves.
Georgina drew herself up again. ‘Tell Mr Halliwell that when he can drag himself away from other duties he has the little matter of an interview to conduct.’ She swaggered off like the gunslinger who has just cleaned up the town.
Clive the computer man was at work in the incident room when Diamond looked in. Halliwell had already handed him Dalton Monnington’s laptop.
‘Have you cracked the password?’ Diamond asked.
‘Working on it. What exactly am I looking for, Mr D?’
‘If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t have brought you in. A list of his clients would be good.’ He called across to Halliwell, ‘Did you fetch the plastic cords from Monnington’s car?’
Halliwell held up an evidence bag.
‘Good. What we want now is the cord used to hang Jocelyn Steel. Should be in the evidence store. We compare them, of course, and if they’re similar we look at the ends and see how they were cut. If we’re really lucky they join like two halves of a loaf and bingo, we’ve got him.’
‘I’ll see to it, guv.’
‘No, you won’t.’
Halliwell frowned. He wanted to be in at the kill. Deserved it.
‘Give it to DC Gilbert. I’m afraid the ACC has other plans for you.’
So it was John Leaman who joined Diamond in interview room one and cautioned Monnington.
The amorous sales rep was sitting with arms folded. His mouth was set in an inverted U-shape, defiance writ large. ‘I want my solicitor and I want to speak to him in private.’